Aurora 4x
C# Fiction => Stormtrooper's Fiction => Topic started by: Stormtrooper on April 24, 2021, 07:01:23 PM
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NOTE: This AAR is a direct continuation of my previous one (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=12283.0 (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=12283.0) - History of Mankind after COVID-19 pandemic) and is meant to act as a DLC to it because I couldn't really abandon the universe of my previous work, not after all the time I spent on it. It is strongly advised to read the previous one before diving into this one.
Time's End
RISE OF CIVILISATION
THE GIFT OF THE SKIES
10121th BM (Before Monolith) hibernation cycle
Tribe leader Zhe was staring into the night sky just like he always did when the next hibernation cycle was about to begin. He firmly believed that before cooling down a body one should cool down mind first, and watching the Eyes of Gods was the best way to achieve that. But this one cosmic watch was different than all the others he saw before or after in his life.
During that cosmic watch a new entity appeared over the horizon, brighter than all the others that kept watching over the rising civilisation. But it didn't stay in one place: soon it began falling through the skies, closer and closer to the surface, until it eventually smashed against the ground, rather close to the hibernation dwelling. Zhe took his best guards and went in to investigate.
On the landing spot a mysterious, circle-shaped monolith has been found. It emitted a weak, purple-pink light, forming patterns as if it tried to speak in the languages of many tribes, but none of the thoughts expressed made any sense. However, one stood out. It was a simple, easy to read message:
We are the Humanity
Sleep tight little ones
Until you join us among the stars
We will keep you safe
GUIDANCE ERA
0-3250 AM (After Monolith) hibernation cycles
Solar and cosmic watches followed, entire hibernation cycles passed. At first the monolith was worshipped as a divine gift, but as Groaxians developed their technology and understanding of the nature and universe, they realised the true meaning of the expressions encoded on the monolith. For hundreds of hibernation cycles it served as a guide for civilisation development, since the further Groaxians pushed through the wonders of science, the more concepts they could understand, as if the monolith was specifically designed for them to act as an ultimate path to follow. It had such a huge impact on their culture that Groaxians started calling themselves "Groaxians" soley because that's how they were referred to in the monolith's messages. The name really stood out, because it looked very similar to their native languages. Their stellar guardians indeed knew them really well.
Even though nobody really knew what "Humanity" meant, since the term sounded so alien, as if it never should belong to any of the Groaxian languages, everybody realised it was the most powerful entity, and the only one that spoke directly so far. And so the civilisation rose from the tribal stage all the way through industrialisation up to the era when Groaxians not only knew that Qi was just a star like all the others they could see during cosmic watches, a giant burning ball of hydrogen, not only could differentiate between stars and planets, with Genesis being their homeworld and Vrath and Yatune the other two within their solar system, but also started dreaming of setting foot on these other worlds:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/835657175086399498/start_system2.PNG)
As soon as they got a basic grasp of how space works and scientists began their work on propulsion systems that could take them there and enclosed ecosystems maintaining enough atmospheric pressure and methane amount to allow surviving in the vacuum, Groaxians started wondering about the possibility of extragenesian life existing somewhere out there. In fact, the scientific communities largely agreed that the monolith was not a gift of gods, but rather of an alien civilisation, far more advanced than theirs. It filled the minds of rather pacifistic beings with joy and appreciation for the beauty of the universe.
But something wasn't right here. Among the sections describing space and its nature a warning has been found, with the math behind the general relativity theory acting as a key to decipher it, as if Humanity didn't want Groaxians to know about it earlier than after passing a certain scientific milestone. It spoke about "Dark Forest Theory", even though nobody could figure out what "forest" meant. One of the hypothesis, based on the knowledge extracted so far from the stellar gift, spoke about it being meant to represent a dense group of tall, slim plants covering a large area, something unheard of on Genesis, but possibly being an important part of ecosystem of Earth, Humanity's homeworld. The problem is, this meaning had nothing to do with the content of the warning.
It was talking about civilisations expanding across the universe with a finite amount of matter, about never-ending chains of suspicion caused by the distances and biological as well as cultural differences separating alien races, all this ultimately leading to inevitable war, war for survival and said finite resources, even if both sides could initially have friendly intentions. "Predator and prey in one", as the message described every sentient species ever existing, with best tactics to hide and never reveal one's position while actively listening for others and striking mericlessly, the sooner the better, as even less advanced civilisation could experience technological boom any moment and grow to become a threat. It also mentioned civilisations so advanced they'd destroy entire solar systems at a whim, if only they were to receive a set of stellar coordinates pointing at one.
Groaxians were devastated. Sometimes they waged wars, but it was a rare occurence. They coexisted peacefully with one another, shaping a better tomorrow together. The layout of their cities wasn't the most efficient one, either, as they firmly believed global peace is best maintained if everyone has inner peace as well, and large living space requirement and natural surroundings, without too much urbanisation around, was deemed to be the fundament of it. And at first they believed universe was just like them, vast and beautiful, with aliens helping each other and establishing alliances, with abundant resources allowing everybody to occupy as much space as one pleases.
But Dark Forest Theory stated the exact opposite. And yet, if Dark Forest was real, how come that Humanity shared their knowledge with Groaxians instead of wiping them out? But if Dark Forest wasn't real, how come Humanity put such a great effort to explain it, and on top of that do so in a way that'd make Groaxians learn about it just as they began drawing sketches of pioneer space programs? Since both assumptions seemed to be false, a third one has been established: there's more to it, something yet undiscovered, buried deep within the encodings of Humanity's gift.
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TAMING OF QI
3250-3307 AM hibernation cycles
As technology for detailed astronomical observations became more advanced, Groaxians could conduct a more detailed research about Vrath and Yatune. It was discovered both were extremly toxic and thus rather hostile for life: Vrath had an atmospheric pressure over 190 times higher than the one on Genesis. Also the composition of its atmosphere left a lot to be desired - it didn't contain any traces of methane, but extremely toxic sulphur dioxide was abundant instead and the surface temperature was beyond scorching. Meanwhile Yatune presented itself better, but only in comparsion with Vrath: on its own it was still a horrible place to live in. It was a very hot world, with temperatures well above melting point of water which would boil any Groaxian inside quickly. The air was filled with nitrogen and oxygen, the latter sometimes being used as a chemical weapon in the few wars that were fought on Genesis. Though if, hypothetically speaking, one would replace oxygen with methane and found a way to cool the planet down, it'd be a nice planet to settle down as the first baby step into the darkness of space.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/835686108821848114/unknown.png)
Hibernation cycle 3265, scientists discover a new mixture of steel, titanium and plastics. This alloy lies a foundation for durable suits that could keep Groaxians shielded from the vacuum and solar radiation while keeping them cool enough and holding a decent supply of methane. It is also theorised that this material could be used for hull reinforcements of the space-capable vessels, making the dream of leaving Genesis's atmosphere and safely returning home come true.
Hibernation cycle 3278, engineers publish a first prototype of a methane-based engine that generates amounts of thrust yet unheard of. But despite being very powerful, initial tests show that on a cosmic scale the acceleration it generates compared to the amount of fuel it needs won't be even enough to come back from low orbit. Research continues, but so far no breakthrough is achieved.
Hibernation cycle 3282, scientists, desperate in their attempts to put a live Groaxian in orbit, came up with a new idea: since most of the spacecraft will be nothing but fuel tanks, the vessel will carry a small cabin into space and once in orbit, main fuel tanks, empty after liftoff, will be detached, falling back to the planet. According to estimations, they should safely burn within the atmosphere. The cabin itself will have just enough fuel left so it can deccelerate enough to drop from orbit and land safe and sound.
Hibernation cycle 3287, Stairway to Qi Project ends up being successful. First Groaxian-made vessel capable of leaving Genesis behind takes off and enters a stable orbit above it. A pair of equinoxes were the first organisms to have left Genesis, but with such outstanding results first Groaxians made it to space before next hibernation happened.
Hibernation cycle 3288, first permanent satellite has been launched into space. The probe was named "Guardian" and acts as a symbol of Humanity's supposed protection. More Guardians are expected to be launched in the next three hibernation cycles. Together they'll form the first space-based telecommunication array, connecting all Guardians under the first network of a global scope. Hope and enthusiasm of the new era grows and the warning about Dark Forest is pushed aside.
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Ever since Guardians floated above the Genesis's atmosphere, scientists and engineers worked solar watches and cosmic watches with barely any break, but reaching other two planets remained out of the question. Hibernation cycles disrupting their work didn't help, either. For many it became obvious that with the current scientific development level if space was to be ever conquered, more effort was needed, far more than what could be given when one has to hibernate periodically. It was the first time Groaxians found themselves limited by their biology and the environment of Genesis. And time lost in hibernation was not the biggest issue when tackling scientific challenges - mental evaluation has shown that these constant breaks disrupt scientists, making it hard for them to come back to what they have been working before, setting everything back.
Some proposed to build a high-tech complex for the scientists to work in which would be heated even when the temperature on entire world dropped below the average of -150 degrees. If placed near the equator, minimum temperature it would need to survive wouldn't drop below -130 degrees, though. However, such building, if it was to cover any significant amount of researchers, would eat a lot of power, far more than the entire Genesis infrastructure could provide. And it wasn't the worst issue - a lot of Groaxians argued that hibernation cycles aren't only about cooling the body. They're mostly about cooling down the mind and resetting it. The planet itself was reminding every living being that it's time to put the hard work aside and rest. It was an essential part of how everything evolved and trying to tinker with it could provide devastating results.
The stale-match was finally resolved in the hibernation cycle 3294, shortly before all life on the planet would enter cryostasis. A bunch of engineers proposed to assemble a research space station in orbit. That outright resolved the problem of heating and power requirements, especially that panels for harnessing energy directly from Qi were far more effective when the atmosphere didn't obstruct them. As for the problem of cooling down the mind, project authors pointed out that it only refers to the Genesis itself, and while sure, this is an essential part of the culture as well, environments in space are vastly different than the one in which Groaxians evolved and there's no way to deal with it except adapt. What is natural on the surface of a homeworld, is no longer natural beyond it and finding new ways of living is essential in the process of space conquest.
And so the project ended up being accepted. Modules were brought to orbit one by one by an improved version of rockets, this time hydrogen-fuelled which allowed for bigger cargo transport in one trip. Expanding the station to grant it all the assumed functionality was a long-term goal, but as everyone on the planet hibernated, a pioneer contingent of scientists was already put in space and could continue the work on new propulsion systems.
Hibernation cycle 3301, first significant breakthrough is achieved: physicists discover a way to harness energy directly from grains. It is beyond everyone's imagination, physicists that made the discovery included, that such power could be extracted from such tiny amount of matter. Space engineers instantly attempt to put this newly discovered nuclear power into propulsion systems, the ones that could send Groaxians into Yatune and Vrath.
While the work continues, Microelectronic soul readers have came up with a cybersoul mainframes capable of processing more data at once, faster than ever, by directly taking advantage of the cold genesian environment resolving many problems with overheating when using higher clocking frequencies. These new generations of machines could find application in autonomous ground survey vessels, which were proposed to be sent to do more detailed planetary research before first space conquerors could arrive. Not needing any life support whatsoever, they could endure the lengthy journey no Groaxian was able to take without space technology advancing far enough. New mainframes were a perfect opportunity to install all the necessary programs onto the ground vehicles without overburdening them.
Hibernation cycle 3306, first autonomous surveyors make a landing on Yatune. The sights are breathtaking and unimaginable: dense packs of tall, brown-green immobile organisms cover vast areas or often are found grouped together near rivers even if there's nothing but green plains in sight. Some regions contain loads of sand, though, meanwhile ice and snow, so common on Genesis, exists only near the poles. Water in all the other regions exists in a liquid form. Temperature readings show the planet's very hot, just as predicted during early observations, but at the same time life seems to be thriving there. Among the brown-green organisms lots of four-legged or flying animals find shelter. Their biology is a mystery. Initial observations confirm that nearly all green organisms seem to be responsible for poisoning the atmosphere with oxygen, however that remains true to only the static ones.
Autonomous scouts collet samples of biological matter and analyse them. Groaxians are shocked when they discover every single one of them either produces oxygen itself or needs it to breathe. And yet the planet seems so beautiful, even though it is very dangerous and lethal.
Hibernation cycle 3307, upon detailed studies it is revealed that the patterns of Yatune organisms match several yet incomprehensible shapes from the monolith. Ancient knowledge encapsulated within the fragments encoded with these shapes casts a new light on the Humanity. Yatune looks very similar to their homeworld, Earth. This is a natural environment for Humanity. They evolved on a planet that looked very similar and they brought their environment together with them when they set foot on Yatune. Among many gifts, they offer technology that makes it possible to shape many hostile worlds exactly how one pleases, allowing to "bring home" to the most distant parts of the universe.
The new wonder of technology divided Groaxians. Some claimed its beautiful that they should be able to bring genesian environment together with them and prepare all kinds of planets to make the suitable for comfortable life, but many opposed the terraformation of Yatune, claiming it's the first world of their Guardians discovered and as such should be preserved in its natural state. Once technology allows, colonisation will occcur, but the interplanetary inhabitants will live in a sealed megastructures, leaving the ecosystem of Humanity intact. The second option has gathered majority of the support among most communities.
As the basic research in space technologies picked up pace, first long-range spaceships allowing for long-term interplanetary missions were expected to arrive soon. As the dream of space conquest was finally coming true, leaders of the clans supporting the approach of leaving Yatune intact formed an alliance like no Groaxian has ever seen before, uniting with the single goal in mind: "join Humanity across the stars". And so hibernation cycle 3307 marked the creation of Groaxian Conglomerate, main body responsible for guiding the aspiring race through the void and darkness.
To further stress out the goals of the Conglomerate, the leader of this organisation started wearing the traditional outfit of a tribal leader from ancient times, just like the "first Groaxian", the one who witnessed the landing of the monolith:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/836025543807467580/unknown.png)
The symbol of the arisen organisation was also significant - it consisted of expressions taken both from languages of the Groaxians and humans, representing the shape of the monolith and a star portrayed with a symbol Humanity was using, with half of the flag consisting of dark purple haze that nailed both hopes and fears of space explorations the young civilisation expressed:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/836026349571145778/unknown.png)
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3308-3315 AM hibernation cycles
After putting tremendous effort, first interplanetary Groaxian manned spaceship was ready for its first journey. Advanced nuclear reactors gave it propulsion decent enough for it to reach both planets in the Qi system and come back with excess fuel just in case. Onboard facilities and sophisticated life support systems shall allow long-term survival of the crew inside. Methane recycling modules and Hets farms were proven to make the ship self-sufficient until something breaks and there are no more spare parts to fix it. The material used for hull construction was the same that Humanity has once used to build the monolith. Space suits were also reinforced with it, so landing even on the hellish world of Vrath shouldn't pose much trouble. Equipped with all kinds of sensors and laboratories needed for scientific endeavours, it was everything that was needed for discovering all the possible secrets of Qi:
Anthraxus class Exploration Ship 2,500 tons 70 Crew 625.9 BP TCS 50 TH 50 EM 0
1000 km/s Armour 1-16 Shields 0-0 HTK 19 Sensors 0/0/0/5 DCR 2 PPV 0
Maint Life 7.25 Years MSP 313 AFR 25% IFR 0.3% 1YR 10 5YR 157 Max Repair 100 MSP
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months Morale Check Required
Ground Composition Analysis Lab Environmental Control Module Methane Recycling System Extragenesian Material Containment Medical Bay Canteen Equipment Repair Workshop Onboard Telescope Astronomical Observatory Meditation Space Hibernation Center Flight Navigation System Hets Autonomous Farm Life Support System Personal Storage Recreation Space
Improved Nuclear Pulse Engine EP50.0 (1) Power 50 Fuel Use 12.37% Signature 50 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 202,000 Litres Range 117.5 billion km (1360 days at full power)
Geological Survey Sensors (5) 5 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Survey Ship for auto-assignment purposes
A small fleet of them left Genesis and plotted course towards the other worlds. Just like their names suggested, they were meant to "bridge the gap between alien domains". First planet surveyed was Vrath, since it was expected that classifying everything found on life-bearing former world of Humanity would require significantly more work.
Despite being well-protected from harm, the extreme pressure and high gravity made the first space travellers not enjoy their stay on this toxic planet. They did what they were supposed to do and left, deeming the planet not habitable at all, not even after applying the gift of terraforming due to high gravity.
But Yatune was different. If only scientists could came up with structures separating Groaxians from the toxic and hot environment, this planet could be inhabited without much issues. But as crewmembers travelled across the lands in search for potentially good places to settle in the future, they stumbled upon something unusual: deep below the ground, scattered around various locations, ancient constructions were hidden. They didn't look like anything from Genesis: remnants of tall, densely packed towers made of all kinds of metals and reinforced glass. Sometimes ruins of them were sticking out of the ground, pointing at the sky. They were estimated to be at least as old as the monolith itself, although in worse condition. But still, most of them survived in relatively well-shaped. This was a miracle of engineering, to build such huge and tall structures that'd last so long even without maintenance. It was of no doubt that Groaxians were staring at the monument of Humanity and the way they shaped their territory.
It revealed how different they must have thought. While magnificent, the towers left very little spaces for large, open natural spaces, meaning most of the field of view must have been occupied by artificial constructions. How come humans tried so hard to separate themselves from their natural environment, even if it was a really beautiful one, was beyond the smartest philosophers. But just mere living space wasn't even the most shocking discovery: Extended studies of the technology artifacts and strange devices found within certain buildings gave solid evidence humans were hardly tinkering with their own bodies, replacing large chunks of flesh with electronic and metallic pieces, worshipping cybernetisation of themselves and everything around them. Even when fixing biological bodies, their medicine relied mostly on swarms of robots built on a microcosmic scale.
If Humanity was to inhabit alien environments, it must have been adapted to them, sure, but if they put such a great effort and implemented elaborate technologies to shape Yatune how they pleased, then why after colonising it they still insidted on isolating themselves from the biological domain as much as possible? The mission of Anthraxus fleet brought these questions back home, but nobody could answer them. It just didn't make sense at all.
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While Conglomerate stated it was not going to push into the direction Humanity has chosen, some opposed, claiming they developed and survived based on those technology and they gifted it for Groaxians so that they could benefit from it, too. But among the opposition, there was a special case group: the middlemen. Although their role in breeding was natural for them, some still felt dissatisfied. Sure, mental cooling workers claimed it a defect, something against nature, and insisted on treating the cases of unhappy middlemen, but it rarely worked. While many not wanting to have kids on their own, many accepted the way things were - it was natural for them, after all - some felt sad after witnessing dozens of males and females coming to them and multiplying, but them never getting a chance at procreation, only serving as a checksum to make sure the children of males and females will spawn healthy and providing their own genetic material only in case there was a defect that needed to be fixed ASAP.
For middlemen the way Humanity went seemed like a chance. A chance to fulfill their dreams, to alter their limiting biology, the source of their disappointment in life. A chance to become either male or female and spawn their own offspring rather than only act as a checksum, safety mechanism.
In the meantime, engineers improved on the Anthraxus design and prototyped three new types of interplanetary spaceships. Four times bigger than their predecessor, they were meant to transfer large batches of cargo and people into Yatune and allow the historic moment of permanently inhabiting a new world. Colonists were supposed to be transferred while in hibernation, with their cabins attached to the outer layers of hull so that it'd be easier to maintain the cryostais. The ships themselves, with their internal enclosed ecosystems, were meant to act as a temporary base of operations and home for the colonists until they develop on-site industry and build first external shelters for themselves.
Erleax class Colony Ship 10,000 tons 73 Crew 476 BP TCS 200 TH 125 EM 0
625 km/s Armour 1-41 Shields 0-0 HTK 17 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 3 PPV 0
MSP 589 Max Repair 100 MSP
Cryogenic Berths 30,000 Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 2
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
Canteen Colonists Monitoring System Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space
Commercial Improved Nuclear Pulse Engine EP125.0 (1) Power 125 Fuel Use 7.83% Signature 125 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 123,000 Litres Range 28.3 billion km (523 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Colony Ship for auto-assignment purposes
Ghendror class Support Vessel 10,000 tons 39 Crew 169.9 BP TCS 200 TH 125 EM 0
625 km/s Armour 1-41 Shields 0-0 HTK 16 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 10 Max Repair 31.25 MSP
Cargo 7,500 Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 2
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
Canteen Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space
Commercial Improved Nuclear Pulse Engine EP125.0 (1) Power 125 Fuel Use 7.83% Signature 125 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 328,000 Litres Range 75.4 billion km (1397 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Vroks class Transport 10,000 tons 73 Crew 307.4 BP TCS 200 TH 125 EM 0
625 km/s Armour 1-41 Shields 0-0 HTK 28 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 3 PPV 0
MSP 557 Max Repair 80 MSP
Troop Capacity 7,600 tons Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 2
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
Canteen Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space
Commercial Improved Nuclear Pulse Engine EP125.0 (1) Power 125 Fuel Use 7.83% Signature 125 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 28,000 Litres Range 6.4 billion km (119 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Troop Transport for auto-assignment purposes
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3316-3324 AM hibernation cycles
The following solar watches saw a rapid expansion on Yatune. Large chunks of ground have been designated for construction and soon a fully operational complex has been put in place, capable of hosting millions of colonists. However, in order to expand and multiply, the colonists needed a more balanced gender ratio - at first majority of the Groaxians who wanted to move in were the middlemen who couldn't accept their biological role. Most of them dedicated themselves to uncovering secrets of body-altering artefacts. While the Conglomerate agreed on cracking this mystery down for "academical purposes", seeing that if science was to progress, people involved in it shouldn't face any bans as to what they can or cannot experiment with, but applied research was strictly controlled, with the majority of population being afraid that changes caused by such radical inventions could destabilise the very foundation of Groaxian society.
The situation presented itself a bit better with the research in the field of cybersoul mainframes. It has been discovered that humanity implemented certain algorithms in a more compressed form, making their programs occupy less space and, in many cases, execute faster. In a way, programs humanity wrote for their machines were noticed to be of high efficiency and in some way resembled the layout of their cities. Everything densely packed, always striving for maximum efficiency. The monolith itself was a prime example for it, with same language patterns meaning completely different things if decoded using a different key, minimising the amount of space and circuits required. This gift was actually pretty small in size, yet Groaxians kept siphoning more knowledge from it to this solar watch.
Once certain applications have been loaded into the monolith, it turned out that it was one giant cybersoul mainframe, not only a few smaller ones incorporated into a bigger entity as previously thought. This discovery boosted the development of civilisation, unlocking new concepts and theories, ready to be applied. It became clear that Humanity seemed to be putting a lot of effort into this kind of technology, as if they put their real souls into the cybernetic ones, merging biological and cybernetics dimensions together. This shed some light as to why humans seemed to be so isolated from their natural environment. Electronics changed them so much it shaped them into a different beings, disconnected from the ecosystem they evolved into, and yet they still needed to breathe and eat.
Data stored on monolith talked about entire virtual realities, whole universes simulated on constructions created from basic circuits, assembled together into monstrous machines. It also mentioned an unknown way of data processing, one that would operate on a scale smaller than grain, connecting even entire solar systems in real time. "Soulgrain mechanics" opened up a brand new chapter of physics, operating on a micro scale, at first glance contradicting with what was already established on a macro scale.
What sparked imagination the most, though, is the fact that soulgrain mechanics talked about connecting stars in real time. How was that possible if they were separated by light hibernation cycyles? And on top of that it was mentioned so casually, as if it was nothing. However, humanity for sure must have found a way to travel across the stars, and be fast enough with it to maintain control over all their planets. Physicists focused their efforts of figuring out the way humanity crossed the vast distances. Soon it was determined that Humanity most likely took an advantage of the fact that space itself wasn't just "pure vacuum", but rather it was a fabric that could be warped and distorted, manipulating with the way that needed to be travelled while leaving the limit of speed of light intact.
Simulations of space curvature based on various conditions, developed thanks to the rapidly growing microelectronic soul reading field, allowed scientists to quickly identify everything required to make it happen. First experiments with warping space began. Advanced pebble reactors struggled to keep the space contracted or expanded enough to achieve satisfying travel times, but even they allowed for some limited success. There was only one issue left: according to the knowledge shared by Humanity and all independent theoretical research, this technology should allow to effectively go faster than light, but its speed remained a hard limit. Countless experiments have proven that while in theory it's still doable, in practice maximum pace at which warping space can occur cannot cross the speed of light.
These shocking discoveries had severe consequences for a way Groaxians viewed the universe. Not only was faster than light travel still a fantasy, but it was the first time information provided by Humanity didn't have a confirmation in reality. It was then when some Conglomerate officials reminded themselves about the Dark Forest Theory.
Groaxians experienced a technological boom - their science exploded, pushing them further than anyone predicted within such short time frame. According to the theory, that was precisely the reason why even primitive civilisation shall still be considered a threat. And now Groaxians faced themselves still pretty much limited to one solar system.
Almost as if someone didn't want them to escape.
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3325-3331 AM hibernation cycles
Despite the troubles encountered, Conglomerate decided that even if limited to the speed of light, building a first starship was still worth it as a first step into the interstellar space. The result looked promising: newly developed vessel could carry its crew even to the distant stars as travel times experienced by them would likely be very short. Manipulating with the space itself also provided a way to establish an artificial gravity onboard, rooting out the need for the crew to be replaced due to the harmful effects of zero-g environment. And so the Vrilxel, named after the way it cut space with its Curvature Drive, first "true exploration ship" has been built.
Vrilxel class Exploration Cruiser 10,000 tons 229 Crew 1,782.1 BP TCS 200 TH 200 EM 0
1000 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 1-41 Shields 0-0 HTK 55 Sensors 0/0/6/6 DCR 11 PPV 0
Maint Life 8.41 Years MSP 1,225 AFR 73% IFR 1.0% 1YR 31 5YR 463 Max Repair 100 MSP
Captain Control Rating 3 BRG ENG SCI
Intended Deployment Time: 96 months Morale Check Required
Astronomical Observatory Canteen Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Extragenesian Material Containment Flight Navigation System Ground Composition Analysis Lab Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Onboard Telescope Personal Storage Recreation Space Curvature Stabiliser Artificial Gravity Field Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Relativistic Navigation Module
JC10K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 10000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Commercial Improved Nuclear Pulse Engine EP200.0 (1) Power 200 Fuel Use 6.19% Signature 200 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 543,000 Litres Range 158 billion km (1828 days at full power)
Geological Survey Sensors (6) 6 Survey Points Per Hour
Gravitational Survey Sensors (6) 6 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Survey Ship for auto-assignment purposes
A total of three of these ships have been assembled and after passing initial tests by passing trough the Qi system in just few seconds, they embarked on the journey to the nearest star, separated from Qi by less than three light hibernation cycles. Or rather four stars in total, since there were two binary systems, close enough to have some gravitational influence over each other.
The expedition, from its own perspective, arrived at the destination only after one solar watch. Around all four stars making for the Nagelring system there was nothing but comets, asteroids and all kinds of "space debris" floating around, with a lonely gas giant orbiting one of them. It was estimated that it could possibly serve as a refuelling hub, since harvesting hydrogen from the upper layers of atmosphere seemed to be plausible, although so far there was no way to test it. With nothing better to do, explorers left in the direction of Mimung stystem, not further than half light hibernation cycle away.
Meanwhile in Qi cybersouls became advanced enough to autonomously handle complex tasks and oversee an entire production systems. Thanks to the progress made, it was possible to establish large industrial complex on the surface of Vrath and extract resources from it without the need for any Groaxian to ever touch this hostile ground again. A space station has been put in orbit to control the production flow and monitor status of the entire system.
Middlemen on Yatune faced a difficult issue when tinkering with bioelectronic devices designed by Humanity. All research conducted confirmed that humans had their entire mental capacity stored inside the head, allowing a single small chip to be enough to utilise all their thoughts. Meanwhile porting this technology for Groaxians was a very complex task - harnessing entire brain power would require an entire network of chips scattered around whole body. A lot of processing power would have to be wasted for the sole purpose of communication between nodes and assembling parts of thoughts processed in different organs into one, comprehensible piece of information. For some it was a clear proof that biology should not be altered, as the system of distributed thinking developed by nature itself surpassed anything engineers could came up with.
Biologists study the long-term effects of lack of hibernation, common among workers of space stations who spend several hibernation cycles without cooling down the body. While it doesn't seem to cause any long-term health issues, it was established that past a certain point it makes meditation and resting harder, lowering the productivity more than if someone was to waste time hibernating. Biologists try to figure out a way to permanently cool down body temperature even further, allowing the organism to function normally, but stay cold enough to eradicate or at least reduce the need for hibernation.
Conglomerate officials discuss various approaches to the Dark Forest Theory. Something still doesn't add up. If Humanity lied to them in order to contain them within one solar system then it already failed to do so as even the speed of light is enough to get to nearby stars within reasonable timeframe. Also why not just wipe them out rather than let them develop and thrive for so long. Also it is very likely physicists will discover the way to cross the speed of light sooner or later anyways. Conglomerate was even leaning towards accepting that there was a mistake of some sort, for example due to age of the monolith, some missing detail, but then another hypothesis was raised: it was all part of an experiment. Humanity didn't wipe out Groaxians during first encounter, instead they settled down on Yatune and dedicated the entire planet for research on them. They kept watching over. Maybe that was just another stage of the experiment, they let Groaxians develop past a certain point so that they see the "bigger picture" of things around them, but still would be easy to contain. If that was the case, then there was hope, but there was also a catch. If Groaxians were to grwo faster than Humanity predicted, their existence could come to an end too soon.
-
BLACK WALL PERIOD
3332-3336 AM hibernation cycles
Next stop for the exploration mission was Mimung system, as previously planned. It consisted of several fuel-rich gas giant and genesian planets, with one having similar climate to Vrath. However, the most interesting celestial body within the system was not a planet, but a moon. An eight moon of Mimung IV gas giant, to be precise. It was so large it had a size of a small genesian planet and its atmosphere was almost entirely composed of methane, with a small addition of ammonia. And it was discovered to host life, too. It breathed methane as well, but the biology was vastly different. The average temperatures were almost reaching the water boiling point. Many organisms observed practiced what could be considered "reverse hibernating". When the hot season came, they would dehydrate and come back to life once temperatures would drop to the safe levels and water would condense on the surface again. Also it is worth noting the unique behavioural patterns of many of the animals who would traverse the rocky terrains with ten pair of legs only to lose them all when arriving at the great deserts around the equator, adapting to the sands and dunes by gliding and crawling through them on the torso, without limbs obstructing movement. Many species simply find a nice spot to dehydrate and when the water condenses again, filling many of these areas with oceans, they'd live the last part of their lives as a marine lifeforms, laying eggs and dying once the amount of air they accumulated within themselves runs out. Some were adapted to underwater breathing, though. It was estimated that the evolution would favour either these organisms or the ones that could spend their entire lives and breed on land. As the last act, violent water currents would carry the eggs into many different regions of the planets, with some of them landing in the rocky areas and coming out of their shells once the water evaporates, only to travel back to the former seabed once again.
Because of the methane atmosphere, the moon was estimated to be a good candidate for colonisation and terraforming. Of course attempting to change the moon's temperature so radically would result in the loss of all life found there, which is why after the transmission from the system reached Genesis, Conglomerate decided to prepare a special habitats to preserve the nature as much as possible. Some representatives were not happy about the approach to the native ecosystem, but not sure about Humanity's intentions, they knew their race was in desperate need for a safe home outside of Qi, a place where they could all hypothetically evacuate in case of an emergency.
The approach to colonisation was similar to the one executed on Yatune, except this time due to the distances and travel times involved, each ship needed to be able to carry more of either colonists or supplies. The fleet that was assembled was considered a direct upgrade over the existing one, without any compromises. Recently engineered ion engines also allowed for more efficient power management, allowing Curvature Drives to handle these bigger ships without much trouble.
Dhalte class Colony Ship 30,000 tons 168 Crew 1,098.8 BP TCS 600 TH 600 EM 0
1000 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 1-86 Shields 0-0 HTK 37 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 22 Max Repair 100 MSP
Cryogenic Berths 70,000 Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 4
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
Canteen Curvature Stabiliser Artificial Gravity Field Colonists Monitoring System Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module
JC30K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 30000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Commercial Ion Drive EP300.00 (2) Power 600 Fuel Use 4.84% Signature 300 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 849,000 Litres Range 105.2 billion km (1217 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Colony Ship for auto-assignment purposes
Teks class Cargo Ship 30,000 tons 108 Crew 371.7 BP TCS 600 TH 300 EM 0
500 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 1-86 Shields 0-0 HTK 25 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 7 Max Repair 75 MSP
Cargo 17,500 Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 6
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
Relativistic Navigation Module Canteen Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Artificial Gravity Field Curvature Stabiliser
JC30K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 30500 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Commercial Improved Nuclear Pulse Engine EP300.0 (1) Power 300 Fuel Use 5.05% Signature 300 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 489,000 Litres Range 58.1 billion km (1344 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Roth class Transport 30,000 tons 148 Crew 639.7 BP TCS 600 TH 300 EM 0
500 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 1-86 Shields 0-0 HTK 69 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 3 PPV 0
MSP 539 Max Repair 80 MSP
Troop Capacity 18,000 tons Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 2
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
Canteen Curvature Stabiliser Artificial Gravity Field Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module
JC30K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 30500 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Commercial Improved Nuclear Pulse Engine EP300.0 (1) Power 300 Fuel Use 5.05% Signature 300 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 784,000 Litres Range 93.1 billion km (2155 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Troop Transport for auto-assignment purposes
Setting up and maintaining a connection between first colony outside Qi would be complicated as it'd take several hibernation cycles to send a message and get a response or support the growing population with cargo or additional Groaxians. Many citizens expressed fear that it'd isolate the communities too much, which could result in unpredictable societal and cultural changes. These concerns sparked another glimpse of uncertanity in the minds of Conglomerate representatives, but also countless workers doing their best to make the interstellar colonisation happen. It might not be much, but if fears over radical changes in the society emerged even in the context of same civilisation existing in two solar systems and it already caused some suspicions to arise, then how would it be possible for two different civilisations to communicate with such delay? Endless chain of suspicion was a possible outcome.
As Groaxians were preparing their first interstellar colonisation fleet, another initiative focused on collecting more resources from comets and asteroids in Nagelring system, since they were rich in minerals and required far less infrastructure and machines to exploit than planets. This resulted in the creation of another class of starships, one equipped with a swarm of mining drones that could easily be deployed to extract desired resources from all kinds of "space rocks" and bring them back onboard.
Rhysling class Mining Platform 30,000 tons 233 Crew 730.5 BP TCS 600 TH 300 EM 0
500 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 1-86 Shields 0-0 HTK 41 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 15 Max Repair 120 MSP
Cargo 3,000 Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 2
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months
Orbital Miner: 3 modules producing 60 tons per mineral per annum
Artificial Gravity Field Canteen Curvature Stabiliser Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Ground Composition Analysis Lab Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module
JC30K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 30500 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Commercial Improved Nuclear Pulse Engine EP300.0 (1) Power 300 Fuel Use 5.05% Signature 300 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 604,000 Litres Range 71.7 billion km (1660 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Astronomers were shocked when they discovered a cluster of black holes roughly sixty to one hundred light hibernation cycles away from Qi. To this solar watch many black holes have been catalogued, but it was the first time so many of them existed so close to each other. The entire area in the sky was full of them, sometimes with barely any star in between. Astronomers were baffled by this discovery, since for them to form a large cluster of supermassive stars would need to exist there before, which was not possible according to the current galaxy model. Some poets used this phenomena as an explanation as to why warping space to reach effective speeds from superluminal range was impossible - due to the relative closeness of so many black holes the space was already curved too much for any reasonable amount of energy to overcome it. Of course it made no sense from the scientific point of view, but the cultural influence of this explanation was so big that everyone, physicists included, started referring to whatever limited the development of interstellar travel means as the Black Wall.
-
The Great Disturbance
3337-3345 AM hibernation cycles
After returning back home for well-deserved break and ship checkout, members of the exploration fleet embarked onto yet another short-for-them-but-long-for-everyone-else journey into the nearby stars, this time targeting the binary system of Blutgang. Similarily to Nagelring, in theory it was actually a quadruple system, with the other pair of suns being close enough for some small gravitational influence to exist. The destination was not a coincidence as it'd allow the survey of, in practice, two systems with minimal time needed to get from one to the other.
Upon entering the system, the crew witnessed a grim sight: sensors picked up dozens of wrecks scattered across deep space. Only one planet orbited in between two stars, with a single moon attached.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/836708857559515166/wrecks.PNG)
The planet in question looked strange. Scans have shown that its atmosphere is similar to the one on Yatune. Could this be another world of Humanity? If so, then Groaxians were indeed on the right track to "join them among the stars", but at the same time it wouldn't be very surprising to discover an oxygen-based life of a different kind, similar to what explorers themselves witnessed on the example of methane-based life found in Mimung. There was more to it, though. At this distance detailed astronomical observations of the second binary system were possible, too. The other one was far richer planetary-wise, consisting of two genesian planets, two dwarf planets and two gas giants. One of the genesian planets there was also Yatune-like. Whether it supported life still wasn't certain, but one thought occured to the crewmembers: so far Groaxians visited only three systems outside of their own and yet, including Yatune, the total number of life-bearing worlds was two confirmed plus two very likely. Adding the homeworld that'd make for a total of five bodies, more than the number of systems Groaxians have visited so far. Even if the two planets in Blutgang ended up being dead, that'd still be a lot more than initially expected. If life was so common, then maybe the universe contained less resources per civilisation than initially estimated. And the amount of matter was finite. Commanders of the Vrilxels thought about Dark Forest once again.
Groaxian population on Yatune has successfully renovated a couple of skygazers in one of the former human cities and turned them into additional research facilities dedicated to studying their Guardians. They were careful to pick buildings far enough from each other and rebuild only these as to not obstruct their vision of nature and fall into the same trap Humanity once did. Experiments with integrated microcybersoul mainframes continued to yield little results, so research overseers agreed that human biology is simply too different for their solutions in this field to be of any practical use and new ones had to be found instead. However, microelectronic soul readers found a gold mine when one of the data storages recovered has been determined to be repairable with minimal information loss. It contained bits of findings in the field of grainsoul mechanics and described wonders such as realtime communication across any distance in more detail or briefly mentioned instant transit of any object through space by destroying it and respawning at different coordinates. Conglomerate decided to invest into it more since it sounded like a decent workaround for the Black Wall. The entire human city has even been named Qusmont, somewhat merging the human term for grainsoul mechanics and expressions from Groaxian languages.
Three hibernation cycles after official founding (or rather re-founding) of Qusmont shocking news arrived: instead of expected exploration fleet, a set of poor-quality communicates reached the gravitational radars in Qi: nobody was able to tell what happened for sure, but the temperature on board of every ship participating in the mission suddenly increased dramatically and then the messages ended abruptly.
The first reaction from the Conglomerate was to pressure engineers to put aside their current work and prioritise developing of a special kind of starship that could be sent into Blutgang to determine what exactly has happened and rescue missing crewmembers. The result was pretty impressive:
Arcanaloth class Rescue Shuttle 8,000 tons 230 Crew 1,160.6 BP TCS 160 TH 1,120 EM 0
7000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 5-35 Shields 0-0 HTK 37 Sensors 60/60/0/0 DCR 8 PPV 0
Maint Life 3.72 Years MSP 1,225 AFR 64% IFR 0.9% 1YR 138 5YR 2,070 Max Repair 560 MSP
Cryogenic Berths 1,000
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 2 months Morale Check Required
Artificial Gravity Field Canteen Curvature Stabiliser Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module Containment Chamber Emergency Treatment Section Onboard Hospital Xenopathogen Research Lab
J8100(3-50) Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 8100 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Ion Drive EP1120.00 (1) Power 1120 Fuel Use 95.79% Signature 1120 Explosion 16%
Fuel Capacity 819,000 Litres Range 19.2 billion km (31 days at full power)
Thermal Sensor TH10-60 (1) Sensitivity 60 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 61.2m km
EM Sensor EM10-60 (1) Sensitivity 60 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 61.2m km
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Colony Ship for auto-assignment purposes
Fast and agile, equipped with the state-of-the-art medicine equipment, with best doctors selected to serve on board. But deep down many knew that design of this spacecraft was just a coping mechanism. On its own it would never be able to effectively fulfill its mission, without any protection from whatever attacked hapless Vrilxels.
Thick purple haze, an ultimate and clear expression of disgust buried all the shipyards within itself as everyone worked hard to build a first combat-capable space fleet of the Groaxian race. The main strike force consisted of nimble vessels firing kinetic projectiles. Physicists estimated that with the velocities involved in hypothetical space combat, even small, light piece of rock could puncture armor of enemy vessels with fatal consequences, and unlike energy weapons proposed in a discarded project which were losing effectiveness over distance, in the vacuum kinetic ammunition could travel over any range and remain as deadly as in the moment of being fired, with the only limitation being the maximum distance at which targetting cybersouls were able to still reliably lock onto and predict the trajectory of hostile object.
Syzygy class Corvette 5,000 tons 166 Crew 779.8 BP TCS 100 TH 500 EM 0
5000 km/s JR 1-50 Armour 5-26 Shields 0-0 HTK 33 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 11 PPV 18
Maint Life 3.48 Years MSP 1,097 AFR 200% IFR 2.8% 1YR 138 5YR 2,074 Max Repair 250 MSP
Captain Control Rating 2 BRG ENG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Morale Check Required
Artificial Gravity Field AS Advisor Autnomous Piloting System Canteen Combat Simulation System Combat Trance Chamber Curvature Stabiliser Emergency Repair Module Emergency Treatment Section Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module
J5000(1-50) Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 5000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 1
Ion Drive EP500.00 (1) Power 500 Fuel Use 122,88% Signature 500 Explosion 16%
Fuel Capacity 473,000 Litres Range 13.9 billion km (32 days at full power)
15cm Railgun V30/C3 (3x4) Range 90,000km TS: 5,000 km/s Power 9-3 RM 30,000 km ROF 15
Beam Fire Control R192-TS5000 (1) Max Range: 192,000 km TS: 5,000 km/s 95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor R9 (1) Total Power Output 9.2 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS5-R1 (1) GPS 16 Range 5.5m km MCR 497.5k km Resolution 1
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
However it was also noted that the hypothetical enemy might as well defend from the incoming fire without issue if it posessed systems that were better at predicting the trajectory of kinetic onslaught than Syzygies at predicting its movement. To counter this possibility, a group of physicists pushed themselves beyond limits of brain overload caused by lack of hibernation to apply certain modification to the Curvature Propulsion so that its effects over the fabric of space could be weaponised. These new exotic weapons operated on the premise of sending powerful and rapidly-changing gravitational waves that could, at least in theory, overstretch and disintegrate any hull regardless of how well-armored it was. A new, twice as big but as fast as Syzygy, design was proposed tailored just for these new guns:
Lensia class Destroyer 10,000 tons 377 Crew 1,806 BP TCS 200 TH 1 000 EM 0
5000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 5-41 Shields 0-0 HTK 72 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 20 PPV 48
Maint Life 4.48 Years MSP 1,628 AFR 80% IFR 1.1% 1YR 131 5YR 1,971 Max Repair 500 MSP
Captain Control Rating 2 BRG ENG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Morale Check Required
Artificial Gravity Field AS Advisor Autnomous Piloting System Canteen Combat Simulation System Combat Trance Chamber Curvature Stabiliser Emergency Repair Module Emergency Treatment Section Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module
J10000(3-50) Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 10000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Ion Drive EP1000.00 (1) Power 1000 Fuel Use 101.37% Signature 1000 Explosion 16%
Fuel Capacity 838,000 Litres Range 14.9 billion km (34 days at full power)
Gravitational Destabilisator-12 (1) Range 200,000km TS: 5,000 km/s Power 37-3.75 ROF 50
Curvature Disruption System-6 (4) Range 200,000km TS: 5,000 km/s Power 15-3.75 ROF 20
Beam Fire Control R256-TS5000 (2) Max Range: 256,000 km TS: 5,000 km/s 96 92 88 84 80 77 73 69 65 61
Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor R19 (1) Total Power Output 19.2 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS5-R1 (1) GPS 16 Range 5.5m km MCR 497.5k km Resolution 1
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
A fine addition to the composed fleet was supposed to be delivered in the form of an additional spaceship, this time unarmed, but with far stronger radars, acting as a scout and warning rest of the ships early about detected threats (or lack of them).
Iktain class Scout 5,000 tons 175 Crew 675.3 BP TCS 100 TH 500 EM 0
5000 km/s JR 1-50 Armour 1-26 Shields 0-0 HTK 24 Sensors 120/120/0/0 DCR 5 PPV 0
Maint Life 3.82 Years MSP 422 AFR 40% IFR 0.6% 1YR 46 5YR 684 Max Repair 250 MSP
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Morale Check Required
J5000(1-50) Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 5000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 1
Ion Drive EP500.00 (1) Power 500 Fuel Use 122.88% Signature 500 Explosion 16%
Fuel Capacity 439,000 Litres Range 12.9 billion km (29 days at full power)
Thermal Sensor TH20-120 (1) Sensitivity 120 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 86.6m km
EM Sensor EM20-120 (1) Sensitivity 120 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 86.6m km
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
War wasn't something unheard of on Genesis and Dark Forest Theory aside, every Groaxian was aware that sooner or later something out there would require an intervention of ships like the ones that recently left the docks. And yet everyone hoped it was just a misunderstanding, a mere accident, a critical failure in the reactor or something. But several concentrations of unidentified wrecks and potentially life-friendly planet in the vicinity raised red flags in the minds of many. More soulseekers leaned towards accepting the sad thesis that the universe was indeed a Dark Forest. It was greatly disturbing.
-
Siege of Qusmont
3345 AM hibernation cycle
Before the rescue mission has been mounted, during rudimentary observations astronomers picked up an unusual gravitational disturbance just on the outer edge of Qi. Intrigued, they looked and listened closer. Gravitational analysis confirmed the space in the observed spot has indeed been warped. Everyone held breath. Soon every observatory within the system confirmed that a bunch of unidentified objects appeared in the sky. According to their current trajectory, if nothing was to change they were supposed to arrive at Vrath and Yatune. Conglomerate was unsure as to how to proceed. If Dark Forest was true... But what if it wasn't? What if these were just explorers arriving in the system just like Groaxians did in three others? And even if it was in the grand scheme of things, what if whatever was closing in wasn't aware of it, or at least wasn't sure, just like Groaxians? Every member of the Conglomerate barely said anything. The command room was surprisingly transparent, now devoid of the pink-purple haze indicating heated debates it was usually filled with. As if everyone expected someone else to take the responsibility whether to "push the button or not".
Two tense solar watches have passed. One of the unidentified objects entered the orbit around Vrath, while two others closed in towards Yatune, with five more floating behind:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/836718006264397854/contact.PNG)
The ships were now clearly visible from even amateur telescopes:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/836718296241537047/unknown.png)
Conglomerate tried to communicate with them by broadcasting mathematical codes, but got no response. Just eerie silence.
And then it happened. One of the two ships flying towards Yatune opened fire. Beams of concentrated energy hit the ground, destroying one of the modules that formed complexes in which Yatune population took shelter from the hostile environment of the planet. It was estimated that a total of over sixty thousands Groaxians were present in that section when the attack occurred. The "pushing button dilemma" instantly ceased to exist. A Conglomerate Defence Fleet has been launched and authorised to use any means necessary to stop the threat.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/836720068507205682/unknown.png)
Fortunately the planetary configuration at the moment were in favour of the defenders, with Yatune and Genesis currently being rather close to one another, but the trip was likely to last quite some time, meanwhile Yatune inhabitants were dying by thousands every once a while. The second ship also conducted a kinetic strike, but for some mysterious reason none of the missiles it dropped hit the target. Also they didn't seem to do any damage to the environment.
Meanwhile authorities on Yatune announced a global evacuation. It was determined that the safest spot to hide would be the underground section of Qusmont ruins. Emergency space suits proven to be invaluable, even though originally they've been distributed in case of life support system failure or barrier breach rather than extragenesian attack. Even then the amount of methane in one suit could only last for so long, so it was not a viable long-term solution. But it was expected to be more than enough till Defence Fleet arrives.
Till the moment soldiers serving on Syzygies and Lensias could see the besieged planet with their naked eyes it is estimated that a total of twenty million Groaxians perished in the hail of energy fire. Surviving inhabitants were relieved to see as the enemy pulls off from the planet once spotting a bigger threat. But Groaxians pushed further, chasing them down. Leaving them be and potentially disappear from the radars and return with yet another surprise attack was not an option. For the first time in history Groaxians opened fire at something from outside their solar system and for the first time in history Groaxians opened fire at something in space:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/836723606615621733/battle1.PNG)
Kinetic projectiles impacted over the hull of the enemy and that alone made one of the two ships barely holding together. Curvature disruption systems were a nail for the coffin for it. Groaxians watched as it disintegrated before being able to fire at them at least once. However, the second ship, responsible for kinetic bombardment of questionable efficiency, took a lot more beating before succumbing to the kinetic guns and gravitational disturbances. Oddly enough, it didn't appear to have any weapons suited for space combat because for the entire time it didn't open fire even once. Eventually one last gravitational wave tore it in half, sending two parts of the wreck spinning away in the opposite directions. Five ships maintaining the distance turned away from Qi. Yatune appeared to have been saved.
Or at least so thought the space forces until mysterious invaders started popping out from every direction, surrounding the habitation complex of Qusmont, still full of individuals who haven't made it to the underground ruins of human buildings yet. Wearing shiny suits yet unseen, they took positions across the land, taking cover behind rocks or even entrenching themselves in a hurry and opened fire. Their guns were accurate and appeared to fire streams of hot plasma, something especially deadly given average temperatures Groaxians were used to. Protective barrier of the complex was meant to be durable, but nobody built it with prolonged plasma fire in mind, so the enemy succeeded at breaching it in several places before anybody could interrupt them. With no better options, a total of three thousands squadmembers of mind cooling forces were deployed, even though they were ill-equipped for such battle (wielding only basic central-propelled kinetic guns and cryobatons) and were responsible only for maintaining order rather than defending the colony from technologically superior enemies.
Mental Cooling Squad
Transport Size (tons) 3 Cost 0.06 Armour 10 Hit Points 10
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.0075 Resupply Cost 0.25
CK Series 3000: Shots 1 Penetration 3 Damage 3
Cryobaton
Light Ballistic Armor
Infrared Vision System
Distributed Communication Array Endpoint
Vendarite 0.06
Development Cost 38
Initially these brave Groaxians tried to hold the enemy at the chokepoints they created, but it proven to be nigh impossible. Semi-auto guns were barely capable of penetrating the advanced armor of the enemy, let alone deal a killing blow, and that was under the condition a particular combatant managed to hit the nimble and well-covered foes at all. At the same time the streams of hot plasma accurately picking off mental cooling forces one by one were too much to handle and defenders had to retreat deeper into the complex, hoping to protect the inhabitants more effectively in tight quarters where there will be less cover for the enemy and shorter distances will increase accuracy at little cost since enemy had deadly aim anyways. Certain ambushes across corridors connecting various sections have been prepared, but at the same time large, open spaces out of which most of the habitats were made, had to be given up. For the officers leading the defense it seemed clear that if Groaxians built their cities like Humanity, there would be far less space to defend. The second way Groaxian nature served against them in this battle was their language: talking via exhaling and shaping pink and purple gasses was easily noticeable for the enemy. Thanks to this, even despite limiting communication as much as possible, several ambushes failed.
Desperate defense continued. Slight solace was found in the apparent feature of the enemy's bodies that made them spill liquids upon being hit. Barely any organism on Genesis did that since barely any organism contained any liquids in the first place. It meant that even non-lethal shot could prove fatal for them over time, or at least would weaken them more than initially expected since these bodily fluids seemed to be directly linked to their vitality. This has proven to be of little use as the battle continued, though. On top of that setting up ambushes thinned out the already thin forces too much which on many fronts resulted in the roles turning around, with enemies suddenly approaching from at least two sides at the squads barricading themselves in the corridors and entrances. Officers leading mind cooling forces had to think about something ASAP as dozens of millions of lives were at stake.
-
As the situation escalated, Conglomerate decided to use what it had the strongest - its first space fleet. The ships weren't meant to perform well within atmosphere, but it was the only hope for Yatune and the enemy didn't appear to have any weapons capable of harming the ships. Unfortunately, gravitational weapons usage would be devastating for the world, so kinetic bombardment was the only option. And so the rescue has been sent and soon rain of debris hit the ground. While the planet's gravity gave an additional acceleration to the missiles, some of them burned through the atmosphere and many struggled to hit small and scattered targets. But as soon as the first direct kill got confirmed, the fleet was ordered to press on. Ironically large open spaces suddenly became advantageous for the defenders, because invaders were easiest to pick off on these.
It was estimated that if enough air strikes were launched, every enemy shall be destroyed and it was a matter of pure statistics, but Syzygies could store only so much ammo onboard and enemy needed to fire only so much shots before the last Groaxian would be killed. Air support gave a precious advantage and a fighting chance, but this chance required a lot of work to not go to waste.
As the battle raged in the outer layers of Qusmont habitat, a small team of technicians hiding in one of the laboratories in a skygazer built by Humanity used latest cybersoul mainframes to simulate the penetrating properties of enemy weaponry against various materials. While with only so much time at hand all they had to work with were industrial programs for estimating mining efficiency so the errors were expected to be of huge proportions, but it had to do. With what little data they had available best they could do is to claim that vehicles used in construction and geological research should be able to sustain a direct hit from small arms, possibly even a couple of them before facing complete meltdown.
With not enough time to ask all the questions that should be asked, leader of Qusmont called for deployment of all the heavy civilian equipment the colony could allow and establish lines of barricades for the fighting mental cooling squadmembers. Entire Yatune society dreaded upon hearing of sending civilians into battle, but it was the last hope.
Defenders took heavy casualties, but once the "line of hope" has been established, they had one more place to retreat. A brutal firefight went on. While most stayed behind parked vehicles allowing them to tank some fire, certain groups of soliders hopped in and used them as mobile platforms to rain down fire at enemy having to charge through large openings. The casualties were still all-time high, but the glimpse of hope kept brightening up. Attackers even withdrawn and regrouped in certain areas, giving more precious time.
But the situation obviously had to complicate once again. Five previously missing enemy ships were detected on a course to Genesis. Conglomerate defense fleet had to intercept them before they reach temporairly defenceless homeworld.
Upon closing in, all ships within the formation promptly opened fire and dived below the enemy, hoping to evade their trageting before they can rotate themselves. Or at least their guns. Syzygies fired volley after volley while dodging incoming bursts of high energy and keeping relatively safe distances.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/837062738768298046/assault1.PNG)
Unfortunately, one misguided usage of weaponised curvature propulsion has warped space in slightly wrong direction, missing enemies and reaching a squadron of Syzygies as they were trying to fly up and above the enemy. While they were far enough not to suffer any damage, it interfered with their velocity and pushed them aside, unluckily right as they aligned with the line of enemy formation, giving a perfect opportunity for retaliation. Surpsiringly, enemy must have been using similar weapon platform to Syzygies. A swarm of metallic chunks was very hart to dodge, especially when one is trying to escape a gravity well that did not exist there a moment ago, but the armor did its job and protected all ships from internal damage, even though all of them had been hit. Soon Lensias corrected fixed issue with their targetting cybersouls and poured more damage into hostile squadron.
In order to grant a decisive advantage, gravitational weapons were used once they were recharged not to directly hit enemies, but rather to disturb the nearby fragment of space that'd allow Syzygies to perform a slingshot manoeuvre around predicted enemy position and come on top of them while pulling hostile vessels, granting them more acceleration so that they'd struggle a bit more to maneouvre due to too high speed.
It was an elaborate plan, but this time curvature coordinates and warp ratio were computed correctly. Enemies even seemed to be surprised, not expecting their turn ratio to have suddenly worsened. As they flew past Conglomerate ships, they turned around and fired while temporairly forced to maintain velocity, but with their path being pre-calculated Groaxians had no trouble dodging. Syzygies responded with yet another volley that has proven deadly for one of their ships:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/837067957749940285/assault2.PNG)
After that the remaining four spacecraft managed to regroup, but it already suffered too much damage. A couple of rapidly-fired kinetic volleys and one final gravitational blast was all it took to clean the hostile mess.
While the second space battle was victorious without too much damage taken, the fleet was now separated from Yatune and on top of that Syzygies had barely any ammo left, so they needed to resupply at Genesis first, leaving Yatune to fend for itself all alone. Morale of the defenders instantly suffered because of it. The vehicle barricade might have been effective, but "tanking a few shots" did not mean "surviving sustained fire for the fleet to resupply at Genesis and return". As a last resort officers leading the battle came up with another idea: bring the fight to the human ruins, way better suited for repelling sieges than Groaxian life-support infrastructure. The only issue left was that there was no reason for the enemy to pursue Groaxians into the ruins without killing the large population that hasn't been evacuated into them yet. However, a brilliant idea resurfaced: if the attackers were capable of spotting squads of Groaxians based on their form of communication, then they must have already have an idea about how much of a gas correspond to how many targets. An insane yet simple plan assumed that the population hiding among the ruins was to start talking extensively to produce so much pink and purple gasses that it'd form a giant cloud that would direct the attention of enemy. Most of the surviving forces were redirected to prepare occupied skygazers for defense. Technicians even temporairly redirected methane from pipes forming recycling center to make place for the conversation gas so smaller quantities would suffice to make it appear as if a large population were hiding in the former human city. The final part of the plan included surviving vehicles forming a densely packed formation in the few entrances connecting Groaxian and human constructions together.
It was during that final phase of the battle when Groaxians discovered their inner talent for complex guerilla warfare. Invaders took the bait and followed into the underground sections while detaching some skirmishers to deal with the few buildings standing above ground. Skygazers served as an excellent sniping positions, allowing precise shots while conserving the unsettlingly divndling ammo supplies, and their walls were durable enough to withstand coninuous small arms fire. Construction vehicles successfully established road blockades around ruined intersections and the geological ones even drilled a bunch of holes in many places, creating an array of trenches providing full cover and convineint shooting position. With the last thousands surviors from mental cooling forces, Groaxians eventually drove enemies off their positions and encircled them around buildings and piles of rubble they got to know really well during their stay on the planet, killing or capturing every last of the enemies. For now Yatune has been saved, but there was little reason for celebration once the casualties were asessed. Millions have been killed and large sections off habitat lied in ruins. But that was not the worst part. About the worst part everyone felt too uneasy to even mention it.
The universe was a Dark Forest.
-
At first the priority seemed to be to find a way to communicate with the prisoners, but it quickly faded away when all of them suffocated to death. They were determined to breathe oxygen, but the tanks within their protective suits contained a strange mixture of a concentrated oxygen and an additional gas which could not be indentified. Medics and xenobilogists desperately experimented with various combinations of chemicals to keep them alive, but before any satisfying results could have been achieved, the last alive enemy suffocated after emptying own air tanks. Working with their bodies to at least determine how to keep them alive next time (although everyone hoped there won't be next time) was all that was left to do. The way they looked after armor has been taken off them was disturbing:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/837078440619409419/unknown.png)
Their suits were all marked with strange symbols meaning of which could not be determined:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/837078677802975262/unknown.png)
The central one looked similar to Humanity's symbol of their own sun, but the markings below it or on the left side of the ribbon remained a mystery. The situation looked more promising in terms of their weaponry, though: engineers already figured out how to use their plasma guns so soldiers could equip them right away and use them for as long as there was ammo left. Armour was more problematic as it didn't really fit onto any Groaxian, not even the thinnest one, but engineers claimed it was nothing that couldn't be worked around. Most interesting feature of it was not its durability, though, but rather how well it seemed to adapt to the bodies of invaders, based on the principle "one size fits all" and it was rather on the heavy side but at the same time enemies were carrying it without an issue even though their muscle mass was much smaller than the one of an average Groaxian. This was easily explained once a microelectronic soul has been found installed on the suit's back, with veins running through all the remaining parts, even the tiny ones.
The outcome of the battle of Qusmont sparked a new public debate over the approach to certain subjects. First of all, a relatively small enemy army almost annihilated the entire colony counting over fifty million inhabitants. The enemy seemed to be focused on military technology and attacked without a warning, without war declaration, without any communication attempt from its side. It was also noted that what eventually allowed Groaxians to beat off the intruders was to fight over terrain that felt unnatural for them. The project based on which the "New Qusmont" was founded did not fare well in battle, meanwhile Humanity's work, even if damaged after thousands of hibernation cycles, still held together.
More members of the Conglomerate were convinced that ideas pursued in Qusmont skygazers by a relatively small group consisting mostly of dissatisfied middlemen was the path that had to be followed. It might not be what was desirable by most, but the universe had already turned out to be completely different than initially hoped and so different paths needed to be walked to ensure Groaxian civilisation was to survive. Humanity seemed to struggle with similar issues, too. According to the recordings on the monolith, they discovered Dark Forest Theory once they were already decently spread across the stars and kept wondering why every form of intelligence they had encountered was hostile and violent from the start.
Ever since that cosmic watch the battle ended soulseekers dedicated themselves to establishing a basic societal rules under which two alien civilisations coexisting in one universe could hypothetically establish mutual communication and prevent war. While yielding no positive results, it became a popular coping mechanism among the ones who couldn't bear the hard truth. One notable research on the topic has been published, though.
The soulseeker behind it one solar watch walked across the Thoania rift. He observed the two popular animals inhabiting the area: qhaavets and daelmi. Both were known for their aggressive attitude and violent behaviour, but they never attacked each other. Daelmi flew high above the ground, hunting other flying creatures or sometimes skydiving and piercing through ice to extract tasty shezes, meanwhile qhaavets, glued to the ground and were feeding off organic material extracted directly from ice after being left there by many species awakening from hibernation. Both species used ice as their hunting ground, at least to some extent, and yet they never interrupted each other. Even biologists once determined that qhaavets were poisonous for daelmi which is why probably they were never observed eating them.
This observation inspired the researcher to extrapolate this phenomena into entire civilisations. Two hypothetical races would share the same universe, as the two species from Genesis shared ice sheets as hunting ground, but at the same time both would consume different type of resources. That way they would not benefit from war at all - starting one always posed them at risk of extinction, even if only so small, while providing no gain as the resources used by the other race would be useless to them. Because of the latter, no matter the expansion of the second civilisation, it wouldn't limit their pool of potential supplies. However, in order for such model to work, all resources would have to be separated - for example aliens that landed on Yatune were breathing a different gas than Groaxians, but still using similar raw minerals to build their ships. While this theory had little implications in real life since if peace was to be made that'd require a hypothetical civilisation to exist that doesn't consume any grain of matter from which every material used by Groaxians is made, but it was a good thought experiment and somewhat a start. A tiny step into the darkness of the universe, made in parallel to the step that included sending colonisation fleet for their first trip into Mimung.
As soulseekers kept wondering about Dark Forest and engineers struggled to reverse-engineer plasma guns that'd fire missiles precisely following laser trail, astronomers had another riddle to think about: after spotting the cluster of black holes that gave the name for problems with omitting light speed barrier, they focused on searching for new black holes to compare them with this strange region of space, only to discover that in the entire galaxy black holes were pretty common. This didn't match theoretical predictions in the slightest. Also it was concluded that within a relatively short timeframe cosmic scale-wise that many black holes will destabilise the entire galaxy and swallow all of the stars. No physicist or astronomer could find any at least half-reasonable explanation for these observations.
-
DARK FOREST RESPONSE
3346-3353 AM hibernation cycles
Many officials of the Conglomerate had no choice but to travel to various space stations orbiting Genesis and skip next hibernation cycle, working constantly. While not healthy in the long run (well, in the short run too) they desperately needed that extra time to take required actions. The Qi Defense Plan was making its way into reality on a several different planes:
- xenobiologists and chemists worked on studying the bodies of invaders, trying to explain how they function, what enivornments are best suited to them, what was that extra gas found in their tanks, why did they all suffocate once it run out, what are their possible vulnerabilities
- physicists, collaborating with astronomers, had the task to study space curvatures left by invading fleet to try to predict from where they might come from
- mental cooling officers and engineers worked on reverse-engineering gear scavenged from fallen enemies and determining the future shape of Conglomerate army and strategies that will be used to deal with the threat more effectively shall the siege of Qusmont repeat
- soulseekers, slightly cooperating with tactical masterminds, had to study the behaviour of the enemy to and based on these observations and previous knowledge uncover more about the nature of Dark Forest and possible workarounds
- scientists studying artifacts of Humanity left on Yatune were tasked with what they were doing before, but this time with more resources allocated from the Conglomerate into the projects of merging cybersouls with true souls like Humanity once did
Working conditions were quite stressful and everyone acknowledged the dangerous part Groaxians were following - a path against the nature and foundation of their entire civilisations. Doubts surrounded rather pessimistic visions about how the future generations will be shaped. "Predator and prey in one" - this grim statement resonated within many as they followed the news on new military breakthrougs.
The autopsy of dead invaders took more bodies than initially expected, but with their abundance it was not a problem at all. Xenobiologists identified several key weaknesses in their biology: obvious one about them breathing oxygen and methane being toxic aside, they seemed to inhale air by one central organ, compared to obviously superior way of acquiring air through the entire body. The destruction of such organ should result in quick death. On top of that the air was reaching brain through several "pipes". Better to have some backup than if there was only one, but compared to the masterpiece of evolution that allowed Groaxians to breathe with their entire skin and then refill all the distributed mental system at once it was weak. On the other hand, such weaknesses played far smaller role on the battlefield with the technology they fielded - Groaxian bodies might be better suited to resist damage, but does it matter if one plasma missile is all it takes to melt them down? They might be weaker, but does it matter if their armours are so tough to get through?
But that was not all. In one of the pipes a strange powder has been discovered, almost as if it has clogged them up. Purpose of it and whether it was a natural part of them or some kind of parasite or venom remained unknown. As to their possible planet of origin, studies has shown that their environmental tolerance presents as follows:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/838006758617776208/unknown.png)
After re-analysing the astronomical data acquired so far, it was determined that two planets within Blutgang system were a good candidates for their worlds. The sole planet near which explorers have been possibly attacked orbiting around the first pair of stars was a decent choice given their biological properties, but the one in the second binary system has been determined to contain too much oxygen for their bodies not to hiperventilate. Whether it was their homeworld, terraformed colony or a planet that just happened to be of similar properties that no terraforming was required was impossible to tell, but if this information was to be put together with missing explorers and traces of debris they have discovered, it all suddenly started to fit in and create a coherent explanation.
In the meantime engineers have finally dealt with the gear of their foes: a prototype of a plasma rifle just like theirs, but more suitable for Groaxian hands, appeared, shipped together with a shiny suit of resistant armor outfitted with cybersoul-based distributed support system. Conglomerate was overseeing the rise of a special defense force that was specially training in order to take use of this powerful and fearsome armory.
Conglomerate Guardian
Transport Size (tons) 6 Cost 0.18 Armour 15.0 Hit Points 10
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.023 Resupply Cost 1.3
X-5000A1 Laser-Guided Plasma Rifle: Shots 1 Penetration 12 Damage 10
Reactive Cybersoul Combat Suit
Emergency Hibernation Kit
Infrared Vision System
Distributed Communication Array Endpoint
Vendarite 0.18
Development Cost 67
On top of new weapons and armor, each Guardian was equipped with the latest achievement of medicine - a kit that could put any Groaxian into a temporary hibernation even in high temperatures to allow safe and effective first aid treatment on the battlefield.
The minds of engineers did not stop at simply reverse-engineering more advanced gear, though - while X-5000A1 model had to be made semi-automatic due to rapid overheating during sustained fire, simply building a bigger gun that could fit more coolants turned out to be stupidly effective. That's how the strongest among the Guards became the elite of this force, tasked with providing cover fire for the rest of the squad:
Conglomerate Heavy Guardian
Transport Size (tons) 12 Cost 0.36 Armour 15.0 Hit Points 10
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.045 Resupply Cost 6
X-M5000A2 Plasma Cycle Rifle: Shots 6 Penetration 10 Damage 10
Reinforced Reactive Cybersoul Combat Suit
Emergency Hibernation Kit
Infrared Vision System
Distributed Communication Array Endpoint
Vendarite 0.36
Development Cost 94
Due to the effectiveness of vehicle barricade, a proper combat vessels have been designed to help the Conglomerate Guard entrench itself while providing heavy firepower. Armored with a layer of same alloy that served for assembling reactive cybersoul combat suits and armed with laser cannons made from modified drilling equipment, they might look like a geological research vehicle quickly refitted for a combat role, but they were still a nasty surprise for enemy who would neglect their capability like that.
Mental Cooling Mobile Defense Platform
Transport Size (tons) 78 Cost 6.24 Armour 40 Hit Points 40
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.78 Resupply Cost 24
Y-3000 Combat Laser Drill: Shots 3 Penetration 30 Damage 20
Y-2000 Pulse Laser Array: Shots 6 Penetration 10 Damage 10
Reactive Armor Layer
Distributed Communication Array Antenna
Full Spectrum Scanner
Terrain Profiler
Responsive Navigation System
Vendarite 6.24
Development Cost 394
The final word belonged to the long-range support vehicles, built on top of the same schema as Mental Cooling defense platforms, but instead of laser guns they came equipped with space kinetic weapons repurposed for ground combat, giving them an insane range over rest of the formations, allowing to deal with the enemy from afar:
Mental Cooling Distributed Kinetic Support
Transport Size (tons) 32 Cost 1.28 Armour 20 Hit Points 30
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.16 Resupply Cost 6
SCK-3307 Space Kinetic System: Shots 3 Penetration 10 Damage 20
Reactive Armor Layer
Distributed Communication Array Antenna
Full Spectrum Scanner
Terrain Profiler
Responsive Navigation System
Long-Range Targeting Array
Vendarite 1.28
Development Cost 178
First squads of the new Conglomerate forces were expected to arrive on Yatune soon after completing their training while new ones to protect the colony in Mimung were supposed to be sent there alongside first colonists.
The colonisation of eight moon of Mimung IV has proven to be far more problematic than initially expected. Teks ships struggled to transport large batches of pre-built modules and with this pace the initial setup of the colony could last forever. Because of this limitation, it was decided that only basic materials will be transferred to the moon and it will all be built on-site from scratch by the mobile construction teams which sacrificed some of their vessels in the desperate defence of Qusmont. While starting off will be tougher for the colonists, in the long term it'll allow them to develop much faster than they otherwise would. The problem is, during the next routine shipping flight by pure accident navigation officers detected a cloud of space dust on their route which was not there the last time they warped into Mimung system. Upon closer inspection the dust cloud turned out to be remnants of artificial structures - everyone hoped for this to be a result of simple accident, but deep down knew that whatever it was before being desynthetised, its destruction didn't occur because of bad luck. And even if it was an accident somehow, that still meant that a hostile civilisation has entered Mimung system, severely threatening the existence of a colony that was yet to emerge.
Upon hearing the news, Conglomerate really wished it could abandon colonisation plans, but it was the only extrasolar celestial body discovered so far that looked like a valid candidate and space expansion was a must because the ever growing civilisation required similarly growing resource pools. As soon as these words were spoken, temperature in the Conglomerate meeting space felt as if it dropped to the hibernation levels: it was exactly what first axiom of the Dark Forest Theory talked about, and on top of that it was said as if it was so obvious for everyone present. It was reported by soulseekers present that some tried to cope after the meeting by focusing on the second purpose of a first interstellar colony which was to provide an evacuation point should Qi defenses fall.
-
The peace in Qi lasted only a few hibernation cycles till a starship was observed speeding through the system at relativistic speeds till disengaging curvature propulsion:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/838041513468493864/enc.PNG)
However, to much surprise, before Conglomerate Defense fleet could intercept it, it disappeared within warped space once again. However, not too long after this incident, another ship popped up in the system. This time Lensias successfully slowed it down in an artificial gravity well untill Syzygies could catch up to it and destroy them with kinetic fire:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/838042186057515018/enc3.PNG)
One part of the ship remained intact after the encounter was over. From it, a few bodies could have been recovered. The ship was marked with the same symbol as the invaders of Qusmont have worn, so it was very surprising when the bodies discovered were something totally different than the aliens classified so far. They were of a slim, seven-legged figure that was very nimble and gave an impression of being fragile, however stress tests conducted by the destruction of their ship itself showed that ripping their bodies apart was a tough task - one could stretch, rotate and warp them around, but they just insisted on staying in one piece. Later in the laboratories detailed experiments have determined their environmental tolerances:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/838044006486769664/unknown.png)
No planet meeting all these criteria has been detected so far. Besides, even if such planet has been spotted, how would this help in determining what these aliens were? But one thing stood out: it was a different species fighting under the same banner as the previously encountered enemy. What if these two races somehow figured out how to not kill each other in a Dark Forest and signed an alliance? Even if they were hostile to every other life form, that was still a start. More enthusiastic citizens started dreaming of this discovery serving as a path towards peace. Scientists remained more cautious, pointing out there is no solid evidence than this species were sentient, maybe they were just some animals from the homeworld of current enemy, but at the same time the entire wreck didn't contain any trace of biological matter from the previously discovered species. However, these two aliens did not have separate resource pools - namely they both were breathing oxygen. Maybe there were other workarounds for the ugly nature of the universe? Soulseekers just got more work to do to fine-tune their theories and proposed solutions.
As Qi system was being monitored carefully, astronomers detected a previously omitted detail: all the space warped with Curvature Drives stayed like that. More experiments confirmed that it could easily be "flattened" again after another relativistic flight, but that was it. This clashed with Humanity's theories once again - according to them, such way of travel should warp space only temporarily and flatten it behind the ship. At the same time this observation inspired scientists to try to develop permanent rifts in space that would serve as travel points between various stars: the idea was to bend space hardly enough so that it could create a tunnel linking different systems. Maybe that was even the possible way to deal with the speed of light - while first flight still required its limit to be respected, following fleets could take a shortcut and arrive at destination instantly via rift that was built along the way at the speed of light, but now is already there. On top of that such journey wouldn't require the ship to have Curvature Drive installed. Physicists were surprised when they noticed the first stub of a mathematical model describing such rifts looked oddly similar to a previously unclassified section of the monolith. Rifts were named strangely, possibly it was a reference to some kind of organisms living on a homeworld of Humanity and the way they carved tunnels in their food, but apart from that the theory looked similar enough.
The problem is, even after many attempts the theory just refused to work in practice. Black Wall reminded about itself in the worst manner possible once again. Why did Humanity tried to contain Groaxians within a few nearest stars while not wiping them out instead? However, this time the situation was looking different: the idea of using interstellar rifts was an independent Groaxian research project that had nothing to do with Humanity until another section of the monolith has been understood. This helped to restore faith in Humanity among some sceptics that gained some popularity ever since first supposedly superluminal objects engineered failed to cross the speed of light, at least, but the troubles with interstellar travel persisted.
It took only a few hibernation cycles for the enemy to appear once again, bringing a squadron of three ships that seemed like they wanted to take over Yatune once again. Defense fleet, having mastered this manoeuvre already, plotted an interception course:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/838051519551111188/a1.PNG)
The combined kinetic fire and curvature disruption gave the enemy no chance. Trapped within artificial gravity well, struggling to reach escape velocity while dodging missiles that only accelerated further as they entered the gravitational sphere of influence themselves, two of them were quickly reduced to ashes. However, as Qi Defenders prepared the final volley, something very unusual occurred. Onboard cybersoul mainframes picked up an unintelligible signal originating from the third spacecraft. Initial analysis determined it was of an artificial origin and bore marks of sentient communication attempts.
Groaxians serving on the warships did not expect this. They paid a horrible price for keeping their civilisation safe - after witnessing combat for quite a few times now and skipping many hibernation cycles in their service, they were different than other Groaxians. Psychological evaluation has shown that they had much more trouble focusing on meditation and sometimes even struggled with proper words when talking. None of them spawned offspring. Time spent in deep space has changed them, and it was for the worse since they didn't serve to observe the beauty of it, but to fight across the void. In fact, it was determined that the amount of negative emotions the experienced was so high that the gasses responsible for expressing them have accumulated inside their bodies to the toxic levels which in return damaged their digestive systems and obstructed breathing. They required higher methane concentration to survive than others and needed to wear a special apparatus when on the surface of Genesis. "Dark Forest Disease" was how medics described their condition.
And yet it was them that had to respond. With slowly degrading brain tissue it was hard for them to think as decently as they did when they started service. This didn't help with the obvious problem of them not understanding what the messages actually said. Meanwhile the third ship slowed down and turned off its engines. The commander of the fleet relieved, as this provided an easy opportunity to buy basically as much time as needed: a couple of accurate gravitational shots were enough to trap the ship in one place. If it wanted to escape, it'd take too much time accelerating so that Groaxians could simply set the trap once again or just outright destroy it.
First obvious thing to confirm was that their language was not a human one. After this formality being done, the actual translating work could begin. Soon it was decided that attempting to translate their messages directly to any Groaxian language is futile, because the way they express themselves is just too different for this to work out. Conglomerate agreed that human language should be used instead. This generated another issue, as Groaxians could barely understand the simplest parts of it, let alone build sentences of their own, but the way these sentences were phrased was more similar to the alien messages, even if not the actual meaning or word structure itself.
The stalemate would continue for solar watches to no end, until one, seemingly unrelated, discovery regarding Dark Forest Theory was made. A group of soulseekers studying Dark Forest-related materials on the monolith and meditating as often as possible has figured out the key difference between advanced and primitive civilisations in the context of dealing with others. Alien invasions like the one Groaxians experienced were a domain of a primitive one. Meanwhile the well-developed races upon detecting another intelligence would simply launch doomsday devices from remote locations across light hibernation cycles, destroying entire stars and all the bodies orbiting them at their leisure. They even discovered bits of human history when dealing with such monstrosities: these fragments talked about the need to stay quiet or be heard by a race that would launch such attack without hesitation and described worlds destroyed by such weapons: destabilised ecosystems, planets reduced to asteroid belts, entire stars going supernova... But that was not the worst part - one of the soulseekers working on the topic outright hibernated out of extreme fear upon realisation of it. Any civilisation capable of sending messages across the stars, even primitive one, could summon the advanced one and give it a target to annihilate: all that needed to be done was a broadcast of stellar coordinates pointing at a particular planet or star. Upon receiving it, the Dark Forest Lords, fully aware of its artificial origin, would do the dirty work. The key was to send this message in a way that would not reveal sender's position, though, otherwise the sender would meet same fate as the target.
For the next cosmic watch astronomers were desperately analysing received messages in the context of galactic coordinates of Qi or any planet orbiting it, later they also checked nearby systems, but the coordinates were either well-hidden and impossible to detect for Groaxians or summoning a Dark Forest Lord was not the case in this situation. At first the officers insisted on destroying the hostile ship, but Conglomerate rejected this suggestion, blaming it on Dark Forest Disease, claiming that if these are really the coordinates of Groaxian space, then it must be confirmed and thus full communication must be established no matter what. To achieve that, Groaxians tried to provoke a radically different reaction from the aliens: they responded to them with a set of coordinates pointing towards Blutgang system. The response was indeed different: barely any expression was repeated, but there were also some similarities left. Then another risky experiment has been approved: next message aliens received was a set of coordinates of Qi system. To much surprise, the response that came afterwards was almost identical.
A popular hypothesis claimed that if the aliens wanted to just destroy Groaxians, they could've informed Dark Forest Lords while steering clear from the risky mess themselves instead of sending their soldiers to fight and die. That would mean that they wanted something more than just extinction of the enemies. If that was true, then their reaction to the last two messages would be something along the lines of "please don't do this", aka they obviously didn't want to have their space destroyed, but neither wanted to just erase Qi out of stellar charts. Given they were already aware of this mechanism at all, they could've sent the doombringing signal quite some time ago, but they didn't for whatever reason. Obviously this required confirmation, but it was some progress, at least. With no significant breakthroughs afterwards, Conglomerate simply decided to keep one Lensia always watching over the captured ship while allowing others to continue their work on tackling communication issues.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/838068034928771142/a4.PNG)
-
The communication issues continued. Conglomerate wanted to use survivors who fled destruction of their ships using escape pods, but unfortunately they all perished soon after retrieval just like the troops fighting on Yatune and were of no use. Instead, a new plan has been drawn: it was time to salvage all those wrecks floating around Qi. Some of them continued to drift away from the system while other were on collision course with either Qi or a planet, however it was nothing gravitational weapons couldn't fix until a specialised spacecraft for dealing with them could appear. It didn't take long, though, since it was based on the same design as cargo ships and required only small tweaks and additions, mostly in the form of correctional thrusters for aligning and coming close enough to a wreck and a mining equipment repurposed for the 213498719832467th time, in this case for cutting through parts of hull.
Colgeon class Salvager 30,000 tons 149 Crew 539.1 BP TCS 600 TH 300 EM 0
500 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 1-86 Shields 0-0 HTK 28 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 11 Max Repair 200 MSP
Cargo 10,500 Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 2
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months
Salvager: 1 module(s) capable of salvaging 500 tons per day
Short Range Debris Detection Net Artificial Gravity Field Autnomous Piloting System Canteen Containment Chamber Curvature Stabiliser Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Extragenesian Material Containment Flight Navigation System Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Gravitational Signal Filter Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Methane Recycling System Meditation Space Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module Speed Sync Correctional Thrusters
JC30K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 30000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Commercial Ion Drive EP300.00 (1) Power 300 Fuel Use 4.84% Signature 300 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 614,000 Litres Range 76.1 billion km (1761 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Despite being ordered to operate only within Qi system, each ship ended up with Curvature Propulsion installed so that later it could serve in different systems should they be marked as safe for such operations. As the first fleet of salvagers left Genesis, physicists announced that they have successfully recreated reactions occurring in Qi (or in any other star for that matter) and this looked promising in terms of replacing ion drives with something better, but that additional possible speed hardly mattered for salvagers.
In the meantime explorers visited another system - Eckesachs. It consisted of several gas giants and a bunch of genesian planets, but one stood out: initial readings have shown that it has an oxygen-based atmosphere. It was also barely habitable by the enemy race. Barely, but still. When deep space scanners picked up signatures of space debris, exploration master called for retreat. This is what saved one of the three vessels that escaped the system at lightspeed while two others were fried on the spot. The destruction pattern looked oddly similar to what happened in Blutgang with the first exploration fleet. Public opinion was devastated. Two exploration fleets have been destroyed with only one ship surviving the onslaught. Four systems have been travelled to so far, and in two of them attacks occurred, as for the second time nobody had any doubts as to why the ships got destroyed. Groaxians were caught right in the middle of a cosmic war and should still consider themselves lucky that civilisations fighting were of a primitive level and Groaxians advanced enough to be able to put up some basic defenses.
A debate rose publicly, revolving around a topic that troubled a lot of Groaxians: in their monolith, humans mentioned that they will "keep Groaxians safe until they join them across the stars". "Across the stars" part facing some unexpected problems and delays because of light speed issue and cosmic war happening aside, what exactly "joining" was supposed to mean, to this solar watch nobody really knew. Most pending issue was about "keeping safe" promise, though. It seemed like so far Humanity failed miserably. Well, Genesis was still habitable and the civilisation thrived, but casualties were already taken and so far no rescue could have been detected. Why all this effort if later Humanity was to leave Groaxians to their own devices? There was also an alternative, simple explanation: Humanity didn't keep Groaxians safe, because it succumbed to the Dark Forest and was gone, gone to the last human being. This resolution made a lot of Groaxians suddenly feel all alone in the vast universe. Genesis might still be beautiful and the red Qi on the yellow sky across white-blue lands still beautiful to witness, but Humanity has shaped the culture and development of Groaxians for too long to simply move on on them being extinct. As a last measure, it was proposed to run a special space search program that'd target Humanity specifically, however nobody yet had an idea how to do that so other races wouldn't understand sent messages, what should be in these messages sent for Humanity in the first place and on top of that how to make sure Genesis is not revealed to Dark Forest Lords.
Middlemen on Yatune, which managed to accumulate lot of fame across various clans for their extraordinary approach to life, insisted on speaking with Conglomerate officials. They presented a first ever working prototype of a cybersoul mainframe directly integrated within a body. This design has been inspired by the reactive cybersoul combat suit and in some loose comparison looks similar - it consists of many modules that once implanted under skin and outer flesh layer form one system slightly resembling cybersoul suit that is capable of interacting with entire brain surface, process signals from it and pass them to external devices or read input reaching the brain. This bridges the gap between cybersouls and living things, bringing them closer together. So far the functionality is limited, but impressive nevertheless - it allows the user to browse guardian net while simply thinking about what to search for, can serve as a remote communication endpoint or could be integrated with many machines used in daily life. This is not what middlemen dissatisfied with their gender role wanted, but it's the first step in the right direction for them. Conglomerate Guard Masters even pointed out that the communication endpoints are especially interesting - since they display virtual clouds forming expressions, they could be used for the soldiers to talk with each other without risking revealing position due to too much gas leaking out.
And so Groaxians made another move against their nature. Some wondered how far they will need to push themselves and whether the results of fighting Dark Forest would be that the survivors won't be Groaxians anymore. To try to alleviate Dark Forest Disease among space forces or any potential harmful effects caused by having cybersoul installed under skin, Conglomerate passed a law that required every Groaxian serving on a military ship or having integrated cybersoul modules implanted to meditate more and hibernate longer, hoping the additional rest will provide enough chance for the body and mind to recover from any ill effects and remain cool.
-
First salvaging group spent solar watches in interplanetary space, trying to learn as much as possible about the threat. In several wrecks markings similar to the ones on the symbols worn by enemy soldiers have been discovered. This was of limited help, though, as it was rather hard to understand which parts of the ships where what having just bended or melted and later cooled down irregular metal plates at the disposal since it was impossible to tie writing with certain ship functionalities.
To overcome this issue, a council of Conglomerate Master Guards came up with an idea to send a drone to board the enemy ship and check the interiors of it. The plan was risky, though, since upon detection of the small vessel the enemy could've either destroy it or try to escape. To determine best chances of success it was decided that a very small probe will be used - this way it'd take a lot of time for it to reach the target, but the detection chance was minimal. There was still a problem of hull damage warnings once the drone starts cutting inside, but there was nothing that could be done.
Conglomerate sit tight during the entire long operation, but it went smoothly - the enemy did not seem to have reacted to alien probe. Thanks to the effort of microelectronic cybersoul readers the actual scouting device was so small it did not alarm the ship, possibly because the small breach was thought to come from a micro metheor strike or something. The only issue left was that as soon as the hole has been detected, the entire area was cut off from the rest of the ships and operatives of the drone did not want to risk further alarming the species inside by causing internal damage. First readings from the room have confirmed the parameters determined by biologists after conducting many autopsies. There was a strange installation found inside: the entire room had irregular shape and across the corners many gas tanks have been displaced. A labyrynth of pipes connected them all, with pipes in many places ending abruptly, opened directly to the outside. Strange symbols covered most of the floor, walls and the ceiling.
Some sort of repair machine has been spotted temporairly fixing the small hole through which Groaxian probe entered the ship. Soon after it did its job, a few aliens entered the area. It was the first time Groaxians could observe their opponents from so close without any significant danger. They looked around, made a few squishy sounds which the probe also recorded just as they noticed their presence. Trying to hide was pointless - despite them likely having no idea when they entered, they instantly knew where to look at, giving away signs of advanced personal detection devices. An interesting scene played: one of them took its laser-guided plasma rifle and took aim, but the other one has stopped it from firing. The drone was left unharmed. Instead, they started talking to it. Surprised by this course of events, Groaxians registered many alien hisses. They seemed to be guarding the device, but none took any action against it.
The data gathered has proven to be more than enough for the smart xenoliguists to crack their language. It resembled navigating a labyrynth, just like looking at those pipes or trying to read their writing. "Umbara Commune" was how they identified themselves and they came from planet "Zenn-La", however it translated to Groaxian celestial body charts. The room discovered was a "meditation space", or at least that's how it best translated to Groaxian terms, but it was nothing like a proper meditation space. The tanks inside contained the same gas that was discovered to be essential for their survival besides oxygen-based atmosphere and the pipes suddenly cut off were spots which were used to inhale it while entering "hibernation". Not neccessarily hibernation from the biological point, but rather a mental state similar to what Groaxians experienced each time their body temperature dropped past certain level. Moreover, this gas was then reaching their brain through only one of their breathing pipes and the dust discovered during autopises was the same substance, but in solid state - with each breath some particles would solidify and slowly clog their breathing pipe. An ominous words were describing the process, which, ultimately led to their death. "Many cycles to traverse, but each does not repeat itself, leaving a permanent mark of time" seemed to be the motto of the ceremony of the inhalation. Whatever that meant, nobody knew.
But the main point of interests were obviously the messages exchanged between the ship and the Conglomerate Defense Fleet. The first communicates had simple yet shocking meaning: they pledged Umbara will to surrender. While something written in the codex of honour and respected through what Groaxian-Groaxian wars took place during the course of history of the rising civilisation, in space, in the context of Dark Forest, made no sense at all. Why would they surrender if there was only one outcome? Was it because they already knew the peaceful nature of Groaxians and their disgust felt whenever thinking about Dark Forest, let alone attempting to play by its rules? The problem is, they really had no way to tell this, as all they ever saw was their space fleet firing at them. With the exception of units besieging Qusmont since there was a slim chance they would conclude this from the way Groaxians built their colony, but they all died without having a chance to report back.
Interestingly, their reactions to the coordinates sent by Groaxians as a kind of bait was not "please don't do this", but more like "You fools. We could've done this ourselves if we wanted, but our worlds are too close. Dark Forest Lords would wipe out both of us." The problem with this response was how uncaring they appeared. Maybe it was just a game, they wanted to only give such impression, but on the other hand what would they do if Groaxians broadcasted their coordinates? Sure, right now it didn't look like a viable option for either side to do so which might explain why they didn't worry too much as of now, but what if Groaxians were to lose the war and then, having nothing more to lose, before going extinct would make sure these invaders won't hurt anyone else? Maybe they were sill working on the answer as the war has just broken out and they were still far from winning so it wasn't critical for them right now?
The ship has been transported to the orbit of Genesis for further study and all crew has been imprisoned. Surprisingly, they didn't "try anything" during the entire process. The supplies of gas secured were large enough that it bought quite some time for everyone to get as much information from Umbaras as possible and possibly learn how to synthethise it so they could be kept indefinitely. After the success announced by translation team Conglomerate expected answers, but got itself into yet bigger riddle instead.
-
BATTLE OF MIMUNG
The enemy might have purged all the data from the ship before surrendering, but eventually cybersoul readers have found a way to restore it. It was all thanks to the "labyrinth mentality" of the enemy - they failed to close all the exits from this one and a backdoor has been identified, allowing the data to be restored. It was an impressive feat given this already difficult task has been further obfuscated by having to deal with alien language and alien cybersoul mainframe architecture which granted all members of the restoration team a special award from the Conglomerate itself.
Most of the data was still permanently lost, but scraps of information recovered left no doubt - enemy was aware of the "suspicious" Groaxian activity in the Mimung system and planned to send a fleet to check it out and deal with any resistance that could be detected in the system. With the ongoing struggle to colonise the moon of Mimung IV, that was not something Conglomerate could allow. The only problem left is that trying to intercept enemy in Mimung would leave Qi defenceless from space attacks for several hibernation cycles. Also there was no way to guarantee the Defense Fleet would get there in time. However, according to colonisation plans, there should be a cargo fleet flying through the system right now. And it was soon discovered that the enemy did not plan to arrive in the system later than after a few hibernation cycles either. That changed the picture, since it both gave a solid reason in the form of rescue operation and enough time to get there before it'd be too late. Another important information to conclude from this was the possibility that Umbaras were also limited to the speed of light, which gave hope that the fleet would return to Qi in time. It was a risky operation, but the risk had to be taken.
3353 AM hibernation cycle
A few hibernation cycles after the decision has been made and only a a few solar watches after from the crew's perspective, Conglomerate Defense fleet disengaged Curvature Drives in Mimung system. There was nothing in the system expect few Teks cargo ships which were promptly informed to evacuate from the system immediately.
Solar watches were longing to no end, putting into question the whole point of the mission, but eventually they came, warping into the system close enough to the Conglomerate Defense Fleet so they could immediately be detected. Groaxians set the course for interception, flying slightly above the orbital plane of the system, hoping to came on top of Umbaras so initial evasions would be a bit easier. The fleet was larger than expected, but there was no turning back now. Lensias were sent beforehand and soon first gravitational pulses marked the beginning of the battle as destroyers speeded past the enemy while rest of the fleet approached a bit slower, remaining on the other side:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/839223625814507561/battle1.PNG)
This initial attack was powerful, but not powerful enough to deal any significant damage as of yet. And on top of that Groaxians were in for a nasty surprise: while Umabars struggled with gravitational wells as always, this time they must have come equipped with more powerful engines, because despite continuous gravitational disturbances they outmanoeuvred Groaxian spaceships well enough to leave both Lensias and Syzygies behind. Strangely, despite much bigger numbers they didn't seem interested in continuing engagement. Or maybe it was just their strategy, decided the fleet master once the closest ships turned around while keeping current velocity and opened kinetic fire. Fortunately it wasn't hard to dodge. Conglomerate fleet returned fire, but the hulls of affected ships still didn't appear compromised:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/839225732117954610/battle2.PNG)
Firefight continued. Gravitational weapons have proven their worth once again, but this time were a bit less useful due to more powerful engines of the enemy fleet. Also it was noticed that many ships in the formation were either the same as the one that was captured intact or looked similar. This likely indicated Umbaras were ready to potentially launch planetary invasion since these ships were decently armored and equipped with orbital pods quickly delivering soldiers to the ground, initially mistaken for space bombardment weapon during siege of Qusmont. This was an important notice if Mimung was to be colonised. Mistakes from Yatune shall not be repeated.
Groaxians have learnt to keep their distance from hostile ships so that their targeting cybersouls had trouble locking onto them, giving an opportunity to fire away without consequences. However, this all changed when the enemy, succeeding at making Groaxians let down their guard a bit, suddenly fired their thrusters with full force, using next gravitational disturbance as a slingshot, rapidly changing speed vector making a full U-turn around gravitational well and coming right on top of three Lensias greeting them with hail of kinetic gunfire, flying past them towards Syzygies while turning around and continuing to score hits as the distance started to increase again.
For the hull of one of the three ships it was too much. Its crew tried to close off various areas of the ship to prevent further decompression, but closing doors and venting rooms can only do so much when the entire ship starts to spin rapidly while the artificial gravity field has already went down and many different parts have different opinions in which direction to fly at once. Disintegration, followed by a chain of explosions, marked the fate of the ship. Some Groaxians have catapulted themselves in time and could later be picked up, but most disintegrated together with their vessel. That was a sight all crewmembers would remember for the rest of their life. No training could have prepared them for something like this.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/839233132716490752/battle3.PNG)
As the enemy prepared to open fire once more, Groaxians shook off from the trance and went back to their duties. Destroyers accelerated forward, buying more time before Umbara spacecraft could get within firing range once again, and fired once again themselves, this time simply trying to maximise damage instead of manipulating space around their targets to obstruct their maneouvers. Syzygies behind continued the chase and have successfully closed the gap separating them from slower ships and scored many good hits at their backs, often destroying their engines, which even if wasn't enough to cause a chain reaction, was often enough to prevent the ship from applying any corrections, making it an easy target with, for obvious reasons, very predictable flight path. The battle continued for some time, with remaining two Lensias using their own gravitational spheres of influence to evade enemy fire, and ended up with many ships wrecked. Unfortunately, several enemy ships managed to distance themselves enough to safely power up their interstellar propulsion and disappeared in a warped bubble of space, carrying the news and everything learned with them.
Messages from the battlespace as well as the Conglomerate Defense Fleet itself would not reach Qi for the next few hibernation cycles, but once it did, nothing was the same anymore. The destruction of one of the ships and loss of most of its crew were just too much, despite being theoretically expected. Soulseekers observed that the Dark Forest Sickness has rapidly worsened in each Groaxian serving in the fleet. All Conglomerate members agreed that in this state, despite their invaluable experience, they cannot continue their service and a new crew must be gathered. Soon it was also determined that they're unable to adapt to any other type of work, either. No amount of meditation and hibernation helped. Elite members of mental cooling squads tried to help them, but to no avail. Dark Forest has left its permanent mark on them. They were deemed to have sacrificed their identiy for the sake of survival of entire civilisation so that Groaxians might continue to crave a foothold in this hostile universe.
After many debates that followed, eventually the final decision has been announced that everyone serving on a military starship up to this date will not only no longer fight in the void, but also won't find another job, dedicating rest of their lives for deep meditation. The news were shocking. It was the first recorded case in entire Groaxian history when someone would cease to work before death. The perfect balance between meditation and work, set in stone by the wonders of evolution, has been around since forever. Through the entire life, from the day a young Groaxian emerged from the sac after the body was able to function independedly till the moment of eternal hibernation, said Groaxian was prepared to rest, but also prepared to do what needed to be done, striving for perfection in balancing time spent at a job and time spent meditating and relaxing, and this approach always served well for the body and mind alike. And yet Dark Forest forced a group of Groaxians already pushed beyond their limits to abandon another part of their instinct. On the one hand unfit for any productive role, on the other hand further disconnected from their nature which may lead to disastrous consequences in itself, Groaxians serving for their race on boards of combat-capable starships were a tragic group and the first victims claimed by Dark Forest.
-
AMONG THE STARS
3354-3368 AM hibernation cycles
Astronomers observing permanent space curvatures left by enemies warping into Qi confirmed that Umbaras were using the same type of interstellar propulsion, likely not being able to cross the speed of light themselves. This belief was further reinforced after several more small squadrons of their ships appeared in the system, only to be destroyed by Conglomerate Defense Fleet, at the same time serving as good training for the new generation of stellar warriors before their first serious battle, which at this point was no matter of if, but a matter of when. Groaxians living in the system have somehow adapted to the constant news of new enemies appearing, they no longer sparked the same emotions as at the beginning. It appeared as if they acknowledged Dark Forest and moved on, but the truth couldn't be further from this. Quality of life and bonds among clan members decayed as Dark Forest casted its shadows on the once peaceful planet. Hope was running short and Conglomerate had to think fast and act even faster, but there was only so much it could do with a small fleet at its disposal and enemies harrassing the homeworld every few hibernation cycles.
Just to do something at all, it adapted the small step approach. First decision involved sending Colgeons to the Mimung system together with transit fleets to salvage debris from the battle as well as a few other loose wrecks drifting around for quite some time now before they fly too far out of the system, making their recovery a very complex, if not impossible, task. Since there were already unarmed ships flying through the system in the first place, running salvaging operations didn't put any stretch on the military forces at all - the system needed protection with or without a few extra civilian vessels. Similar approach was taken in regards to Nagelring with asteroid mining fleet constantly operating there and regularly bringing raw resources to Qi. And while not much was expected to be gained from these operations besides a few alloys that could be re-smelted and repurposed given the state of all these remnants, but on certain ships certain parts of databases survived intact. Even a few additional tanks for the Umbara gas have been secured. Information gained allowed the officers to put a brief tactical map of nearby stars with links indicating the most often used routes and most intense battles:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/839593042222514186/unknown.png)
Even on this map Qi looked as if it was placed in between fighting civilisations. Of course there was nothing stopping the fleet hypothetically located in Blutgang to instantly travel to Qi or even Eckesachs, but enough data samples have been studied to determine that it was unlikely given how the war has progressed. What was alarming was that the largest debris field has been detected in Blutgang, and since the first and last time Groaxian ships entered the system it might have increased rapidly, meanwhile it didn't end up as the center of this map. Further analysis determined that the only reasonable explanation was that Qi was in fact far from the epicenter of the conflict, this conclusion further grounded in the observation that all the enemy fleets encountered so far were of a small size and could be dealt with without too much troubles and desperate battles with the exception of siege of Qusmont, but even that wouldn't be a problem if the enemy wouldn't manage to deploy its soldiers on the planet.
After a series of skirmishes on the outskirts of Qi Conglomerate decided it's worth taking a risk and planned an exploration mission to Eckesachs, being most interested in Eckesachs III. And so surviving Vrilxel warped the space in the direction of this star and left Qi under the escort of a few Syzygies. After a while which took a few hibernation cycles back on Genesis the fleet arrived at the destination, greeted by the emptiness and a dim light from a star still rather far away. The mission has begun. Not too long after conventional engines have been fired, sensor picked up an array of signals closing in. After a few tense minutes readings confirmed it was a squadron of ground assault ships of Umbaras flying away from the system. With only a small escort alongside them, they were quickly dealt with. If not for Syzygies, the last exploration ship of old generation would have joined the fate of all the others since it was completely unprepared to fight even against "small escort". No more life signs have been detected and the expedition proceeded peacefully.
As Groaxians moved forward, closer to the sun, after a few solar watches spent in deep space radars warned about another type of alien ships in the system while they were flying between the moons of Eckesachs VII gas giant. This time it did not resemble anything of Umbara origin. It looked too different to be of their creation. Onboard telescopes gathered the rough image of these mysterious spaceships:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/839605378568421386/unknown.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/839605493600616508/enc.PNG)
Tense moments followed, with Syzygies arming their guns, even though the enemy was way too far away, barely getting spotted, so there was nothing that could be done should it suddenly reveal weapons far outclassing everything Groaxians came up with or Umbaras demonstrated so far. Out of four spotted ships, two engaged some kind of interstellar propulsion and boosted themselves to ridiculous speed, although it was confirmed they did not cross the speed of light. Two other, however, were sitting idle and on top of that seemed to be guarding the trajectory Groaxian expedition would follow after using nearby gas giant as a slingshot to speed up the journey to the inner parts of the system. It wasn't a problem to just fly around them, but at the same time it was plausible to assume they were already aware of alien presence in the system. Expedition leader gave orders to prepare Curvature Propulsion systems and set course somewhere away from Qi to mislead the enemy should it want to go for a chase, but at the same time continued the flight as previously decided, confident in being able to quickly disappear shall things go the wrong way. Intel about the new enemy was essential.
Just as he was thinking that, something occured to him: he was already thinking about the alien beings as the enemy of Groaxians, even though no contact besides spotting each other on the radars has been established, no shots fired, nothing. That was likely the first symptom of Dark Forest Disease setting in. And it was alarming, because he was just a captain of an exploration ship, made to boldly go where no Groaxian has ever gone before, with enjoyment of the breathtaking sights of space encoded as one of the main tasks of its crew. Maybe this condition was more severe and infectious than previously estimated. And if soldiers couldn't fight while suffering from it, then he definitely wouldn't be able to explore anymore. But maybe it was just because the mission was kinda special because of the escort and the destination being a system with ongoing battles? All he could hope for is that as soon as he travels to a previously uncharted system, with no indication of enemy presence, everything would go back to normal and his mind will cool down.
Just as exploration leader was meditating about his first thoughts regarding the encounter, Groaxian ships continued onward while alien ships stayed where they are. When the distance was less than half of the initial spotting range, somebody simply asked: "why don't we just hail them?" Everyone turned around to look at the Groaxian, wondering why hadn't they thought of it themselves. It was a very simple thing to do and did not pose any risk! Dark Forest or not, as soon as the message won't contain any sensitive data, representatives of another civilisation won't be able to harm Groaxians more than they are already able to right now. Could the solution to the Dark Forest be so simple? If chain of suspicion and lack of communication is a main driving force alongside resource competition, then simply hailing another encountered ship by a civilisation of good will could be a good first step, albeit a small one. This system did not belong to Groaxians and was not included in colonisation plan. The aliens already must have known Groaxians are there. If they want to shoot, they will shoot, hailed or not, as simple as that. If they also come from a civilisation of good will, then maybe they won't, just like Groaxians didn't want to do so themselves. While there was no way this could change the bigger picture, in that particular situation opening communication channels couldn't hurt anyone. And so these channels were opened. Without any idea about their language, Groaxians communicated with them in a similar way Humanity did - by sending mathematical formulae encoding several basic concepts. To make decoding easier, main content of the message was a small greeting combined with the astronomical data about the current system in which the communication attempt occurred. It was ended by a simple, naive question "are you a civilisation of good will"? Of course nobody was stupid enough to believe this question would get answered in any way that would provide this information (and even if the true answer would be "yes", according to the Dark Forest Theory it was still shoot on sight and shoot to kill protocols even in between two civilisations of good will thanks to endless chain of suspicion), but the very reaction to this question was the main point of interest as regardless of the actual answer it might tell something useful.
Silence of the void was all that came as a reply. Maybe they struggled with deciphering the message. Maybe they did not want to reply. It was pointless, war was a default and only state, after all. But they didn't open fire either. Quite some time later, still long before Groaxians would close in, two guarding ships suddenly approached the speed of light and disappeared from the system. Through all the way to the Eckesachs III nothing more happened. Dark Forest remained silent and all the preys and predators remained stealthy.
-
With no more surprises along the way, mission sent into Eckesachs has achieved a stable orbit around the third planet from the sun. Despite atmosphere composed of similar elements as the one on Yatune, the planet looked vastly different - while the water and air still gave it a blue appearance, the landmasses weren't mostly with some shades of yellow indicating desert regions like on the former Humanity's world, but rather had a purple-ish appearance, with distinct yellow patches, but these were much brighter than Yatune's deserts. Contrary to the expectations, the planet did not seem to be inhabited by a sentient species, though at this time many witnessing the beauty of this world would expect that a civilisation might as well exist there, either in a state way too primitive to tell from a first orbital glance or advanced enough to have mastered stealth in a Dark Forest.
Detailed surface scans and several probes launched ended up revealing a faint signature on the surface, though. It was assigned the top exploration priority immediately. A probe has been sent to land nearby, but far enough to avoid potential detection by whatever existed down there. Because of these precautions, it'd take several solar watches for it to reach the destination once it hit the ground and deployed wheels, which was used to study the abundant alien life discovered. Purple shades visible from space came mostly from the plants covering large areas - though they did not resemble either grass from Yatune or patches of wild hets scattered around Genesis - it was a mixing of slim roots crawling around the surface. They were even capable of small movements. Studies have shown that they were in for a competition, each one of them striving to come on top of others to get the most sunlight exposure, with individuals failing and dying off serving as a feeding ground for creatures lurking beneath this complex ecosystem. It was also discovered that sparse large plants growing here and there were of the same origin and turned out to be the adult versions of the roots creeping around, giving hints that only a few survived in the long run, most being eaten by local fauna. Compared to this, yellow patches looked much weirder. They looked almost like hets colonies, but shorter, thicker and of a different colour. At first glance they looked like innocent plants, but were far from it. Repeated observations conduced in many regions of the planet at once have shown that they were capable of taking many different forms and reflecting all kinds of light to make them similar to many different species. Purple roots around them were not what they appeared to be, they were also this species, but camouflaged to be "incorporated" into the "root system". At later stages they'd demonstrate their true colours (quite literally) and feed from the nutrients present in the soil, doing so until all attacked roots were dead and consumed, only to repeat the same process once again.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/839933999434170388/img.png)
There was also an interesting case of one grazing animal mostly enjoying the roots to eat yellow parasites instead for most of the time to prevent them from destroying the supply of their favourite treat. While these plant-rich regions were most common across the planet, other ecosystems existed too, with the most interesting example encountered around high mountain ranges, where a giant animals were encountered - they were easily the size of Groaxian starships or bigger, moved around the steep and dangerous terrain by building bridges out of their saliva that was thick, dense and quickly froze in this environment and acted as hubs, entire habitats for many smaller species that found shelter from temperatures too low for them to survive right inside of these giant's bodies. The mountains were the only regions in which Groaxians wouldn't overheat to death without artificial cooling systems, though, but they were still on the warm side.
Eventually the probe tasked with investigating the signal has reached what appeared to be a labyrinth of metallic tubes going in every possible direction at once, with orbital pictures not penetrating through the structure deep enough to notice this. It instantly brought associations with the installation discovered on Umbara dropship, and it was the right track as multiple patrol of Umbara forces have been detected walking around tubes and platforms. Nothing more could have been said, though, because soon some soldiers spotted the probe and blasted it with high enegry beams before it could even came closer to the first installations. Sending more, this time designated to directly drop from orbit at the buildings, yielded similar results. Not willing to risk loitering around hostile territory any longer, Groaxians have withdrawn their ships and headed back home to share the discoveries.
As hibernation cycles passed with explorers undergoing their relativistic flight out there, Conglomerate officers tried many approaches to Umbaras interrogation to eventually unravel some mysteries. So far the one and only useful method was bounded to the additional gas tanks secured from the wrecks - the prisoners were so addicted to it they were willing to go through a lot just to get more. First thing they shared was that this substance was used only by their military forces and that regular population not only did not inhale it, it was forbidden for them to do so, and that their additional air vessel through which the gas reached their brains was a product of genetic engineering rather than natural evolution as to keep the standard air intake separated. Interrogators quickly picked on the topic of the gas, trying to learn what the "permanent mark of time" from the inhalation room meant, but this time Umabras weren't so cooperative, almost as if this was too sensitive information to reveal even when getting next fix was at stake. Another thing that was asked them was how to make this gas so that Groaxians could synthesise it themselves and keep them alive, but they responded with simple "we don't know." Given how essential it was for them, it was determined that they indeed don't know. And it wasn't even that surprising, why a simple soldier would understand some chemical or biological arcane one had to understand to know the recipe.
While the interrogations ended up with all Umbaras eventually dying after exhausting all the supplies of their gas, return of the expedition from Eckesachs was something that seemed to grant yet another chance of understanding Umbaras. If whatever knowledge was stored on Eckesachs III could be acquired, this would easily mark a breakthrough in the current stalemate. It was the ground structure belonging to Umbara Commune discovered and its discovery was invaluable. Two approaches to the new problem quickly emerged: one insisted on research into possible "stealthy" technologies for a probe to eventually sneak in and out of the colony, the other one considered adapting orbital drop pods to own use and deploying Conglomerate Guard right on top of the enemy and take them out in open battle. The second option seemed much more straightforward and easier to implement, but to some it resembled Dark Forest approach too much. It was an attack on an alien world, after all, all too similar to the siege of Qusmont. How many of similar battles would it take till Conglomerate will agree on a planetary-scale wipeout? A counterargument claimed that intel acquiring aside, a hostile settlement that close to Qi was too dangerous to be left intact. This statement outraged the stealth approach enthusiasts, as for them (and rightfully so) it was the ultimate proof that this way of problem solving was a downward spiral straight into adapting Dark Forest approach - because wasn't "too dangerous to be left alive" one of the fundamental principles of this theory?
As a result of ongoing arguments, no decision has been made and further assessments of the issue were postponed to the beginning of the next hibernation cycle. In the meantime one thing everyone could agree on is that Groaxians could not allow themselves to be contained within these few stars they currently were. Mimung was an important colonisation project, but ever since alien presence has been spotted there, it was clear it will not serve as an "escape route" in case of a major Dark Forest Strike. New worlds have to be found, and to discover them a new line of exploration craft has been prepared:
Baernoloth class Science Vessel 10,000 tons 269 Crew 2,634.1 BP TCS 200 TH 400 EM 0
2000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 4-41 Shields 0-0 HTK 61 Sensors 16/0/12/12 DCR 9 PPV 0
Maint Life 6.01 Years MSP 1,481 AFR 89% IFR 1.2% 1YR 70 5YR 1,055 Max Repair 150 MSP
Captain Control Rating 3 BRG ENG SCI
Intended Deployment Time: 72 months Morale Check Required
Artificial Gravity Field Astronomical Observatory AS Advisor Autnomous Piloting System Canteen Containment Chamber Curvature Stabiliser Emergency Repair Module Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Extragenesian Material Containment Flight Navigation System Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Gravitational Signal Filter Ground Composition Analysis Lab Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Onboard Telescope Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module Xenopathogen Research Lab Cybersoul Evolutionary Emulator
J10000(3-50) Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 10000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive EP400.0 (1) Power 400 Fuel Use 3.95% Signature 400 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 318,000 Litres Range 144.8 billion km (838 days at full power)
Thermal Sensor TH2-16 (1) Sensitivity 16 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 31.6m km
Improved Geological Sensors (6) 12 Survey Points Per Hour
Improved Gravitational Sensors (6) 12 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Survey Ship for auto-assignment purposes
While obviously still limited to the unforgiving and uncaring speed of light, it was better prepared to handle long-term voyages than its predecessor and on top of that came equipped with a result of a first breakthrough in soulgrain mechanics: evolutionary emulator. It was the first cybersoul mainframe utilising soulgrain physics to run computations which were stable enough to give correct results most of the time. The sheer power opening up before cybersoul readers allowed to build the first proper evolutionary simulator capable of studying alien life in detail and predicting possible path it might follow as time passes. Even though for now it was capable of reliably analysing only non-sentient species, it was hoped that such predictions could be helpful in figuring how to work around the Dark Forest once the tools used for emulation will be able to handle complexity of intelligence and incorporate it into virtual universe. Scientific equipment aside, it also was the first starship to mount fusion-based engines and was almost as well-armored as military ships, all in hopes it will be able to either dodge or tank incoming shots as to never suffer the same fate many explorers did before. This ship was a clear symbol of Groaxian will to push forward and continue to see the beauty of the universe regardless of what was going around in it.
-
Personnel of a research space station orbiting Vrath, recently focusing on black holes physics and the fabric of spacetime, has witnessed an ominous sight: right as they watched through the telescopes, a star roughly 101 hibernation cycles away has collapsed into a black hole. There were two problems with observed phenomena, first being the (lack of) probability of witnessing the collapse right the moment it happens (or rather the moment light witnessing the event reaches observers). But while something almost impossible is not impossible so it all could be just celebrated as a breathtaking comsic show of unprecedenced scientific value, there came the second problem stepping in: collapsed star was of M class, with very similar properties to Qi. Researches stumbled onto something that wasn't possible to happen at all.
Several sociological and medical studies were conducted to address the primary issue with expanding scientific knowledge of the civilisation that remained unsolved so far and which, with the current complexity of tasks involved, became more and more of an impactful obstacle. Productivity of large teams trying to figure out how stuff works and complete big-scale projects was best rated when their numbers did not cross fifty Groaxians, about the size of a tribe. However, many challenges of moder world required cooperation with multiple teams at once, easily forcing hundreds or even thousands to interact with each other and keep in touch through the work. Humanity seemed to have no problem with this, but Humanity was different and no matter how their civilisation would inspire, there were certain things that just did not translate well for Groaxians. When approaching one hundred collaboratives, members of these large structures reported first symptoms of low focus, less average time spent on meditating and too many thoughts and ideas accumulating in their brains at once. Warm Mind Syndrome was not purely psychological, either - it was a widely known fact that the body temperature of Groaxians suffering from it would indeed increase slightly. This was especially problematic during hibernation periods since this increase was enough for them to freeze later than others and awaken earlier, cutting the precious time used for regeneration and swapping all the old tissues for a fresh ones. What was interesting is how quickly the symptom appeared and also how equally quickly they were going away, leaving no permanent health damage, making Groaxians who went through it indistinguishable from the ones who've never experienced it.
A handful of publications mentioned that the measurment of brain activity has long proven to be what everyone expected, but it also revealed some surprising facts, namely the severity of the syndrome being directly linked to a distance. So a conference with three hundreds participants would end up making all of them feel sick for its duration, but if they'd split into six groups of 50 and communicate with Guardian Net they'd be fine. But while this general statement was already known from observations and ever since the first launch of the network such meetings were schedulded utilising its potential, the research further determined that distance mattered not only in the context of remote or personal meetings, but also how far the participants were located from each other even when meeting in person. For example, doubling the distance between two groups of fifty participants has seen a decrease of symptoms' severity by roughly 23% measured by comparing body temperatures since everything else was too subjective. Initial hypothesis revolved around the increase of speaking gas on small areas, but it was rejected after the results stayed the same even if all participants didn't talk at all. Another one claimed it happens when Groaxians are unhappy, similarily to how Dark Forest Disease involved body intoxication thanks to expressing too many negative feelings in a short span of time, but it was also disproven.
It was the already famous association of Yatune middlemen that came up with first possible explanation: they used their cybersoul internal implants to monitor the exact patterns of brain activity before, during and after large gatherings and came to a conclusion that it might be possible that the brain activity "radiates" outwards, "infecting" nearby brains with own thoughts. Due to the context in which the phenomena was initially being observed, it couldn't be noticed because of the similarities of thought patterns expressed by colleagues working on the same task, but the experiment on Yatune had consisted of two groups working on compltely unrelated tasks and when they met on a conference, one group had to talk about their job while the other remained silent. Some members of the presenting group developed a vague ideas about the other project which expressed in themselves suddenly coming up with ideas about doing something similar, despite having no way to obtain the information on what the other group focused on. It was later also confirmed that the longer the distance, the less precisely these ideas matched the truth behind supposedly unknown tasks.
Sociological take on this was of a revolutionary impact, because it was the first theory that could serve as a foundation for explaining mechanisms driving Groaxian urbanisation and its impacts on space programs, with Humanity building more compact cities and Umbaras also seemingly going that route given their rather dense structures found on Eckesachs III. It could also lead to future optimisations of city layouts, maximising productivity while staying creativity- and nature-friendly.
-
In these harsh times, Groaxians observed the stars with mixed feelings. It was confirmed that majority of them in the entire galaxy has already formed black holes, entire "black constellations". Physicists wondered wheter soemthing else, something yet undiscovered, hidden before their understanding, could be responsible for this. The uncertanity and anxiety plaguing the entire Groaxian race through all these solar watches was best described by one particular soulseeker, who wrote:
Ode to Dark Forest
We are the Humanity,
Sleep tight little ones,
Until you join us among the stars,
We will keep you safe.
That's what these aliens once told us,
Long before our civilisation rose,
Their monolith among us made a fuss,
But now we fear eternal comatose.
In a Dark Forest now they are hiding,
Unwilling to reveal their coordinations,
Thanks to this eternal truth abiding,
No planets of theirs we know of, not even space stations.
We have reached the stars,
Floating around in the void,
Already suffered from battle scars,
Our society growing paranoid.
Despite what they promised,
Bound by lightspeed we stand,
Black Wall having our interstellar dreams dismissed,
Not even the best among us have solution at hand.
Black holes devour sun after sun,
Dark Forest strikes, Umbaras bark,
Fearing Qi might get overrun,
Towards new home we must embark.
Struggling to preserve our nature,
Wondering how much we can sacrifice,
Fearing we may awake as a horrible creature,
This being the ultimate survival price.
We are the Groaxians,
We cannot sleep, we must watch,
Having no one to join us among the stars,
Dark Forest will keep us endangered.
-
3369-3380 AM hibernation cycles
While best Groaxian engineers and builders worked directly on-site on Mimung IV eight moon to finish construction of initial self-sufficient habitat and kickstart it with some industrial production, explorers celebrated the decommissioning of last surviving Vrilxel and happily boarded a brand new fleet of Baernoloths, already feeling safer behind its thick armor. They were supposed to embark on the largest exploration mission up to date, passing through Zulfiqar and Tyrfing which were believed to be planet-less, having Thuan Thien binary system set as the final destination after astronomers detected a planet orbiting within habitable zone around the main star. The route was planned shortly after finalising the project aiming at providing a way for the onboard fusion reactors to be refuelled directly by hydrogen from the heliosphere, using gravitational well of the local sun to drop out of warp flight closer to it, but unfortunately during experiments with unmanned probes a direct dive in a heliosphere proved to be too much for the cooling systems to siphon any significant amount of hydrogen. Still, the original trail was left intact, as at the price of only slightly increased distance two additional stars could be inspected from up close, just in case astronomers missed something there.
And they indeed missed something, although it was not their fault - as the space in front of the ship was being straightened, slowing it down to conventional speeds, sensors detected a cluster of signals close to Zulfiqar - getting a little paranoid, expedition leader interrupted the procedure of disengaging Curvature Drives, still keeping the ships at an intra-system transit-wise impressive effective speed till the signals could be resolved and classified. Groaxians passed them too quickly for a standard cybersoul mainframes, but the advances in soulgrain mechanics spawned machines capable of processing the input patterns at a quick pace. Leader's intuition was correct - it was a huge, multi-squadron fleet of Umbara ships. Or at least most of them belonged to Umbara, since a few vessels hadn't been spotted anywhere else before, but given nobody was shooting at anybody, probably all spacecraft was of same origin. Not giving the enemy any chance to react, Baernoloths fired their interstellar propulsion and quickly left the star behind, heading towards Tyrfing.
The second stop also didn't have much to offer besides a single star, but at least it was quiet this time, allowing for more detailed analysis. Peace lasted only a few moments, though, because soon space in one particular spot started warping way too much for a measurement apparatus' error. Before everyone realised detection instruments have not been faulty, another big-ass fleet emerged from the relativistic flight. Risking critical cooling system failure, onboard technicians overclocked reactors to recharge Curvature propulsion System even slightly faster, but before they were finished, reports from full spectrum deep space scanners and gravitational signal filters started flooding officers, matching some of the signals with the signatures of alien spaceships first observed in Eckesachs, but most remained unresolved. Just like in previous instance, no combat was taking place. Or at least no detectable from afar kind of combat.
Unsure about what to do, Groaxians, just like back in Eckesachs, opened communication channels, ready to start warping space at any wrong movement from alien side. Once again some simple mathematical formulae have been transmitted, together with simple "who are you?", this time accompanied with "we know about Dark Forest". But once again, no reply came. No fire came, either. After a few tense moments that felt like entire hibernation cycles, all the alien ships disappeared from radars. There was nothing left to do but to continue the journey.
At last the fleet warped into Thuan Thien, this time detecting many celestial bodies. The ones orbiting main star, though, were a huge letdown. The potentially habitable planet maybe contained ice sheets, but was an airless, dead rock, with temperatures slightly lower than Groaxian tolerances and was too small. Rest of the planets didn't look better, some with ice, most without, a few gas giants, one with hydrogen-based atmosphere. Three conatined traces of nitrogen and methane, but were equally lifeless.
The situation around second star looked vastly different, though: while most of the planets were gas giants again, one planet-sized moon had traces of methane in its atmosphere, though was still lifeless and too far away from the sun for any reasonable colonisation. There was also another one, this time with higher methane concentration (despite the atmosphere still being too thin), and close enough that possibly introducing enough gasses to make the atmosphere breathable and the pressure high enough as well as heating the moon up would make it habitable. First planet from the sun was of a different kind, though. It had a high atmospheric pressure, large gravity (within tolerable ranges, though) and size, traces of oxygen and scorching temperatures. No water of any kind was discovered, though, not on the surface, not in the air, not deep below the ground. It was lifeless, sands and sands and rocks and sands as far as eye can see. However, no manned landing was conducted since scanners detected a strange installation. It matched patterns from Eckesachs III. It was an Umbara city or colony or outpost of some sort, with a labyrinth of weirdly connected pipes. Sending drones served as a double-check, but similarly to previous encounter, it got blown out of the sky before revealing anything not yet noticed. Having finished classifying all the planets, moons and asteroids found, the crew prepared for a journey back home, but shortly before departure one more point of interest has been observed: a large pile of space debris, with velocity decent enough to orbit the sun, but not high enough to escape the system. Another graveyard, another battle memories encapsulated in a rusty metal. In that sense, the system resembled Eckesachs way too much.
Back in Qi another conference held by Conglomerate raised the temperature of some brains a bit higher than official mental cooling squads' guides recommended. Engineering a probe that could remain stealthy inside Umbara installation ended up being a very challenging and resource-consuming task, and no matter personal opinion, every clan represented in Conglomerate had to agree that building an invasion starship and putting already trained and armed forces into it was simpler and cheaper. Still, most Groaxians did not want to even think about the possibility of launching, what in theory would be, a Dark Forest Strike, even if conducted utilising rather primitive technology Dark Forest-wise. However, the topic grew more controversial when soulseekers attempted to gain a deeper understanding of what exactly the term "nature" meant. The problem inspiring them to try to gain some insight was how the Dark Forest Theory appeared... natural, at least on the cosmic scale. It was all deducted from the simple principal of survival which held true for Groaxians as well and a bunch of rather obvious, even trivial, statements. This simplicity based on which all the complex behaviours and poses in relation to the theory emerged was something closely resembling nature - a complex system erected from trivial pieces.
Another question to be asked was how come the civilisations actually "agreed" on fighting with each other - if this wasn't natural, then every race ever would have to undergo through a series of painful events, mental struggles and moral dilemma Groaxian society has found itself among before being able to fight its first offensive interstellar (or at least interplanetary) war. But if that was the case, it would mean all civilisations were of a good will - and if all had good will, that'd possibly give enough "initiation time" for some alliances to form, rather than having everybody against everybody. The possibility of every race starting with good will was quickly ruled out - especially that the tendency to wage wars could be different for different aliens as well - for example Humanity, while still not agreeing collectively to just start glassing planet after planet, was definitely more aggressive than Groaxians and its history was on the bloody side. And if there was a civilisation of a bad will out there, then Dark Forest must came as natural to it - a mere justification of their approach, cementing them being right about exterminating others.
Versatility of alien life discovered so far also served as a very simple visualisation of differences between natures - hot, toxic air of Eckesachs III was a dream come true to all the biological beings living there. They were of a different nature. The fact that this observation was very simple, even trivial, posed a very important question, later referred to as "Nature of the Nature Dilemma". Because again, starting from a simple ruleset one could create a complex system of interactions that talked about different kinds of nature interacting with each other. An important aspect of presented problem was figuring out how to determine which nature is "the best". It was especially difficult because the correct answer seemed to be "none". Biosphere from Eckesachs III would not survive on Genesis and vice versa. Perhaps the best kind of nature would be the one that can adapt, a hypothetical lifeform that could survive on both these planets. Groaxians came close, as terraformation of Eckesachs III was possible, but that wasn't the ideal - ideal would be able to survive on both worlds as they are, without the need to bring its own nature to any of them. But the main conclusion was the importance of adaptation.
It was a very scary conclusion to reach in the context of what started the entire discussion, because obviously given the original issue "adaptation" would mean "sending an army to attack Umbara colony like Dark Forest taught us". Well, maybe it wasn't precisely a Dark Forest Strike in a sense that it wasn't preemptive, war was already a thing, battles have already been fought and Umbara Commune was a serious danger, but it was a downward spiral regardless of any mental gymnastics used to try to justify it. As more Conglomerate officials begin slightly agreeing on creating the prototype of a planetary invasion spaceship, everyone wondered where is the limit between "adapting", doing what needs to be done so that entire civilisation might feel another hibernation cycle and pushing too far, irreversibly corrupting society and the values that bound it together.
-
ECKESACHS ASSAULT
3372 AM hibernation cycle
Initial plan was to repurpose transport ships captured after weird surrender instances, but they were heavily damaged and working with weird alien designs was too much, so instead an entirely new design, suited best for transporting Groaxian army, has been proposed:
Varqix class Assault Transport 30,000 tons 152 Crew 1,433.5 BP TCS 600 TH 480 EM 0
800 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 7-86 Shields 0-0 HTK 54 Sensors 8/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 29 Max Repair 200 MSP
Troop Capacity 15,000 tons Drop Capable
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
Artificial Gravity Field Autnomous Piloting System Canteen Combat Trance Chamber Curvature Stabiliser Emergency Repair Module Emergency Treatment Section Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Kinetic Landing Launch Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Onboard Hospital Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module Onboard Armory
JC30K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 30000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive EP480.0 (1) Power 480 Fuel Use 3.61% Signature 480 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 514,000 Litres Range 85.5 billion km (1236 days at full power)
Thermal Sensor TH1.0-8.0 (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 22.4m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Troop Transport for auto-assignment purposes
Outfitted with large armory and space to induce combat trance on all troops on board before dropping them from orbit, it was more than capable to deliver soldiers right where needed, making them quickly descend onto a precisely calculated spot without the need for the ship to even slow down below orbital velocity, let alone touch the atmosphere. The pods didn't really work the other way around, though, requiring the ship to land and pick everyone up "manually". Adding fuel required for them to overcome planet's gravity would just be going too far, adding too much weight for the starship which already was on the slow side thanks to its thick armor and preparation for hosting an entire army with its equipment, both personal and for long-term operations.
The decision to send an army to conquer Umbara installations in Eckesachs was expected to face heavy backlash, but things turned even more horrible than initially expected. Because while most citizens did not approve indeed, the group of those who did was larger than simulations suggested. War wasn't unheard of on Genesis, but statistics clearly indicated that the amount of Groaxians who expect Conglomerate to push against Umbaras more aggressively has grown over the hibernation cycles. Many wondered whether the line has already been crossed and the changes as the civilisation transfers to an interstellar one will be irreversible no matter what decisions are made now and in the future. Mentioned group also seemed to overlap with the one advocating for widespread cybersoul body implants usage and even the theoretical possibility of genetic engineering to directly modify the body without any external or internal devices, changing the nature of the whole species forever. All these signs were worrying and Conglomerate started looking into the possibilities of cooling the society down before soldiers would return. Given the light speed limit there was quite some time left.
After one final checkup, the composition of assault army, two of which were supposed to be sent into battle, was accepted:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/842832232745926656/ground.PNG)
3375 AM hibernation cycle
The flight didn't take long from the Conglomerate Guard's perspective, but even that was enough for some to start feeling first symptoms of Dark Forest Sickness. Even extended hibernation didn't fully negate its effects. Somehow it was even worse fate than to serve in space navy, because combat spaceships at least stayed in space which was still regarded as beautiful by most despite the eternal slaughter, while Guardians were supposed to fight on the surface of a hostile world with toxic ecosystem, against feared foe. Everyone onboard barely spoke with each other, which led to accumulation of too much speaking gas and it all ended with overcrowded medical bay and many health issues because Groaxians were not made to stay silent for so long. A few officers even questioned the capability of their soldiers to behave properly on the battlefield, but even they were aware that it was the best army they could get.
Eventually the moment came. All soldiers checked their weapons one last time, entered the capsules and glided through the atmosphere in them as they were all detached synchronously. Theoretically the strategy was simple: mobile defense platforms were expected to land all across Umbara complex and surround it, forming barricades all around, providing fire support and decent cover for the infantry and eventually crushing encircled defenders. Moreover, the entire blockade was supposed to be tightened as battle goes on, with every soldier and vehicle moving synchronously. Such precision was hoped to be achieved thanks to the first practical applications of the research that focused on understanding Groaxian mind - every commanding officer had a special device embedded within reactive cybersoul combat suit that amplified brain waves and could also pick them up from nearby surroundings. It struggled to determine enough details about one's thoughts or precisely transfer them to nearby individuals, but it was good enough to at least distinguish between basic short orders like move forward and set next barricade further for example.
Vehicles forming the barricade were the first to land, and as such the first to open fire and the first to be fired upon. First thing about enemy defenses to be learnt was that some of the tubes and pipes turned out to be barrels of weapons, greeting Groaxians with intense kinetic fire. Barricade held, but these projectiles had such high velocity that they penetrated the armor of vehicles sooner rather than later. The cover for the infantry ended up being less sturdy than planned. With less effective barricade infantry had to stay more mobile to increase probability of survival. Even if not initially predicted, this ended up quite effective, as adapting to more guerilla warfare helped reduce losses among fighting soldiers. Fireteams of Conglomerate Guardians fired their standard-issue plasma rifles and heavier, rapid-firing plasma cycle rifles, providing lots of suppressive fire, but suppression was best they could achieve, since actually hitting defenders well-covered behind or inside their tubes was a hard task. Especially hard when a soldier pulling the trigger still doesn't really feel like killing. Mobile defense platforms did a better job with their pulse lasers and repurposed laser mining drills, causing the defenders to take more losses, but at the same time they were the most vulnerable units thanks to their size, enemy targeting priorities and their armor being less powerful than hoped. A hope in achieving a breakthrough lied in the repurposed space kinetic weapons making for distributed long-range artillery support, but missiles they used were underwhelming in punching through enemy cover.
Technically defenders were encircled, but they dealt with incoming attacks rather well. It was noted how they didn't resemble soldiers fighting in the siege of Qusmont at all. They appeared to have heavier, bulkier armors and their guns were even more accurate and deadly, easily melting through the Groaxian combat suits. Umbaras looked to be one step ahead in land warfare once again. A different approach was needed, which sounded familiar back from siege of Qusmont. But even when focusing all fire at one narrow spot of defense line, kinetic missiles struggled to deal enough piercing damage and plasma weapons were next to useless if impacted at undamaged armors. On top of that, the best weapons for this situation - lasers mounted on barricade vehicles - went silent one by one and the amount of burning wrecks the battlefield has ended up scattered with became quite a concern for officer corps. The offensive was losing its momentum. And the two ships hovering above the battlefield did not have any weapons to provide support like during Yatune defense either. There was no point in continuing the battle. All remaining soldiers left alive received an order to immediately leave the range of enemy guns and await transport ships to pick them up and get them the hell out of this bloody planet.
But then something unexpected happened: seeing attackers in retreat, Umbaras let a chasing force outside their city, apparently trying to exterminate every single Groaxian still breathing. This rapid shift of tactical situation had three consequences. Firstly, those enemies who left their posts were now in the open, making for some easier targets. Secondly, they needed to be dealt with, otherwise evacuation was rather problematic, to put it mildly. And finally seeing their comrades slaughtered haplessly as they run, minds of certain individuals started warming up dangerously fast, but soon dropped the temperature way below the standard values. This state was so rare it almost felt unnatural, but it was a part of Groaxian nature as well, even though not frequently exposed. "Hibernation Battle Trance" was the name given to it for a good reason. Every soldier affected by this during battle experienced time slowdown similarly to the moment briefly before hibernating, but the body wasn't ready for hibernation at all, leaving the individual in this "pre-hibernation stage" for prolonged amount of time. As time slowed, the reactions became fast and senses sharp. Several squads of Conglomerate Guardians prepared an ambush for the chasers, easily catching them in a crossfire, still receiving support by artillery which managed to distance itself a bit in the meantime. They kept firing at the enemy and with enough shots fired, Umbaras were bound to fall down one by one, even if their armors protected them decently.
Soon the two starships used for the assault arrived and landed outside the combat zone. Artillery evacuated behind them, still continuing to provide covering fire for the rest of evacuating units. Despite best efforts of brave soldiers stuck in hibernation battle trance, the overall situation was irreparable, with most of the mobile defense platforms already destroyed and terrain around the enemy facility too exposed to dare attack it without any solid protection. The ships themselves helped tank some more incoming fire, their hulls too sturdy for Umbara land forces to pierce through them, so the rest of evacuation went smoothly with minimal casualties. Traumatised Conglomerate Guard left the atmosphere of Eckesachs III and headed back home, hoping to receive some treatment not only for wounded bodies, but also and primarily for wounded souls.
-
Groaxian forces returning with heavy casualties and news of defeat put the entire society in distress. Not only did the entire civilisation push themselves yet another step closer to the darkness, but also the effort was in vain, many lost their lives and the survivors were severely traumatised. Doctors observed a worryingly acute variant of Dark Forest Disease in every soldier that fought on Eckesachs III. And there was also the problem of the previous problem remaining: Umbaras could still continue doing whatever they were doing uninterrupted, except now it was known their military technology has marched forward, leaving Groaxians behind once again. If such an army would be to land on any planet around Qi the results would be devastating. And nobody still really knew much about these aliens and there was nothing to hold onto in this uneven investigation.
However, Conglomerate did a great job at identifying key mistakes despite overall horrible mood of every single member. Basically, the entire project of the assault was screwed beyond belief right from the start. First of all, the job was supposed to be done by soldiers trained in defending Groaxian cities, not conquering alien outposts on alien worlds. And even that doctrine was problematic: it was built around the desperate and improvised defense of Qusmont, not realising that an improvised and desperate tactics is still improvised and desperate, even if the tools used for it have been replaced with more professional military gear. All these issues paired with the horrible state of current Guard led to one simple conclusion: Conglomerate needed a brand new army, with modernised weapons and based on a totally different approach, both for defense and assault so that the potentially threatening facility would eventually be shut down before its purpose for existence will be felt by everyone directly.
While Conglomerate was at it, it also decided it might be a good moment to upgrade the space fleet as well, bringing entire Groaxian force to a higher level at once, but all these ambitious projects required resources. Lots of resources and lots of space for population running all the necessary industry. Mimung colonisation was given even higher priority. Soon after return of the soldiers first Groaxians were sent to the moon in question to establish first permanent population and prepare terraformation process. Their work was unheard of for the next few hibernation cycles for obvious reasons, but once it was, Conglomerate was really impressed with their approach to shaping the environment of the moon. An interdisciplinary team of experts praised the complex yet efficient design of a space station assembled in orbit of the colonised body:
Qive class Terraforming Station 255,000 tons 1,010 Crew 5,819.1 BP TCS 5,100 TH 0 EM 0
1 km/s No Armour Shields 0-0 HTK 178 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 14 Max Repair 500 MSP
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 54 months
Terraformer: 10 modules producing 0.006 atm per annum
Magnetic Field Generator Artificial Gravity Field Atmosphere Simulator Biodiversity Checksum Validator Canteen Cybersoul Evolutionary Emulator Cybersoul Station Mainframe Emergency Repair Module Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Genesis Biosphere Storage Global Cooling Control System Global Warming Control System Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Native Biosphere Containment Onboard Hospital Organic Matter Introduction Testing Chamber Personal Storage Recreation Space SoulSeeder Station Command Deck Space Mirror Array
Fuel Capacity 49,000 Litres Range N/A
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Space Station for construction purposes
This design is classed as a Space Station for auto-assignment purposes
It came equipped with loads of useful tools and utilities, namely the testing grounds for consecutive terraforming steps to minimise risk of errors that could destabilise entire young ecosystem and waste hibernation cycles of hard work. In this particular case the first stage consisted of using space mirrors to deflect part of the sunlight heating the surface up. Once the temperature would drop low enough for the water to condense and then freeze, breaking dehydration cycles, first organisms native to Genesis could be introduced, spreading new biosphere across this alien world. While the moon would cool down, large quantities of nitrogen were to be extracted via complex chemical reactions in parallel and introduced to the atmosphere, hopefully making it dense enough for the genesian ecosystems to fully thrive in this new-old environment. Of course one station wasn't enough to get the job done within any reasonable time frame. First citizens of Mimung, first Groaxians to settle down in an alien system, planned to put an entire array of Qives in orbit.
Back on Yatune experiments with prototype devices used by soldiers during Eckesachs assault for more efficient communication continued with eagerness of many scientists and engineers. It didn't take them long to create an internal version of this machine, adding it to the collection of cybernetic implants. An interesting discovery has been made along the way - unlike all the previous implants, this one felt natural. It was based on a recently discovered potential of Groaxian minds, even more powerful than anticipated through the history, and did nothing but build on top of that, enhance this power. It could even lead to creation of an entire new speech system, with thoughts transferred clearly and intentionally between individuals without the need to speak. It might as well be next evolutionary step, but something merely accelerated by scientific development, not something artificial, but something that would've happened one way or another. Conglomerate quickly took more interest into this discovery because of how unique it felt compared to other breakthroughs that happened on Yatune. A glimpse of hope enlightened Qi again.
Science developed rapidly in this new department. Implants used were able to analyse, classify and send more complex thoughts with every iteration. But what happened next was beyond anyone's expectations: augmented by these devices, Groaxians were able to communicate with the monolith left by Humanity on a higher, almost transcendent, level. There was an entire deeper plane to explore, filled to the brim with information and knowledge. Groaxians interacting with the monolith later described this experience as being able to directly feel the mind of a human. Ancient thoughts of beings long gone, all encapsulated inside this strange machine, imprinted in its circuits. Almost as if Humanity stood before Groaxians, talking directly to them. But all the information was locked behind a warning one had to acknowledge before proceeding: for Humanity this power was a gift, but also a curse, with access strictly monitored through most of its history. Being able to see through one's thoughts was the pinnacle of might and control for humans, often abused to commit horrible deeds, but on the other hand leading towards amazing discoveries.
But at the same time there was a more optimistic message to be found: Humanity's studies on the nature of Groaxians revealed their strong potential for taming the mind. Humans lacked this potential, having evolved naturally to being able to hide and protect individual thoughts and emotions well. They had to compensate with a special kind of cybersoul implant, and even then were beaten in that regard by other species they encountered across the stars. But they noticed how well-suited for wielding this power Groaxians are, suggesting it will feel natural for them to use it and they were right.
Data encoded with "Transcendent Speech" talked a lot about previously unknown facts about Humanity. It mentioned civilisations so ancient and long gone, having evolved soon after the creation of universe. They mentioned mysterious ruins and well-preserved complexes of a once mighty and widespread intergalactic race which dedicated its sheer power to overcoming Dark Forest, but at a cost of later falling prey to it. Said remnants of their creations could only be accessed using Transcendent Speech to open the gates blocking access, as materials from which they were built were so powerful than anything strong enough to gain access via brute force would also destroy everything inside. These facilities, often guarded by cybersoul-based combat machines, contained an unimaginable amount of knowledge. It talked about super advanced physics of higher dimensions, beings existing in more than three planes at once, machines tearing the fabric of space itself, ripping holes through it to grant access to these strange realms, with going superluminal thanks to skipping three-dimensional space being just the top of an iceberg of possibilities it opened.
It also warned about a very dangerous Dark Forest player - a civilisation that defeated the first one and devoured countless of galaxies by sucking out all matter, atom by atom, until only void was left. Their invasion began with them opening large rifts from the region of space from which they originate, named "Bootes Void" by Humanity. At first they'd simply try to connect given galaxy with a network of interstellar rifts just like the ones from Bootes Void, but smaller, linking only nearby stars, wiping any civilisation they come across. In case of more severe resistance, they'd send their proper battle fleets to mop up more advanced enemies. Once everything was prepared, the final stage was to suck every particle back into Bootes Void, fueling the ever-hungry war machine so that their civilisation would continue to expand while wiping any potential threats along the way. However, even they had a stronger foe they feared. "We know we told you about Dark Forest and by now, unless you've been extremely lucky, you know it's true. But the enemy of this fearful enemy is your friend. You'll learn everything when the time comes. For now, hold tight, little ones." - spoke the final summary of this part of the monolith's data.
Revealed information puzzled and divided Groaxians, and it was probably the biggest disagreement since the solar watch Conglomerate was formed. First of all, Humanity obviously talked about a threat from a super advanced civilisation and described its methods of conquest, bundled together with endless reports from wars Humanity fought against them. That alone was coherent and understandable. So was them fearing even more powerful race. But at the same time the more powerful one supposedly being a "friend" did not make sense in the context of Dark Forest Theory at all. However, there was also the case of the First Civilisation, which kept searching for workarounds allowing to not apply the Dark Forest ruleset. Maybe they failed and were wiped out as a consequence of their failure, but there must have been more to that - otherwise Humanity wouldn't be dedicated to tell so much about them.
Another important aspect mentioned was the physics of higher dimensions. It seemed to be directly linked to interstellar rifts and Curvature Propulsion System, but similarly to previous experiences with these phenomena, these theories did not appear to be correct. A previously omitted piece of information even mentioned Qi being part of one of the human interstellar networks and even gave away rift coordinates in Qi, but nothing particularly special was found there, no traces of these passages to different solar systems. As more about Humanity was being discovered, the topic became more irritating, causing scientists to suffer from not being able to find any good explanation for observed reality versus theories about higher dimensions and superluminal travel shared by Humanity.
-
EXPEDITION OF INSANITY
3381-3398 AM hibernation cycles
Since last exploration mission visited three systems and in every single of them there was alien presence discovered, with having all the closest stars mapped in detail, Conglomerate agreed that in spite of Dark Forest Theory Groaxian existence in Qi and Mimung is more threatened than most pessmistic predictions from before the mission claimed. Hence the next mission launched briefly before hibernating in 3381th cycle was of a different character. It was no longer supposed to find new colonies to expand. It was supposed to find a new home to evacuate, with the project now given higher priority and treated more seriously than just one of the possible direction of space programs.
First candidate was Tizona, a G-class sun well over 11 light hibernation cycles from Genesis. Astronomical data gathered mentioned a numerous possibly life-bearning planets, none of which was Groaxian-suitable, but even oxygen-based life was something worth of inspecting, even if only for the sake of checking whether a Dark Forest player isn't hiding there. After a long-short journey, depending who you ask, explorers straightened the space right in front another alien sun, dropping from relativistic cruise.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/843628286633705483/unknown.png)
What was seen surpassed even the wildest expectations. A total of four oxygen-based worlds, even though two of them contained only traces of it, it was still an impressive discovery. Tizona II even matched perfectly the biological data about Umbara, a terrifying secret to uncover. This made most of the explorers anxious and they wanted to get the hell out of the system and continue their search for a new home elsewhere, preferably in a system that didn't contain potential important colony or even homeworld of another civilisation, but the leadership dismissed all these requests, argumenting that even if it really is the heart of darkness, it must be confirmed before filing a report for the Conglomerate. Also the officers were more interested in Tizona V, since apart from oxygen-based atmosphere, higher pressure and less ice sheets, it looked like an answer to "what if Genesis was an oxygen-based world" question.
Before any of the unique planets could have been explored, alarms flashed simultaneously onboard all Baernoloths. Umbaras. A lot of Umbaras closing in way too fast. A few nervous orders later Curvature Drives started slowly manipulating space around vulnerable starships, but gaining speed took too long compared to the unforgiving cruise speed of enemies. First shots have been fired when Groaxians reached an effective speed of only 0,009 c. Too slow to dodge, too slow to run away. But the armor held the greeting fire of kinetic weapons. Praising engineers for their decision to reinforce explorers' hulls, Groaxian fleet picked up pace and soon speeded past the sun approaching the speed of light and watching in awe as it turned from white-yellow to blood-red while the starfield visible from the bridge shifted towards blue and purple.
Sk�fnung was a next stop. This time the ternary system seemed to be dead, with none of the planets having an atmosphere with the exceptions of gas giants (at a price of not having a surface), but Umbaras were there, too. Not all planets have even been properly registered before everything changed to red-blue palette and Groaxians jumped both in space and time at once, this time not giving the enemy chance to fire. Morale dropped severely. Umbaras were everywhere, no matter the star chosen. Groaxians were indeed surrounded. Onboard doctors expressed pain and fear when they noticed first cases of Dark Forest Disease, a "space disease" for the first time observed affecting non-military ships. One of the ships participating in the expedition has been especially affected - its crew even started a mutiny, demanding an immediate return to Qi. Nobody wanted to even hear about visiting yet another, obviously dangerous, star. Fortuantely it didn't last long, though - disgusted with what they become, crewmembers quickly returned to their posts. Nobody wanted to fight, afraid of what was happening to them. It felt so unnatural.
Eventually the final destination has been reached: Shamshir e Zomorrodnegar. Another three suns, close enough to still influence each other with their gravity, another set of dead space rocks. And nobody was even surprised that alien ships were there, too. However, this time it was not an Umbara fleet. It was the other one. Dissapointed and worn out, but still holding onto tiny glimpse of hope, Groaxians broadcasted their, by now, standard "greeting message". For quite some time they got no reply.
But this time something was different. An astronomer responsible for spectral analysis of celestial bodies undergoing the process of classification noticed the outputs from the scanners looked odd and suspicious. Soon it became obvious that they represent a being of higher intelligence compared to what cold and dead planets could ever emit. They formed strange, almost hypnotising patterns. After all these brave Groaxians have been through, for the first time since all the solar watches spent on duty, a glimpse of hope shined bright upon them. The feeling was powerful and soothing, cooling down all these wrenched minds. Nobody could yet understand what the message was supposed to mean, but yet again, no shots have been fired and restless explorers were now witnessing the first time in history someone has heard Groaxian cry of despair and did not respond with hostility. The more optimistic ones even dared to claim the whole Dark Forest Theory a hoax, pointing out the entire civilisation was just unlucky to find itself surrounded by an enemy, but the whole universe not being always like that, not at all, with peaceful communication being a possibility.
But all the celebration has been cut short. The same astronomer that first noticed the incoming message noticed something else. Most of the content was obviously an alien language, but one thing was universal. Hidden between trance-causing patterns was a set of coordinates. Soulgrain-based mainframes did not have much trouble matching marked star with existing databases, doing their job quickly. Too quickly, even for their astounding processing power.
The coordinates pointed at Qi.
-
OPERATION QISET
3386 AM hibernation cycle
Everyone on Genesis and Yatune awaited the return of explorers, but it happening after five hibernation cycles after their departure was at least strange given their closest target was over eleven light hibernation cycles away. And on top of that them returning with more ships than they left with. It didn't take too long to identify what emerged from suddenly warping space. Umbaras arrived once again, more numerous than ever. And with the experienced crew retired, it was now up to a new generation to defend Qi from yet another invasion.
Still not fully recovered after hibernation, filled with fear and clear orders, the new crew on the old ships accelerated away from Genesis, flying towards their destiny. Standard tactics followed: intercept enemies, trap them in gravitational well, circle around them while firing everything that can be fired until no Umbara is left alive. First part of the plan worked as expected: gravitational disturbance threw enemies slightly off-course and Groaxians completed their first run around their fleet, swarming them with magnet-accelerated metallic slugs piercing deep inside their armors:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/843983712915423242/battle1.PNG)
Gravitational waves kept splashing over enemy hulls and fighting Groaxians almost heard the sound of stretched metal in their minds, sensing an easy yet, as always, mentally-expensive victory, but the battle they thought was about to end, was only picking up pace. Apart of the rest of their ships that haven't joined the fight yet heading towards Genesis and Yatune simultaneously, something more unexpected happened. Out of the blue, space around Conglomerate Defense Fleet undulated and rippled, putting an intense strain on every ship as a huge Umbara reinforcements arrived in the system right on top of the defenders. They warped in so close for a brief moment some bright dots marking their movement could've been watched with a naked eye as they dropped from relativistic speeds. Unwillingly utilising this sudden change of local space geometry, Groaxian starships have been sent spinning in random directions, abandoning previously maintained formation. Mass hysteria erupted on boards, fortunately with enough cool-minded individuals to run diagnostic checks and recalculate thrust and engine power requirements to get out of this unfavourable situation.
But the true horror was yet to happen. Contributing to the damage from extreme G-force artificial gravity fields barely managed to offset, thanks to which all the Groaxians haven't been turned into mashed flesh, enemy opened fire with a previously unknown weapon type. Its effects were terrifying: nobody could see a shot, nobody could hear the shot impacting across the hull, nobody knew anything when suddenly head-sized holes appeared all over one of Lensia-class destroyers. Every single one of them looked as if an invisible missile punched right through the armor and had still enough kinetic energy to pierce its way out of the ship. Those unlucky enough to find themselves on their trajectory had large parts of their internal organs crushed and blown out of their bodies a moment before being thrown at the nearest wall. From the ouside the ship began disappearing in a purple cloud expressing terror and suffering while Groaxians inside struggled with communication as all their speaking gasses were escaping together with the air into space. All this lasted a few blinks of an eye until the entire ship fell apart, but not with a bang, but rather with cold metal cracking under the gravity and invisible fire.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/843990133862039563/battle4.PNG)
Officers carried on their orders, there was no time to cry and no time to run away as the heart of Groaxian civilisation was at stake. Remaining Syzygies, controlled by the fleet admiral from the board of last surviving Lensia destroyer, all pushed outside the leftovers from Curvature Propulsion usage and regrouped into a wide, but solid formation, ready to continue blowing Umbaras out of the void. Ironically, not having fully shaken off the numbness from hibernation helped maintain the order among survivors, because they were still not fully aware of what just happened. Under clear command Groaxians still stood a chance, having gained a bit of a distance from enemies and preparing to respond with fire.
But the enemy was faster and their new weapons, whatever they were, kept on firing. A new wave of panic exploded when a supernova fused in place where just a moment ago last surviving destroyer was supposed to exist. One unlucky hit in the reactor was all it took. Having lost central leadership, Conglomerate Defense Fleet lost its recently recovered momentum. But little did the remaining crews know at that time that the admiral survived the blast. Maintaining the speed of the now-gone spaceship, he kept on drifting in space, sending a distress signal similarily to the few other survivors. And that signal has been received. A young, ambitious officer on the closest Syzygy took almost no time figuring out the entire battle depends on whether the leadership can be restored. But picking up a Groaxian-sized object flying at a space-tier velocity while under Umbara fire was hard to even say, let alone actually do. At least thanks to the signal cybersoul mainframes were able to display predicted flight of the target. They were able to prepare instructions saying which engine to fire and when to close in enough to reach the admiral and match the speed to prevent overshooting, but the key issue lied in the fact that even slight error in calculations could have disastrous consequences. Even an error so small it was placed within the error range specified by cybersoul readers responsible for this design.
Having no better option, that one Syzygy broke the formation and set for a rescue mission while the rest of the fleet was expected to accelerate as much as possible towards the enemy to cover the critically important ship. The only problem remaining was that the engines weren't powerful enough to gain speed as quickly as needed and proposed experimental usage of Curvature Propulsion was rejected as warping space right in the current position could likely kill admiral and other survivors drifting outside of the relative safety of a spaceship. Not being able to pick up pace in time, the plan failed and first invisible shots dented through the hull of a few Syzygies, including the rescue one. While not enough to outright destroy it, it was enough to slightly affect the trajectory and this tiny influence was what caused the ship to miss the survivors. Turning away was not an option because the fire went on so the manoeuvre requiring the ship to come full stop for a moment was out of the question. Rest of the fleet couldn't perform the rescue either, because their engines have been fired for a while already, giving them too much of a velocity to turn away before closing in to the enemy and retaliating.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/843997393850597386/battle5.PNG)
New plan assumed main fleet firing at the enemy until it stops shooting at "rescuing Syzygy" and as such gives it a chance to turn around and attempt admiral pickup once again, but suddenly every ship received an unexpected message from the latter. Turned out in the meantime he redirected additional power from his space suit to the emergency communication endpoint, cutting on life support but allowing extensive communication with the rest of the fleet. All the officers assumed he was in charge again, having their minds cooled down a bit. All Syzygies maintained formation and flew over the enemy at insane speed, firing as they passed their ships. In the meantime it was determined that the new gun of the Umbaras excelled at precise strikes, so continuing to fly in one coherent formation was no longer an option. According to the new tactics, all ships were supposed to turn away and face the enemy once again, but start decelerating and accelerating at different intervals to break from the formation and each crew had to approach their foes at slightly different angle. The plan was executed flawlessly and soon surviving Groaxians looked around their enemies like a swarm of Daelmis flying over Thoania, searching for prey. The amount of hits scored by Umbara spacecraft dropped significantly while they ineffectively tried to focus on the most threatening target, which changed every Groaxian turnaround. No Syzygy has been lost till the end of a firefight.
However, Conglomerate Defense Fleet couldn't be everywhere. When it caught up to the enemies approaching Yatune, armies of Umbara had already been landing all over several key cities on the planet.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/844001602335670292/battle8.PNG)
But this time Qusmont (and every other city) was prepared. Arrays of underground connections between rebuilt section of Humanity's legacy were filled with outposts ready to suddenly start firing from the most unexpected spot. Rebuilt, and with even expanded infrastructure for more Groaxian comfort, skygazers shined brightly in the blue skies of Yatune, garrisoning several squads of Conglomerate Guard each and mobile barricades positioned around them. Habitats hosting most of the planetary population also came with upgraded walls, meant to protect not only from toxic environment, but also from someone intentionally attempting to destroy them. First Umbaras landed only to perish in a concentrated plasma fire from multiple directions. Their blood splattered all over the grass as they died one by one, struggling to locate Groaxian fireteams. Cannoniers fired from the top levels of skygazers, shaking the ground all around landing pods. But the thing is, they kept on landing. More troops poured from them, too many to kill all before giving them a chance to return fire. The bold move to enclose landing spots with mobile barricades failed as the mental cooling mobile defense platforms were too slow to reach all the places in time. In a few instances they still managed to occupy nearby hills, burning invaders with heavy laser fire.
Just like in the battle taking place well above Yatune's atmosphere before the invasion, what looked like a relatively easy task got massively complicated when Umbaras deployed something yet unseen: something that looked like a miniaturized version of their ships, except it did not fly, but could walk or glide on the ground instead. And it came equipped with guns. Lots of guns. Big guns.
First fusion missile missed the target, but the second one exploded right on top of one of the skygazers, while the third cut it in half, making the entire tall building collapse, burying every soldier fighting there together with itself. Pulse laser fire kept sweeping across nearby infrastructure, blowing up building after building. Catched by surprise, but combat-ready and willing to defend Yatune at all cost, Conglomerate Guards briefly regrouped across all fronts and focused fire on the new enemies. Some of the barricades set near landing spots could not oppose the sheer firepower of these metallic beasts, with few surviving vehicles escaping at full speed, but some survived for long enough to get Guardian fireteams to move into place to support their efforts against machine-reinforced Umbaras. A bunch of others abandoned their formations and started circling around enemies, utilising nearby hills and forests as cover, discovering their "miniature spaceships" were less maneouverable, but could glide faster than defense platforms could drive. This information has proven crucial in for one of the barricades, because by the time Umbaras attempted to glide over it, hammering every Groaxian involved in the ground, the barricade was no longer a barricade one could run over, having transformed into an irregular groups of vehicles circling around and firing away. On top of that each individual enemy vehicle was not that sturdy as it appeared, making it a hard-hitter, but also rather easy to blow up with concentrated laser or kinetic artillery fire.
It appeared that the Conglomerate Guard had this intense battle under control, but all changed when an entire squadron of enemy combat vehicles gathered at the outskirts of Praafshire and started gliding towards the habitats while firing their fusion missiles at one arbitrary spot in the structural shell. Additional squads were redirected to pick them all off before they could cause any significant damage to the city, but it was too late. A total of twenty tanks smashed against the already heavily damaged wall, ripping an enormous hole through it. Concentration of methane in that district started dwindling while the air slowly filled with oxygen. Barricade quickly erected as an inside defense line did not held for long, either, being completely overrun. Through the opening Umbara infantry started pouring like liquid water out of Groaxian awakening from hibernation, bringing death and destruction. Conglomerate Guard Grand Master responsible for Yatune's defense hesitated when asked by officers about redirecting some of the forces to Praafshire, afraid this will give Umbaras an upper hand on the other fronts, too. But before the emerging discussion ended, first reports of civilian casualties and oxygen finding its way to the air filtering systems came in, which quickly ended the debate with approval of sending a contingent of best Guards from Qusmont to help stabilise the frontline and push the enemy back.
Main focus was obviously to destroy the machines gliding through the city and its inhabitants. Enough laser and kinetic fire would do the job, but the time required to bring them all down was unacceptable. A faster solution was needed if Praafshire was to see another solar watch. And to achieve that officers commanding the elite forces decided to utilise the properties of methane. Having air circulation systems already switched off to prevent the spread of oxygen, soldiers were able to collect enough methane and pump it all into the section which seemed to be the next target of the enemy. Its internal walls survived first few fusion missiles, but to the distress of fighting Groaxians, they were less durable than initially calculated. If the enemy would succeed at shooting them down before coming close, then all the methane gathered would explode preemptively without taking the enemies out. There was no choice and no time to waste. The bravest among the defenders received an order to shift the enemy's focus at themselves. Everyone understood what that meant. But an order was an order. The chosen ones were chosen for a good reason, after all. Before fusion missiles killed most of them, many succeeded at entering combat trance and they took out many Umbara's foot troops in a brutal plasma firefight. And these few missiles that were fired at them and not at the trap's wall was all it took to make the crucial difference. Umbaras glided through it with full force, opening fire at next sections of the city. A wall of flames erupted all around them, reinforced by crossfire from supporting Groaxian units. Umbara offensive broke down and surviving Conglomerate Guardians drove their opponents well outside Praafshire's perimeter.
Loss of the battle of Praafshire was a beginning of an end for the second Yatune invasion. Groaxians mounted a powerful counterattack at the weakened enemy positions, splitting their frontiline in two, which reasulted in total disaster and breakdown of Umbara formations. Rest of the fronts soon followed. Umbaras still weren't able to take control over Yatune. In the meantime, high above the skies, out there in interplanetary space, Syzygies destroyed the invasion fleet heading towards Genesis before it could unload its army. All that was left was the last squadron of enemies, so far staying far in the outskirts of the system.
Encouraged by the battle turning in their favour, space warriors tasked with protecting the civilisation from Dark Forest approached the few remaining ships burning every last atom of excess fuel to gain as much speed as possible before the battle would begin. This was to compensate for the fact that with the destruction of all Lensias, the option to gain higher relative velocity as a result of slowing enemies down with precise gravitational strikes no longer existed. Encountered ships were also armed with the scary invisible weapon, but there were simply too few of them to cause any significant damage. Trying to decrease relative velocity, Umbaras attempted to fly away from Syzygies, but Conglomerate Defense Fleet was able to pick them off one by one without much problems while maintaining steady course behind them.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/844021282152644658/battle6.PNG)
A short firefight later Syzygies emerged victorious with only a few additional holes in their armors. Qi was about to set behind main Conglomerate HQ. Despite victory and total annihilation of the enemy, nobody at the HQ was in a mood for even taking a short break despite staying restless for the past few solar watches. And it was precisely thanks to the "total annihilation" part. "What a price have we paid in this battle" and "what have we become" were the two questions nobody had to ask out loud yet probably everyone would still think about at the same time even if not for the Transcedent Speech.
-
A surprisingly large roster of enemy soldiers survived the recent Qi invasion. Recovered supplies of gas were also enough to last the prisoners for a good while. However, no methods used to try to make them talk worked. Maybe extreme tortures would, but none of the Guards working with them wanted to use excessive violence against currently harmless beings. That'd be way too much. Having no other options left, the Conglomerate approved the experiment with using Transcendent Speech to try to break directly into their mind. As learnt from the monolith, Humanity was often using exactly that approach and it worked well except those cases when it did not work but that's only because human brains had weaker potential for wielding this power so sometimes they were unable to overcome the mental strength of their enemies and as a result failed to get anything useful from their interrogations.
Navigating the mind of an Umbara resembled navigating a labirynth and nobody was too surprised by this. Interiors of their ships, their cities... It was all a more or less direct projection of their vision and mentality onto reality, which was exactly the case for Groaxians as well. Researchers working on extracting data from the transcendent plane of a monolith had similar observations on the correlation between human designs and thought patterns. But as the experiments went on, soon it was noted how this seemingly chaotic labirynth had its repetitive parts, except with each iteration they were changed slightly so every single instance was always unique, even if expressing a similar thought. Scientists directly cooperating with soulseekers eventually mapped most of the observed iterations into direct thoughts.
An interesting bits of Umbara history could be pieced together from all this. They appeared extremely well-suited to Dark Forest. Their homeworld was named Zenn-La for a reason. Two species acquired sentience there in a similar period of time. Zenn lived deep in the oceans while La built their villages across vast canyons and mountain ranges. But long before either La could build first submarines and reach Zenn domain or Zenn could build land vessels to reach the land, an ice age started that froze all the oceans, cementing the separation of the two species. When the ice thawed, both civilisations were already rather advanced. La developed faster, but it was Zenn who conquered the air for the first time since it required only some tweaks to their land ships they needed to survive above the water. First contact with the two species ended up with La sea hunters destroying Zenn expedition thinking they'd just hunted down another leviathan, but upon inspecting their prey they realised something wasn't right with it. They discovered it wasn't part of native fauna. That was the first case Umbara encountered the proof of a concept of an alien life, something inteliigent besides them. La were afraid that Zenn were hostile and even if they weren't, they surely would be after what was done. Meanwhile Zenn got terrified of land and everything on it.
A chain of suspicion, a term suspiciously familiar to Groaxians already, began. War between land and sea was inevitable. As conflict went on, both sides struggled to deal a final killing blow to the other one, living in constant fear. Eventually it just happened that both sides ended up poisoning each other. La started dumping all kinds of toxins they could came up with into the oceans, meanwhile Zenn kept releasing gasses trapped inside deep sea flora into the air. The result was sadly predictable, with the entire ecosystem of the planet destabilised. Umbara Commune was initially a La's initiative formed in ordet to escape the degrading homeworld. All surviving Zenn were supposed to be left behind on the dying planet. And according to what questioned Umbaras believed, that was precisely the case.
It all would make sense, however there was one crucial problem with this story. According to the knowledge among captured enemies, the biology of Zenn oddly resembled the one of the seven-legged, slim aliens which bodies have been recovered from one of Umbara wrecks in the past. Even evolutionary emulators confirmed chances of it being a coincidence were pretty much non-existent. Conglomerate decided to hold on with trying to communicate this to Umbaras and seeing how they react for some time, too surprised to make the decision immediately. It was all too weird and complicated.
One of the remaining questions was obviously the one about the gas, inhalation room and "mark of time". But it turned out Umbaras did not actually know much about the origin of the gas themselves. As their voyage in search for a new home lasted for eons (they did not have the technology to warp space available back in the solar watch they had to move out of their homeworld), in one of the systems they encountered a large pile of debris, remnants of once mighty fleet. Among the wrecks a huge stockpile of this substance has been found. Xenobiologists determined it enchanced combat capabilities hence it was adapted among soldiers. But as soon as the first ones dropped dead from inhaling it, the Comitee has strictly forbidden its usage. But the ban has been revoked as soon as genetic engineers found a way to alter Umbara bodies to give them an additional breathing apparatus, making gas inhalation not interrupt normal breathing. The gas was still killing soldiers using it, but this time slowly. It was considered a price each soldier had to pay, especially given they quickly became addicted to it, making cutting its supply short a death sentence for an affected individual either way. None of the interrogated beings had an idea how the production process looked like, claiming it was a secret kept by their government and the ones directly working in the industry responsible for delivering its next batch in time.
The slow deteriorating of gas-inhaling Umbara troops quickly became a symbol of famous "mark of time", with each inhalation representing a "cycle" that was similar because inhalation was the same every time, but at the same time different because with each breath the gas clogged up the breathing apparatus it was using to reach the brain more and more, technically making a single cycle not repeat itself ever again in the same way. The powder found during autopsies was the "mark of time" itself. However, this all was just a mere metaphor, a symbol, nothing of any importance in itself.
The truth, the real meaning, was much more sinister.
-
STATE OF EXISTENCE
3398 AM hibernation cycle
Almost twelve hibernation cycles after the battle of Qi and briefly after return of the last interstellar expedition, Conglomerate decided to hold the biggest conference and discussion pannel up to date. With all three Lensias ever built destroyed and Conglomerate Guard being an underwhelming force for what Umbara could currently field, a total overhaul of military forces was a pending issue. But the technicalities of army composition were left for the end as there were many more important things to talk about, namely the future of Groaxian race and the safety of Qi system in spite of the system coordinates likely revealed to Dark Forest Lords. For these past twelve hibernation cycles the support for more aggressive military operations kept growing. For now the army lacked the strength to do anything more than guard Qi and occassionally send ships on patrol missions to Mimung, but with the upgrade in schedule (or at least schedule for upgrade in schedule) this was expected to change so any issues were best to be resolved immediately. Because if the picture of society at large would shift, that would be the end of Groaxian civilisation, experts claimed. What would be left would survive Dark Forest, but it would hardly resemble and characteristic and crucial traits of well-balanced, peaceful beings thriving in their niche. Such surges of militarism were nothing new and it always happened either as a reaction to a recent war or caused one, but it was the first time such spike threatened the fabric of society in the long run, because according to Dark Forest Theory war not only never changes, but also never ends.
Already in the first solar watch the debate was held it was pointed out that military-support movements weren't unnatural at all. They occured rarely, but if they were to not exist at all it'd be equally unnatural as too many of them rising at once. Not to mention that in the second case every single Groaxian would have already been wiped out by Umbara at this point. The problem with current war-mongering spirits in fact wasn't about these attitudes at all, but rather about the threat of them being here to stay forever, just like Dark Forest was supposed to exist forever. However, if such response was to be treated as of natural origin, then this raised a concern about an existential threat of Groaxians changed forever and on top of then it being natural to them. This thought process might as well be what every civilisation was to went through when expanding among the stars, sooner or later facing a total transformation and overhaul of values to comply with the basic survival instinct. It was a grim concept, every race out there so unique and vastly different from one another in every aspect possible yet all the same, all equally ruthless when facing each other, with no place for anything different.
An important piece of these theories were the two currently populated bodies outside of Genesis. Due to safety concerns, felt in unique ways by both populations since Yatune was far more secure with larger military presence and COnglomerate Defense Fleet being able to respond quickly, but at the same time unlike Mimung IV 8th moon it was already invaded twice, with both battles ending up with civilian casualties, majority of "proactive militarism" enthusiasts lived there, with Genesis still being fairly cool if uncertain about the future. Distance between Genesis and Yatune, even during periods where tthe two planets were as far away from each other, allowed for decent communication so there weren't that many issues to be had with the planet, especially since they already contributed to providing technologies that have proven vital on the battlefield when Qi's fate was at stake. Mimung, on the other hand... With each message requiring several hibernation cycles to reach the other end and the second time that to receive a reply... Some Groaxians, even the highest-ranked Conglomerate members, were afraid of what was going on there between each status update. And status update wasn't that much, after all, with patrols being the only reliable source of detailed reports, but these happened even rarer than the travel time between these stars allowed. Most tried to shake those dark thoughts off, but it the seed of suspicion had already been seeded. Sure, Humanity managed its vast interstellar empire without trouble, but they travelled between stars at multiple times the speed of light and at some point even used soulgrain mechanics phenomena to establish permanent message channels that allowed them to talk between every point in space they wanted in realtime. But since the matter was too heavy for everyone, the discussion about it was deemed to be impossible and it had to be postponed.
Another problem was the supposed Qi coordinates broadcast. The thing was, nobody was even sure whether it was a broadcast or just a warning aka "look we know your homeworld position, do (or don't do) something or else" or something completely different. Safety protocols demanded it to be treated as a broadcast until proven otherwise, though. Since the aliens interfering with spectral analysis as a mean to communicate wasn't the most clear way to talk, xenoliguistic teams struggled to make any progress at all, stating it's much harder to move forward than in case of Umbara. As such, Conglomerate tried to review some ideas about emergency behaviour during a Dark Forest Strike, but no satisfying results were achieved. From the human history it was already known that one particular way to destroy a star system was to target a near-lightspeed missile at the local sun, causing it to go supernova. To defend against that kind of a threat with the current technology level would be impossible. Technically the rising popularity of fusion reactors could soon give an alternative if Qi was to suddenly disappear, but to get to that stage one would first require to survive the solar blast. While according to physics research of Humanity, stars destroyed by such missiles didn't technically go off as violently as natural supernova would, giving much more optimistic results than a few dozens light hibernation cycles away as the closest safe distance, no planet could ever surive this. A proposed solution was to build a massive space stations far, far away from Qi that could host the population in case of such event, but the infrastructure and logistics to make it happen at a time was better allocated for pushing Mimung colonisation futher. But then the topic of growing mistrust between first interstellar colony resurfaced again.
For the time being Mimung was far too weak to do anything, though, and it required establishing a permanent military presence just like Qi if it was to surive the enemy onslaught which was hoped to alleviate the suspicion problem, but first enough forces were to be created. Namely, Conglomerate started explaining their new plan for future space fleet with the radical claim that every Groaxian serving in the fleet as well as the ships themselves should resemble the forces of Humanity. This was not an easy decision to be made and at first sounded like willingly giving up on everything that was worth preservation, but the plan was much more elaborate than that. Humans were naturally adapted to warfare meanwhile Dark Forest Disease was a serious threat to the health of everyone involved in fighting off cosmic dangers. Conglomerate aimed to make the distinction clear. It released a special declaration that claimed:
We are the Groaxians,
Dark Forest is against our nature and is the ultimate threat. Not only for our survival, but also for everything we value. It was true even for Humanity. As we all know from their history discovered so far, despite being much fiercer warriors, most among their species still could not bear the weight of a Dark Forest Theory and they struggled to develop agreement on how to approach the miracle of sentient life. But data gathered so far is ruthless - those who fight to protect us are all doomed to fall out of balance sooner or later. Thanks to the Transcendent speech we were able to work with them and achieve more promising results, but we are far from ideal. We know some of us are different. This has alwasy been the case. And since some of us are indeed different, we need to put it into good use. Our nature is endangered, so as a whole we shall designate those who will adapt to a human way of thinking to handle space combat better and they will be transparent with this so that others will be able to distance themselves from the cruelty of interstellar war and as such our civilisation will continue to grow.
And so the Declaration of Human Rights came into effect. It was a desperate attempt at restoring the fragile and thrown-out yet perfect balance, but an attempt showing a huge promise despite its simplicity. One critique was probably that it would add even more burden for the void combatants to carry as their separation from the rest of society now became officially defined, reinforcing it further. But everyone willingly signing up for the service either knew the price or came from a militaristic faction anyways and the need for conscripts surprisingly did not arise (which was in fact worrying in itself, even though it spared many tough choices to be made at Conglomerate level). At the same time more about the future of space forces could have been said, too. Studies on the Lensias' damage profile provided physicists with an insight on the new weapon used by Umbara. To much surprise, this "superweapon" was nothing but a simple particle accelerator, albeit of a more complicated design. Each accelerator instead of being a circuit, it was an open-ended barrel that fired the particles away once accelerated to near-light speed. Each gun must have consisted of several barrels densely placed that created a several concentrated beams, making for one "superbeam", capable of punching holes exactly like it did in case of Lensias. Moreover, depending on the range it could be configured so that some particles would collide with each other roughly in place of impact against enemy ship, adding to the mayhem. Despite lacking even a single undamaged piece, engineers working with particle accelerators on a daily basis didn't have much trouble making this hypothetical design appear in reality. These particle weapons were supposed to be mounted on more powerful ships, complimenting the well-established gravitational weapons currently in use. A proposition on using long-wavelength lasers have also been made, but while it was a decent idea for Conglomerate Guard, it was still too weak of a weapon to handle vast distances during space battles.
-
THE CRACK
3398-3402 AM hibernation cycles
Guards and soulseekers working with alive Umbaras have manged to pull one more thing out of them: the mention of a Maigh Eo binary system. It was believed to not have any planets orbiting either one of the stars which was confirmed by the information obtained. Just two stars and nothing else to be there. Yet for whatever reason it was an important system for the aliens Groaxians dealt with. Something was there, even though at the same time evidence spoke there was nothing there. Without much reason to continue discussing a moot point, an expedition had to be sent to investigate the system.
It was supposed to be a lenghty journey with almost 21 light hibernation cycles to be crossed each way, so only two ships have been sent as to not put too much strain on other exploration projects. However, the ships have returned only after a bit more than one hibernation cycle has passed on Genesis. Conglomerate was baffled as to what has caused the mission to turn back arriving nowhere near their destination. The most popular opinion was that it was a result of a critical Curvature Propulsion System failure that was just barely fixed to allow them to come back home for neccessary repairs while continuing such a lenghty trip being too much of a risk of them never returning. The only problem left to resolve was that everyone on board of these two ships has claimed that they've been to the system they were supposed to visit and both crews were surprised as to what the fuss was about, they arrived there, kept flying around and scanning the void only to find nothing at all and went back home. They even showed data gathered and pictures made. All were equally shocked when they were told that only one hibernation cycle has passed on Genesis while they were gone.
A different fleet has been sent to Maigh Eo to clarify this mess, but it also returned after spending only a tiny bit over one hibernation cycle out in deep space. Some specialists wondered whether it was an elaborate weapon of some sort, something that intercepted every ship sent to the system roughly half a light hibernation cycle away from Qi and attacked the crews based on Transcendent Speech so that they were firmly believing they arrived at their destination. It would act as a way to keep the enemies out of it, with convincing others there was nothing there being more effective long-term than just destroying the ships, the latter probably reserved only for cases where a hypothetical civilisation would send unmanned vessels and the like. Although even then filling them with fake data might be possible as well.
With no explanation at hand, and all the data and testimonies reviewed carefully multiple times, a random physicist poked at the detailed logs from the Curvature Drives. At first it seemed all normal, with effective speed being displayed as c save for relativistic acceleration and deceleration as expected and space warp parameters fitting within the norm. Nevertheless, the curious scientist used soulgrain-based mainframe to quickly filter through all the entires, all of them, leaving not a single one uninspected. And the results were rather interesting: effective speed remained constant through the entire journey save for some marginal errors displaying it as slightly lower and sometimes even slightly higher than the speed of light which was something to be expected, but at certain point, at a distance roughly half a light hibernation cycle from Genesis, the curvature parameters have been thrown way off the charts, as if space along that path was packed more densely or something.
To check this out, the next expedition has been sent directly to the coordinates at which the phenomena started to be recorded. Relativistic navigation obviously wasn't nowhere near precise enough to land directly at a desired spot, but it was already good enough to get the crew roughly where it needed to be, allowing for some adjustments while in conventional flight. The experiment was supposed to have the chosen starships warming up their Curvature Propulsion slowly, paying attention to every oddity and monitoring all parameters closely. The results surpsied everyone on board. Warp parameters were off the charts again, but also according to the theoretical model, the ships were supposed to be travelling at only 0,1c when the effective speed was displayed as already having reached c. Experiment participants pushed their Curvature Drives up to full power and then came to a full stop and turned back to the point where the experiment started to gather data from a small probe left there before departure. According to its recordings, the experiment was much shorter than it ought to be, yet nothing specific has been detected. There was only last one thing to check. Captain of the starship performing the task has manually overriden the relativistic speed meter to allow it to display any value, basically removing the light speed limit hardcoded into it to avoid more severe errors, for example differentiating the measure and the actual speed by too much which could have fatal consequences when trying to align with the target and disengage the propulsion at the right moment. When the experiment was repeated, the value displayed the effective speed of roughly 894,2158935 c during the moment the ship travelled the fastest. Just enough to get to Maigh Eo and back in only one hibernation cycle, including almost half a light hibernation cycle spent cruising each way at the speed of light.
It was a breakthrough nobody expected. First Groaxian starships have suddenly reached superluminal effective velocities for no apparent reason. But it only worked en route to Maigh Eo. Rest of space maintained its brutal speed limit. What were the reasons for same starships being or not being able to cross the speed of light at different places, nobody understood. At least it was clear why Umbara thought this system was important, though. The famous experiment was followed by a stream of many more. All of a sudden, along discovered "superluminal highway" physicists were able to confirm everything Humanity has told Groaxians about the arcana of interstellar travel and the fabric of space. Soulgrain entanglement could have been used to communicate between Maigh Eo and the start of the highway in realtime. First evidence possibly pointing at the existence of higher planes was also found. With enough of Curvature Drives fired at once to warp space tightly enough, a rift linking the seemingly unimportant system and "point zero" could have been established, cutting the travel time on that part from several solar watches to half a blink of an eye. All in all, Humanity didn't lie. Kind of. Because according to their theories such things should be possible to occur everywhere, not at a random place discovered by pure accident only.
Nobody had an explanation at hand, not even the smartest among already much smarter than Humanity race. Why there was a Crack in a Black Wall, or, from the other side, why there was a Black Wall everywhere else, was beyond anybody. So were the strange gravitational anomalies and lights flashing every now and then along the highway, seen by many Groaxians who have traversed this path already.
-
INTERSTELLAR EXPANSION
3399-3407 AM hibernation cycles
Despite suspicions rising, Conglomerate obviously saw no way but to continue investing into Mimung development. It was somehow relieved to do so when soulseekers came up with a safety guarantee for interstellar colonisation which was in fact a simple statement: if colonies were to grow hostile about their homeworld, that'd mean Groaxians shouldn't colonise other solar systems than Qi. But given the high risk of Qi position being either already known to Dark Forest Lords or likely to be revealed to them in the near future, that'd mean certain doom and the end of civilisation should Dark Forest attack (since if a colony would do something considered "wrong" Groaxians would simply stop any interstellar colonisation program in order to avoid producing more enemies), without even the smallest seed surviving to rebuild. And so colonies growing hostile was nothing but dooming the entire race for extinction.Hence any Mimung act against Genesis contradicted with the basic principle of survival. The only expection was if the colony was to first commit such an act and then flee from the force of the homeworld, carrying the seed of civilisation further and avoiding punishment, but then colonists could simply "pack up and leave somewhere else", achieveing the exact same result except better because no Groaxian warships would've followed their trail. At least not with an obvious intention to open fire. An exception of exception would be if the colony indeed got relocated without informing anyone in Qi, leaving them wondering about a civilisation in an unknown location with who knows what intentions, but then there was a greater than zero probability that Qi forces would have found the colony and destroy it just like Dark Forest expects it, which determined staying right where they've been told to a safety guarantee from the colonists' perspective.
Such surprisingly quick solution to the "Dark Grove Problem", opened a new array of possibilities for millions of Groaxians already living in Mimung while also providing a complementary explanation as to why Dark Forest Theory only talked about interactions between civilisations and not about the issues within the same one. Conglomerate boosted assembly of additional Qives with an extra stream of hull components. To deliver the supplies faster, a few of brand new freighters have been constructed, being the largest starships to ever leave docks in the history of all space programs, overshadowing every other starship with their mighty dimensions and weight:
Noviers class Freighter 100 000 tons 202 Crew 1 149,7 BP TCS 2 000 TH 2 000 EM 0
1000 km/s JR 2-25(C) Armour 1-191 Shields 0-0 HTK 61 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 7 Max Repair 125 MSP
Cargo 70 000 Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 4
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months
Artificial Gravity Field Canteen Curvature Stabiliser Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module
JC101K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 101000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 2
Commercial Internal Fusion Drive EP500,0 (4) Power 2000 Fuel Use 3,95% Signature 500 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 3 900 000 Litres Range 177,6 billion km (2055 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Together with them orbit of Genesis was left by a fleet of similar ships, being mostly the same except better outfitted to handle passenger transport specifically, allowing new construction workers to arrive not later than right after resource deliveries:
Hagaell class Transport 100 000 tons 394 Crew 2 202,5 BP TCS 2 000 TH 2 000 EM 0
1000 km/s JR 2-25(C) Armour 1-191 Shields 0-0 HTK 203 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 13 Max Repair 125 MSP
Troop Capacity 70 000 tons Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 4
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months
Artificial Gravity Field Canteen Curvature Stabiliser Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module
JC101K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 101000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 2
Commercial Internal Fusion Drive EP500,0 (4) Power 2000 Fuel Use 3,95% Signature 500 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 3 460 000 Litres Range 157,6 billion km (1823 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Troop Transport for auto-assignment purposes
Terraforming has progressed quite a bit. Bits of ammonia present in the air have been removed, replaced with first doses of nitrogen injected into the atmosphere. Qive onboard technicians worked solar and cosmic watches to prepare more space mirrors to deflect as much sunlight as possible. Temperature started to drop, first making the water permanently condensed on the surface and a few hibernation cycles later freeze, forming ideal spots for genesian biosphere introduction. Among the first species seeded besides pathogens and other microorganisms were ammi, nimble and sensitive jelly living in the higher parts of genesian atmosphere, making them used to low pressure which currently existed on the surface of eight moon of Mimung IV, hets as an easy food source, able to thrive in conditions far less than optimal and qhaavets, the last of these serving mostly as a probes to check whether the hibernation cycles on the new world have been balanced right - them eating only leftovers of organic matter left by other animals after awakening from hibernation meant they could only thrive if the cycles were rich and diverse enough species-wise.
Another milestone was a successful construction of a first gas giant harvester:
Bhas'uh class Fuel Harvester 30 000 tons 156 Crew 627,8 BP TCS 600 TH 600 EM 0
1000 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 1-86 Shields 0-0 HTK 62 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 13 Max Repair 150 MSP
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months
Fuel Harvester: 8 modules producing 448 000 litres per annum
Artificial Gravity Field Canteen Curvature Stabiliser Flight Navigation System Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module Gas Giant Diving Stabiliser Extreme Pressure Hull Reinforcement Extreme Storm Shield
JC30K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 30000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Commercial Internal Fusion Drive EP600,0 (1) Power 600 Fuel Use 3,61% Signature 600 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 1 591 000 Litres Range 264,5 billion km (3061 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 60 000 litres per hour Complete Refuel 26 hours
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Fuel Harvester for auto-assignment purposes
The hydrogen-rich atmosphere of Mimung IV was the best place to put gas giant fuel shiponing into a test. This would not only help Qi up to a great degree, but also could provide a way for every ship involved in the logistics or protection of said logistics refuel pretty much directly at the colony, easing many aspects of the entire process. As an additional advantage, sturdy hulls made out of new types of alloys that were needed to make the ships able to survive under extreme atmospheric pressure could find an application in a new generation of cybersoul reactive combat suits. Initially the ships were supposed to stay in orbit and wield a swarm of probes going to the gas giant's clouds and back to collect fuel, but that idea was dropped since the probes burned through too much fuel compared to what they collected, making it much more efficient to just have a ship dive directly for the hydrogen. And it boosted another branch of research, after all, even though it wasn't the direction many Groaxians would happily see their civilisation developing. In addition to the harvesters, engineers quickly adjusted some details to build a rooster of ships similar to cargo vessels, but better outfitted to handle fuel transport between Mimung IV Harvesting Array and any place that'd need it:
Kronqrad class Tanker 20 000 tons 94 Crew 472,1 BP TCS 400 TH 800 EM 0
2000 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 1-65 Shields 0-0 HTK 34 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 14 Max Repair 100 MSP
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months
Artificial Gravity Field Canteen Curvature Stabiliser Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Gravitational Signal Filter Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module Short Range Debris Detection Net Speed Sync Correctional Thrusters
JC21K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 21000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive EP400,0 (2) Power 800 Fuel Use 3,95% Signature 400 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 10 321 000 Litres Range 2 349,9 billion km (13599 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 60 000 litres per hour Complete Refuel 172 hours
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Resolving of Qi-Mimung suspicion chain and rapid technological, but also economical and logistical advancements that acccelerated the growth of Mimung population were seen as a good sign, a sign of hope and faith among the dark times. With all the tools and infrastructure used to make the colony outside Qi happen preparing a proper evacuation plan in case of a Dark Forest Strike suddenly became easier to imagine, too. Colonised moon was expected to soon reach a state of somewhat decent habitability given all the incoveniences of early colonisation involved and should begin contributing to the economy of forming interstellar society while requiring less and less deliveries as it plowed thhrough its path to self-sufficiency. As such, it was a good moment to properly name a new Groaxian world rather than keep using the number assigned to it as it was the case with all the other celestial bodies in the system. The moon was named Sodara, after a first tribe to settle down in Thoania Rift back in the ancient solar watches of Genesis, only 34 hibernation cycles after the monolith has fallen from the sky while being the first documented case of Groaxians utilising the monolith's knowledge, in this particular example by using ice axes to quickly and safely move across steep ice sheets found in the region, something no Groaxian had ever thought of before. Gas giant it was orbiting was renamed to Iether, an expression meaning everlasting supply of food which Thoania provided once properly tamed.
A consecutive arrival of good news about Mimung, while cooling down many concerned minds, was not enough for everyone to forgot what was going on. Conglomerate pushed heavily into the research beneficial for space forces, including special courses in deeper understanding of Humanity's values and nature every recruit had to pass to be let anywhere near a warship. The result of this development was a fleet based on two new types of destroyers: one that fired particle beams similar to how Umbara ships did during last space battle and the other being a direct upgrade to Lensia, with modified gravitational weapons compared to its precedessor. Said weapons were far more complex and elaborate than the ones previous line of destroyers came with. They did not simply warp space to create local artificial gravity wells or just send gravitational waves through space like the previous iteration - instead they combined these two types of attack in one, using soulgrain-based algorithms to determine and implement the most devastating output. For example, during one strike these weapons could send a gravitational wave and make space in front of its path denser, cutting the time the wave required to hit its target. Or the time might as well be extended, all depending on the requested timing of attack. A bit more advanced use case would be to warp the space so much they'd basically temporairly "trap" waves travelling through the disturbance, reinforcing local interference shaking enemy ships to increase hull stress.
What was somewhat more important than weapons and technology used, were the names chosen for these two classes of next-gen combat spaceships: they were called exactly like two out of three types of ships on which first serious military space fleet of Humanity was based, fleet that saw a lot of combat with Invaders from Bootes Void and brought many victories for the humans, keeping their systems as secure as possible at a time.
Striker class Destroyer 15 000 tons 549 Crew 3 283,1 BP TCS 300 TH 2 400 EM 0
8000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 8-54 Shields 0-0 HTK 93 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 32 PPV 45
Maint Life 4,89 Years MSP 3 009 AFR 82% IFR 1,1% 1YR 208 5YR 3 119 Max Repair 600 MSP
Captain Control Rating 3 BRG ENG CIC
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Morale Check Required
Artificial Gravity Field AS Advisor Autnomous Piloting System Canteen Combat Simulation System Combat Trance Chamber Curvature Stabiliser Emergency Repair Module Emergency Treatment Section Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Gravitational Signal Filter Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Methane Recycling System Meditation Space Onboard Armory Onboard Hospital Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module
J15000(3-50) Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 15000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Magneto-plasma Drive EP1200.00 (2) Power 2400 Fuel Use 61,62% Signature 1200 Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 889 000 Litres Range 17,3 billion km (25 days at full power)
Particle Beam-9 (5) Range 200 000km TS: 8 000 km/s Power 22-5,5 ROF 20
Beam Fire Control R384-TS8000 (1) Max Range: 384 000 km TS: 8 000 km/s 97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Tokamak Fusion Reactor R28 (1) Total Power Output 27,9 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS5-R1 (1) GPS 16 Range 5,5m km MCR 497,5k km Resolution 1
ECCM-2 (1) ECM 30
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Pike class Destroyer 15 000 tons 574 Crew 3 610,4 BP TCS 300 TH 2 400 EM 0
8000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 6-54 Shields 0-0 HTK 101 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 32 PPV 54
Maint Life 4,78 Years MSP 3 309 AFR 82% IFR 1,1% 1YR 238 5YR 3 573 Max Repair 600 MSP
Captain Control Rating 3 BRG ENG CIC
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Morale Check Required
Artificial Gravity Field AS Advisor Autnomous Piloting System Canteen Combat Simulation System Combat Trance Chamber Curvature Stabiliser Emergency Repair Module Emergency Treatment Section Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Gravitational Signal Filter Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Methane Recycling System Meditation Space Onboard Armory Onboard Hospital Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module
J15000(3-50) Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 15000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Magneto-plasma Drive EP1200.00 (2) Power 2400 Fuel Use 61,62% Signature 1200 Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 888 000 Litres Range 17,3 billion km (25 days at full power)
Phased Curvature Disruption System-18 (3) Range 200 000km TS: 8 000 km/s Power 55-5,5 ROF 50
Beam Fire Control R384-TS8000 (1) Max Range: 384 000 km TS: 8 000 km/s 97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Tokamak Fusion Reactor R17 (1) Total Power Output 17 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS5-R1 (1) GPS 16 Range 5,5m km MCR 497,5k km Resolution 1
ECCM-2 (1) ECM 30
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
All future crewmembers of this new fleet spent solar watches to no end interacting with the monolith via Transcendent Speech, all with the goal of having them assimilate as much human thoughts as possible. Starting from the fact that just like human soldiers, they received a complex training in wielding the power of Transcendent Speech itself, and that for obvious reasons happened even before they got to interact with the monolith for the first time. They learnt not only what it means, but also how it feels to be proud of fighting till the bitter end even if one is afraid of dying. What it means to actively want to participate in battle and to feel combative for prolonged periods of time, how it feels to hate the enemy, how it feels to believe in battle as the only solution available at a time even if one does not want to fight, no matter how illogical it sounds. Being aware that battle is the only solution available at a time despite not wanting to fight was obviously something Groaxians were experiencing before every unavoidable battle, but feeling it was something completely different and so alien. Because to feel something one needed to acknowledge it as a part of own nature and it was not common for Groaxians to naturally grasp the concept of having no choice but to fight and be okay with it in most cases.
An interesting point of this part of military training was presenting the example of Ender and its Amazons Program. It was a never-ending food for thought for soulseekers, too. A warning about the sheer power of Transcendent Speech and what it can do even when used by a species which as a whole is too mentally weak to make effective use of its full potential. And a case study of modifying the nature of a society in relatively short time period at large scale. In some way Groaxian military training resembled this program, too, since its goal was to teach the recruits "the human way" aka change their basic nature to something completely different. Interestingly, even in combat-ready society of Humanity such program was considered to be on the evil side, giving testimony of the better side of their civilisation. Yet at the same time at the end of the solar watch they did sacrifice entire planet only to increase their capability of defending themselves from Invaders while still struggling to preserve what made them humans according to their own philosophy. From some other perspective, teaching about Amazons Program also served as a kind of backdoor to the Groaxian mind. On the one hand it was to teach soldiers how they should think in battle to be more effective at their job, but on the other it was supposed to make them well-aware about the type of training they're going through and to have them understand the way it works "from the inside", to show them that Humanity struggled with what Groaxian society has problems with right now too. Soulseekers hoped that once their service is over, this self-awareness about what they were put through would prevent Groaxians from completely forgetting about their true instincts and allow for some kind of therapy restoring their previous mental shape, possibly even leading to a breakthrough in search for a cure for Dark Forest Disease.
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MARK OF TIME
3399-3405 AM hibernation cycles
An obvious next step in space exploration was to fly towards the Crack and utilise its potential to explore some stars further from Qi, while at the same time trying to determine where exactly the superluminal highway ends, how wide and tall it actually is and why is it there, or rather why it isn't anywhere else. First system to reach using it was Naegling - two stars total, with a lonely gas giant orbiting the secondary component while the main star hosted a rich planetary system. The second one from it contained a tiny bit of ice sheets and even liquid water around the equator, with an average temperature being too hot for comfort, but still survivable without any kind of life support system. The same couldn't be said about its unbreathable atmosphere consisting of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. While it lacked methane, at least it didn't contain any toxic gases. Life did not exist even in the most basic forms, but overall the planet looked like an excellent terraforming candidate. And it was so far from Qi that a colony there could potentially serve as an evacuation destination for Groaxians to avoid extinction should the Dark Forest Lords eventually strike after receiving Qi coordinates. It was also noted by explorers that two of the moons orbiting gas giants contained traces of methane in their tiny atmospheres.
Next star in the exploration queue was Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. The Crack was ending roughly two light hibernation cycles away from it, forcing explorers to waste two hibernation cycles getting there after being forced to slow down to the speed of light away. This was enough to already disprove one of the hypothesis as to what the Crack was - it said that because of the universe being a Dark Forest, Humanity felt the need to stay on the safe side and enclosed Qi and nearby stars using whatever insane physics they'd discovered and technology they'd built in a "light speed bubble" so that Groaxians wouldn't be able to catch up to them and attack and the Crack was their "gateway" so that they could easily reach observed civilisation themselves. However, if that was the case then it shouldn't end as abruptly as it started, in the middle of nowhere with no traces of human presence in sight. It appeared that the Crack was just a specific region of space that behaved like all space should behave according to human research.
Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi wasn't an extraordinary system, with the exception being Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi III. The gravity and atmopsheric pressure were high enough for each of them to crush any Groaxian without a space suit. Oxygen alone would contribute to the pressure being almost as high as the one on Genesis. Over three quarters of surface was covered with water which was evaporating quickly, making for frequent and intense rains. Rains were observed on many planets before, but nowhere else were they as severe as there, with maybe tropical regions of Yatune being on pair, for example. In many rocky areas an interesting case of tree-like plants could be studied. Narrow valleys were often flooded during constant storms, making it tough for them to survive. But they were well-adapted to this environment. Parts of their bodies that grew below the ground level were resilient and sharp, allowing them to literally drill through the rock with the help of water constantly washing over it, weakening it in the process. Such created tunnels would often be extended later, in many cases again with the help of water. In some cases even entire caverns would have been formed, allowing the water to gather there, preventing overflooding of the above ground levels. It was also observed how these flooded caverns would host plethora of organisms. Some of them were found to get killed by the spear-like roots of the local trees. At first it sounded like extreme coincidence, but later evolutionary emulators were able to determine that it was a deliberate hunting act of the trees which were feeding off their prey in this way, able to coordinate their movements and strike right when an unfortunate animal would swim too close. Overall lands looked kinda barren in many areas, as if their conquest has just begun, however water life is where this planet excelled. One of the most intriguing species was a small creature that together with millions of its relatives was forming seemingly endless underwater chains, with one organism attaching itself to the next one and so on. These chains would then let the currents carry them to conserve energy spent for movement. Despite how they might have appeared, they were all dangerous predators. If a prey was spotted, such colony would wrap itself tightly around it, with each small organism slowly eating the victim alive once it lost the ability to move and resist. One particular species was able to create an interesting defensive mechanism against it, though - it was simply rapidly growing excessive skin all the time. If attacked, the small hunters would chew through the spare skin layers, leaving it free once they were all well-fed, allowing it to escape without taking any damage beyond the skin.
3407 AM hibernation cycle
Two hibernation cycles after return of the explorers Umbara warped into Qi once again, again attempting to exterminate all Groaxians living in the system. The time has come to test the capabilities of new human-based space forces. A squadron of Pikes and a squadron of Strikers have been sent to intercept and destroy the enemy. It didn't seem like a hard task, especially given the simple fact that this time it looked more like a bunch of enemy scouts rather than a full-fledged battle fleet:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/847224116431159316/fight1.PNG)
Phased curvature disruption systems have instantly proven to be of high usability. Groaxians used them to throw enemies completely off-course while slingshoting from the gravity wells themselves, gaining rapid acceleration and circling around the enemy still struggling to restore its formation. Particle beams were launched from both sides, but well-remembered operation QiSet has led to a development of new armor patterns that helped diminish the devastating results of these weapons, minimising hull damage among Groaxian ships. Meanwhile Umbaras seemed to not be so well-prepared (or rather it was Groaxians who introduced too many improvements into their particle-based weapons for them to keep up) and their ships popped one by one, just like Lensias once did, causing mass panic and hysteria across entire Conglomerate Defense Fleet. But this time the victory clearly belonged to Groaxians without any significant trouble faced. Soon they were ready to destroy the last enemy ship. However, the admiral of Human Space Fleet was well-aware that information is far more important than any military victory and any amount of enemy spaceships blown out of the void. And so just like it has already been done in the past, Groaxians used strong gravitational disturbance to trap the last survivor motionless, hoping to gain even more insight into Umbara civilisation. This was of high importance not only on a strategic and tactical level - perhaps even more important was the fact that lack of communication was one of the reasons for a chain of suspicion to occur, so technically it was a contribution towards resolving Dark Forest Theory, even if only so small and practically meaningless in the grand scheme of things.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/847224294575702026/fight2.PNG)
To much surprise of everyone, the crew of captured ship consisted soley of Zenn, something not seen at all besides that one wreck that contained the bodies of this species. Moreover, the entire squadron that appeared in Qi was like this, with no single La to be found anywhere. It was especially strange since according to Umbara knowledge, all Zenn have perished together with their homeworld, so the question as to what they've been doing among Umbara fleets was beyond anybody. Fortunately it was nothing that couldn't have been dealt with using Transcendent Speech and gaining direct entry into the heads of Zenn. What was found among their thoughts was highly disturbing.
It was true that Zenn were left behind to die out with every living being of Zenn-La, but it hadn't necessarily translated into them actually doing so. Umbara fleets left the doomed world in a hurry, leaving all the facilities they used for space programs as well as research data mostly intact. Zenn still had enough time left before inevitable extinction to decipher at least parts of it. Their starships at first weren't very effective, but at least were enough to get them off the planet, out of the solar system and onwards to space while keeping them alive in a stasis. By that time they already knew about Dark Forest and in spite of this the pile of space debris they stumbled across once was only a reinforcement of this theory being correct. It was a relic of a space force long gone, a testament of the cold nature of the universe. At first the fleet appeared to be so alien than given the poor, to put it mildly, technical state of the wrecks it would be nigh impossible to actually gather any information as to what happened and what these aliens were, but soon certain characteristic features could've been pointed out. After some time spent uncovering the secrets of the debris there was no doubt left - it was an Umbara fleet, once powerful, now reduced to ashes. Among the wrecks tanks with a strange gas could've been found in large quantities. It was dangerous. Addictive. Evil. Everyone who dared to inhale it would die quickly and painfully, yet at the same time the gas would make an individual a far more effective combatant for the time it has left to live. This discovery was quickly followed by a rapid development of support technology allowing for gas intake while continuing to still be alive for quite a long time.
Before Zenn could embark to continue their odyssey, a different Umbara fleet had been detected closing in. Engaging engines would guarantee being spotted, so the only chance for Zenn was to hide among the wrecks, power off every module including life support and hope Umbaras wouldn't care there were a few more wrecks than there should be, not neccessairly in a wrecked state either. However, Umbara ships have stopped along the space cemetery. They wanted to check it out, just like Zenn had just done. What was odd is that they did not seem to recognize it being leftovers from their own ships, though. The ones they were flying at a time were different, too. When the situation became hopeless and dramatic, Zenn tried out one last desperate measure: they hailed the ships, by then spread across the relics, using everything they knew about Umbara to sound authentic and pass as part of their fleet. And it actually worked. What later struck Zenn as something even more odd was that Umbaras have stumbled across the supplies of a mysterious gas, but they approached it as if they've never seen it. Well, maybe it was something their by then destroyed fleet had discovered independently and never got a chance to share it, after all.
A bit later, with both fleets still floating around space debris, a specific plan began to form in the heads of Zenn leaders. They shared their already established knowledge on the topic with La, but well-aware about the culture of military rituals among La they had to adapt to in order to pass as one of them, they did the sharing in a way that'd grant them total control over Umbara Commune. They advertised the gas as an ultimate gift, a perfect way to combine the rituals with practical strength in battle sought so eagerly by La, all while being well-aware that they only need to get Umbara soldiers addicted, as without their army they meant nothing. The fact Zenn had already figured out how to multiply gas particles to produce more of it only helped them declare themselves as Aether Guardians, granting them many privileges in the Umbara Commune and allowing them to act as a grey eminence. Their plan was simple: wait till more and more Umbara soldiers start dying from intoxication and wipe them out once and for all when they're already too weak to defend themselves properly. The cycle of their destruction must repeat itself, next time being different, though, leaving a permanent mark of time in the form of another pile of derelict wrecks.
Conglomerate also tried to get the coordinates of the system in which the remnants are located and both Zenn as well as La captured after operation QiSet had a detailed description of the star and its celestial bodies stored in their heads. The only problem was that after browsing star catalogues to no end, searching through all possible candidates, it was determined that such system doesn't exist and in fact never existed. The starfield visible from within it did not match with any part of the galaxy at all and given the technology described the possibility of Umbara coming from a different one was also ruled out as no ship of theirs would ever endure such a journey without falling apart along the way somehwere in intergalactic space.
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3406-3409 AM hibernation cycles
Stories echoing across minds of Zenn and La were coherent except for non-existent planetary system and Umbara not recognising their own fleet and their own gas that apparently was in their hands before. The former could have been understood, among Groaxians not every soldier remembred coordinates of every system explored at some point since the dawn of interstellar expansion so it might as well be the same case for Umbara, they got it wrong or something. The latter was much more problematic, though. What could cause such misunderstanding? If their fleets had split at some point and later developed in different directions so that technology of one of them no longer looked familiar for the other one, that'd suffice, but then at least some of them should remember the divide which they did not. There was also always a possibility of Transcendent Speech failing to penetrate the sturdiest layers of mental armor, a somewhat common occurence for humans, but Groaxians were much more potent in that field than humans. And especially Umbara, which seemed to struggle to hide their true colours and repel psychic attacks even more than humans did.
Umbara not remembering things right was the simplest explanation of misleading navigators, but it was flawed for numerous reasons, namely the observation that every one of them was capable of providing the coordinates and they didn't seem to differ much from one another, all leading to the same star. To check this out, soulseekers cooperating with most skilled xenobiologists were tasked with performing research on the topic of Umbara memory by having them remember galactic coordinates pointing at random stars and planets. Using Transcendent Speech team responsible for experiments was able to rule out the cases when a participant did not want to learn on purpose which promised accurate results. And according to the final presentation, Umbara memory had no trouble dealing with even large datasets for as long as they were possible to be displayed graphically, which was definitely the case for stars' positions.
Basing on the above research, astronomers proposed a different approach to the problem of non-existent system. The number of new black holes appearing all around the galaxy no matter the stellar mass was so common nobody was even surprised anymore when yet another star would collapse. It might as well be that the system itself was now a black hole too (though in such case the coordinates should still point out to it, so this hypothesis didn't really solve anything), or many stars making for the navigational matrix existed no more and were no longer there, replaced by black holes. And so Groaxians involved attempted to try to find possible valid configurations by replacing some stars serving as reference point with black holes and seeing whether it'd match a particular region of space. However, there was no guarantee it'd work out, not necessarily because of the sheer number of possibilities as these could be processed quickly thanks to the newest generation of soulgrain cybersoul mainframes, but because there was yet another problem: Dark Forest Strikes. Some of these stars might as well have been destroyed by photonic missiles or whatever else Dark Forest Lords were using. To mitigate errors introduced by this possibility, traces of supernova were also included in the search, but without any estimates pointing out at a date Umbara visited the mysterious system it was going to be rough.
The side effect of all these efforts was to pull out data about another two systems explored by Umbara, but never inspected by any Groaxian from up close. They included Meirica and a pair of binary systems all grouped under the common name of Baile Atha. While Meirica had just two hot planets, one airless and the other one filled with sulphur dioxide, Baile Atha was much more interesting. One binary system consisted of a white dwarf and T Tauri-class star, the latter surrounded by spacious protoplanetary disc. The second pair of stars hosted a total of six genesian planets. Five were airless rocks, but one had an atmosphere based on nitrogen and oxygen, liquid water filling mostly a giant rift around its equator and scorching temperatures. Interestingly, life still found a way to evolve and survive there. Equator was the hottest spot, but at the same time due to terrain shape it got filled with water so easily it was the best place to live for everyone involved. Oddly enough, despite what one might expect after exploration data gathered so far, lifeforms weren't advanced. It seemed that the evolution has just began there. Red moss was covering most of the land around lakes, rivers and seas. It was so omnipresent it was observed growing on the skin of certain animal species walking around the land. It seemed that the moss and animals it attached itself to lived in a symbiosis - the red parasites were feeding off nutrients eaten by their hosts, but in return provided them with excellent camouflage protecting them from predators, allowing them to survive and eat enough to feed both sides. Fauna migrations also allowed the moss to spread and colonise different regions, but at this point of biosphere development it looked as if it no longer mattered, with every spot being already colonised or too far from water sources. Oddly enough, animals seemed to originate from land, while the water itself was almost dead. There were some microorganisms in it, but research gathered pointed out they were infectious and deadly for any other kinds of life in concentrations high enough, making inhabiting the water a hard task for everything else. The planet could potentially be terraformed, but the question of Umbara settling down there remained unanswered.
A study focused on behavioural changes among generations born after discovering Dark Forest Theory sounded an alarm. While changes for the worse in themselves were nothing new, another layer of the problem has been brought to attention. For example, safety check provided by middlemen was of lower quality and more genetic errors were likely to occur during birth. There wasn't enough proof to link this with the migration of many middlemen to Yatune. In fact, scientists couldn't all agree whether it was middlemen providing genetic checksums of lower quality or lowered breeding quality in general. A common symptom of the problems was slightly increased brain temperature during birth which later was correlated with higher aggression levels or problems with hibernating. Same researchers proposed to fix the existing issues with experimental genetic modification therapy, but Conglomerate remained sceptical about these ideas, unsure whether throwing more artificiality at the problem would really help with anything. One thing to be remembered, though, was that relocating the "overheated individuals" to colder regions of Genesis had some limited positive effects. Still, many scientists couldn't see any viable solution besides fixing things at the same level they were broken which was the level of individual genes. For now the Conglomerate at least agreed to grant affected population access to implants that were responsible for keeping brain temperature in check at all times, regardless of environmental factors.
Several hibernation cycles after first recruits of Human Space Forces completed their training, first conclusions on the project could've been made. Everyone expected Groaxians who served in this fleet would remain disconnected from main society, possibly forming their own enclosed community, a very different one, but that did not happen. They seemed to be quite popular among certain groups from younger generations. It was a worrying sign, because it hinted the problem once again has proven to be larger than predictions. Humanity has always been present in the culture of Groaxians for obvious reasons, but never before did it have such long-reaching influence. On top of it all, a dangerous ideology began to spread among population: for the first time in Groaxian history it was proposed that a freedom of an individual is more important than the eternal equilibrium of a carefully balanced society and that an interstellar civilisation cannot continue to exist with how things were before. The idea was obviously derived from the human concept of freedom, but experts instantly pointed out that such freedom was an illusion through the entire history of Humanity and that what is already known about them doesn't suggest any proof of an average human ever being truly free. Moreover, even if that'd be the case for Humanity, soulseekers agreed that Groaxian society could never function like this because of how connected it was via Transcended Speech. Dangerous thoughts of even one individual could lead to health problems among a few dozens others that were close enough to feel these thoughts which is why the balance was mandatory for the sake of well-being of everyone. It's what has always united every tribe, every clan and every member of the society at a personal level. Examples from history all pointed out that whenever the balance has been damaged, it always ended up in a war of some sort and peace was not possible until thinking patterns would align again, allowing everyone to cool down and undergo a prolonged hibernation to cleanse from any leftovers of chaos.
The question remained what exactly has happened that certain Groaxians wanted to "become human" at this particular time and not earlier, given the influence of Humanity has pretty much always been a thing to the point to this day nobody is sure how the species were originally called, before the term proposed by humans has been widely adapted. The threat from Dark Forest was one thing, but there were way too many occasions for Groaxians to adapt too much of human identity before it all started. Eventually it was proposed that this was a result of two factors combined - one being the influence of Humanity on Groaxian development which has been presented since the monolith touched genesian ground and the other being about how humanity seemingly has managed to find a solution to Dark Forest because to this solar watch no Groaxian has died from their hands and they were able to grow in strength enough to defend even from the more advanced Dark Forest players, successfully resisting their onslaught, intercepting photonic missiles and so on. On paper the approach sounded reasonable and it's exactly what Conglomerate had on mind when proclaiming the forming of Human Space Fleet, but in practice one just couldn't expect to deny own nature, try to become something completely different that evolved on an alien (and toxic for Groaxian biology) world and at the end hope it all works out fine. Besides, from what was understood about human concepts of freedom, it can't work when one being can read thoughts of the other and even if Groaxians were to resign from brain signal amplifiers they'd still get some limited understanding naturally because that's how they were.
While all this looked pretty grim and depressing, a glimpse of hope appeared in the form of yet another theory: sure, things were heading in the wrong direction, but at the same time there was a war going on, a war like never before. And through the past destabilisation of balance preceeded the conflict, leading directly to it, while now problems started to arise only after first battles have been fought and Groaxians still stood united, just trying to defend themselves and forge a path for them across the stars. And diving into the human mind further might hold the answer to Dark Forest, assuming they have really figured it out and haven't in the meantime gone extinct after one photonic missile too many or something. Conglomerate had to accept that it was a path worth checking out. The question "how to join Humanity across the stars" resurfaced again.
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BLUTGANG EXPEDITION
3410-3416 AM hibernation cycles
The last enemy fleet Groaxian army came into contact with might have not been the most powerful one, but the easiness with which it was dealt with by Human Space Fleet impressed everyone involved in making it fly above the skies of Genesis. It was concluded that they'd make for a perfect force to visit Blutgang system again, something hibernating in the backlog of planned operations, never awakened because every military ship had always been needed somewhere else, but eventually the time has come to check the system out, this time fully prepared for whatever lurks there. It was expected that Conglomerate Defence Fleet, recently reinforced with additional Syzygies (even though new mining drills or half-hibernation cellular therapy for body parts getting a bit loose after too rapid hibernation and awakening were only one of the few research projects that received support unlike new generation of space kinetic weapons so these were still the same Syzygies), should suffice to defend either Qi or Mimung should something dangerous pop up again. Having this cleared out, human-like Groaxians skipped time through relativistic flight again and arrived in the already known, but not really explored, system.
First thing the fleet has checked for were obviously wrecks. And it easily detected many of them. Too many. They bore designations of both Umbara and the second aliens that were suspected of revealing Qi to Dark Forest Lords and whose communication ways were still encrypted for Groaxian xenolinguists. A testimony of countless battles fought around the pair of stars which hosted only one planet suspected to contain oxygen-based life and its moon. Countless wrecks even formed rings around one of the stars, making both the scale and time passed since the conflict feel magnificent.
With no life signs detected, Human Space Fleet moved towards the oxygen-breathing world, ready to open fire any time. Eventually as it got close enough, radars warned about multiple Umbara-like contacts orbiting the planet as well as large signature coming down from the surface all around this grey-green planet with apparently purple oceans. Turning around right now would mean returning with no info of any real usage for future projects and campaigns, so the admiral of the fleet gave an order to engage. There's not much to be said about these few ships as a few powerful gravitational waves were enough to have them lose orbital velocity and fall down to the planet, crashing on the surface, but what followed after, as Groaxians were still closing in, straight towards the planet, was something nobody expected.
Hundreds of laser beams erupted from the surface, yet they were only detected through measurement instruments, because gamma laser beams were invisible for Groaxian eyes. A standard manoeuvre of using gravitational weapons to create a well from which the ships could slingshot themselves away from the danger worked well enough to dodge a greeting volley unscratched, but the gravitational influence of the planet itself was strong enough to cause the ships to be minimally slower than expected. Dozens of laser beams left burns and scratches on the outer hull layers, sometimes ripping entire chunks of metal off. No internal structure of any ship has been damaged yet at that point, but the threat was real. And targeting the weapons that opened fire was nigh impossible. They seemed to be using some kind of cybernetic camouflage system. Error margin when attempting to lock onto such target was far too great to except any kind of reasonable accuracy.
At this point retreat was the only reasonable decision to be made, but among a plethora of signals picked up from the hostile world one stood out. It seemed to be calling every Groaxian directly. When it was played using human speech and sound converter, allowing Groaxians to feel it as humans would, voices of the ancients filled everyone in the fleet. Time has slowed down as the voice was soothing. It filled the mind with visions of planes beyond imagination of any three-dimensional being, about concepts so alien yet so fascinating. It was alien, but it didn't feel like something Dark Forest would spit out. The way of the ancients spoke about a different solution. Something so simple, so obvious, yet something of which every civilisation seemed unaware. A safety guarantee for all who want to take it. It never got finished before the ones from Bootes Void came to exterminate and tear everything down, but it was there, ready for another civilisation to take the lead and complete it.
Sound of sirens, again broadcasted via human speech and sound converter, together with screeching of metal brought everyone back to reality. Or at least those who weren't incinerated on spot by lasers eventually tearing through the armor layers. But despite death and suffering and failing systems all around, scientific consultants of the expedition insisted on checking out the signal source before leaving. The ships have drifted too far into the firing range of planetary lasers either way, so there was plenty of time to run required calibrations before any ship would be capable of leaving the danger zone. The fleet increased engine output and started accelerating alongside the planet, hoping to be able to dodge easier from this position rather than if it attempted to pull away from the planet as quickly as possible, leaving it behind itself and allowing enemy to target them as their relative position on the sky doesn't change from gunners' perspective. But evasion was not enough and soon officers understood a counterattack was a must. While particle beams of Strikers weren't expected to hit much, it was still better than nothing to have them fired. Main hope was placed on Pikes, though. Their gravitational weapons had a potential to deal area damage, minimising the effects of enemy camouflage. Without time for any kind of second thoughts, Human Space Fleet opened fire at last, sending particles at near-lightspeed and gravitational weapons to the grey and dark green lands of this mysterious world. What was instantly observed is that the waves came into interaction with the sky, causing apparently violent storms to form after enough clouds gathered in one spot. Weapons used by Pikes, a prime source of might in battle, were sparked fear even among their users when they saw two storms being formed after just a few volleys. While very little laser firing stations have actually been hit and destroyed, the storms themselves have proven to be more helpful, because they helped disperse beams, if only a little, reducing the strain put on Groaxian hulls.
Soon the exact location of the unique signal has been extracted out of thousands of other sources. There was no time for probes, obviously (and even if there was nobody hoped a probe could make it through the laser grid), but flying a little closer should be enough to at least perform localised detailed surface scan to determine the type of signal emitter Groaxians were dealing with. Admiral decided it was worth a risk. Several more storms have been created along the way and several dozens Groaxians have died before scanning systems confirmed readiness fo perform surface analysis of the selected fragment.
A quick search through the database of already known types of alien structures returned a positive result. With little doubt left, scientists announced it was a complex of the Precursors, very closely matching the data on them received from Humanity. Having already exceeded the amount of risk initially planned to take, admiral ordered the fleet to pull of from the planet, speeding away towards safety while Pikes continued to wreak havoc in the local weather, with their waves also causing earthquakes and possibly putting too much weight under whatever existed within the spheres of gravitational disturbances. It was a miracle no ship was destroyed or at least crippled enough to not be able to flee from enemy fire until too late. In its current state, any further firefight posed significantly greater risk, but it seemed that all there was left for Groaxians to do was to engage Curvature Propulsion Systems and fly back home for repairs and a military version of a nanocybersoul-based health regeneration therapy.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/848008906852925489/homeworld1.PNG)
Once Conglomerate read through the reports of the encounter, before it moved onto the pending topics of Umbara-inhabited planet and a Precursor facility existing on the surface it took interest into another aspect of the expedition and battle that happened. There was no doubt the planet was full of sentient life, even though this life was hostile. Gravitational weapons used against a planet showed to be very potent in terms of causing mass destruction across the surface. Exact casualties were impossible to be determined, but the pictures of multiple storms, likely to be dangerous not even because of the short-term violent weather but because of the long-term climate destabilisation such unnatural event might lead to, not to mention earthquakes and all the mess caused by local gravity suddenly shifting back and forth. With the evidence presented, Conglomerate declared the act of using these weapons against a planet a Dark Forest Strike of type II-B. In order to perform such an attack, a clearance from Conglomerate was mandatory and such permit was to be obtained only if both the existence of entire race was endangered and it could be guaranteed that after performing it the values of Groaxian civilisation would not be endangered. In this case not only the clearance had not been issued, but also the conditions for it hadn't been met (and the "it was in self defence" argumentation was rejected because according to the Dark Forest Theory itself even wiping the entire planet clean from all lifeforms, even if it was not hostile and unarmed, would still be classified as "self defence").
But eventually Conglomerate did not intend do do anything to punish Human Space Forces for what they had done. Because Transcendent Speech scan confirmed their experiences they had prior to discovery of Precursor buildings. And if what they felt was real, then it was worth to pursue it, even if they had to do what they did. Battle of Bultgang-A I was to become a symbol of Groaxian degeneration, but also a symbol of hope of stopping this madness before it destroys everything. Scientists quickly got to work at analysing the brains of Groaxians affected by the signal and comparing them with what could be found in monolith about Precursors. Given how Humanity had approached one of their ruins located on a boiling planet that was beyond any reasonable terraforming due to its proximity to the parent star, it was possible to have Transcendent Speech signal propagated from the surface to orbit and back, but they required a powerful version of mental amplifiers designated by a prodigy of theirs while for Groaxian mental capacity nothing beyond what had already been produced was needed to be able to receive the signal and discover its meaning.
The topic of higher dimensions was brought up once again, this time in broader context. But the complex also spoke about escaping Dark Forest. Suddenly it all became too obvious and so easy to understand soulseekers wondered why haven't they thought about it earlier, eventually blaming it on the physics of higher dimensions not working as described by humans everywhere else besides the Crack. Beings of a different number of dimensions consumed different types of resources. Three-dimensional metals extracted by a three-dimensional species were useless to four-dimensional ones and similarly whatever entities existed in a four-dimensional space were of no use for the standard three-dimensional civilisation. The initial concept of a solution based on exclusive list of resources used turned out to be true. It was possible to escape Dark Forest and Project Ascension was a key on how to do that.
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ENDPOINT WAR
3412-3419 AM hibernation cycles
Since Sodara was on high military alert basically all the time as everyone expected Umbara assault really any moment and Mimung still lacked neccessary protection, when a strange signal reached listening posts scattered around the surface and orbit alike, nobody seemed capable of figuring out how to raise the alarm to even higher level. It has been discovered by pure accident, during rudimentary fuel shipping operation. When one of the harvesters was dropping from orbit to dive in hydrogen skies, it picked up something. Instruments recording planetary emissions suddenly have gone haywire. There has always been something unsettling about going down to the planet that does not have a surface, to undergo a rough atmospheric entry only to see a foggy bottomless pit, even if fuel scooping didn't require to go to the depths at which clouds are too thick to let much light through. But that time, that time the horror has just begun. The source of the signal seemed to be located deep in the clouds of Iether. It seemed to be messing with the radio emissions of the planet, broadcasting hypnotising shapes and patterns which, once translated into audio produced creepy sounds.
It has been estimated that the next patrol should still take several dozens solar watches at best to arrive, even though from its own perspective it was disengaging Curvature Drives right now. For this tense period, interplanetary space of Mimung was defenseless. The thing was, the signal was not coming from space, but from the planet. From a planet with extreme atmospheric pressure and violent weather. Bhas'uhs were nowhere near as agile as military ships, but obviously due to their job they were adapted to navigating through the storms and darkness damn well, even if rudimentary fuel harvest has always been undergoing under safe, optimal conditions. Whatever was emitting the sinister messages probably was well-suited too, but trying to be better in terms of pressure tolerance was the only asset of the harvesting fleet which now has faced its first military assignment. Military, because whatever it was, it was hostile for sure. The universe was a Dark Forest.
Fleet of nine Bhas'uhs was supposed to close in, but with only three ships (first squadron) staying above the target, but the remaining two trying to go deeper into the Iether's atmosphere, way below the signal source, but still leaving a good margin so they could go even deeper if needed. First squadron was essentially a risk-taking scout, trying to determine what this thing actually was and how and when exactly was it going to attack, ready to quickly accelerate into space and use the sheer gravity of a gas giant to pick up speed faster by staying in orbit for a while and hopefully escape. But the main task lied at hands of the crews of remaining two squadrons, which were expected to try to bait the enemy to follow them deeper, hoping it wasn't as well suited to this hostile environment. The fleet lacking a proper military training and being unarmed did not make this risky operation easier, either.
Every ship has safely reached designated position, but failed at triggering the enemy's reaction. From the distance the engagement has been reduced into it has been confirmed that the target was an alien fleet composed of ships of the same classes as previously detected on numerous occassions - they must have been the ones who had likely sent Qi position into deep space. With that sorted out, it became possible to tell that the disturbed radio emissions of the planet were them trying to communicate. This made the makeshift space command array on Sodara face two next problems to tackle: firstly, the aliens refused to move (or do anything at all), prolonging the stalemtate and secondly they tried to communicate, although for what reason nobody was sure since they had already managed to show great hostility even without firing one shot.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/849044363647516683/enc.PNG)
The first thing to check for was whether they attempted to send coordinates of yet another system (namely Mimung), but this time it was either well-hidden from Groaxian sensors or not there at all. Full content of the messages remained a mystery. This was of course additional input data to boost translation efforts, but there seemed to be no pattern at all. One thing that was observed rather quickly was that the message was stuck in a loop of some sort so a beginning and an end could have been pinpointed easily, but as to the actual meaning, even single expressions here and there, there was no clue. It should'veHowever, one crucial observation has been made: the assumption of hostility. Sure, Dark Forest Theory left no doubts, but Groaxians themselves were not hostile when they first hailed their ships, so to assume the enemy was an enemy was... shameful to do for a civilisation that wanted to take pride in its good will and fighting against cosmic evil. According to this improvised theory, aliens responded to the hails, but when they were told that "Groaxians know about Dark Forest", they felt threatened and showed their ultimate weapon, far more powerful than any guns any of their fleets could carry: the simple ability to tell Dark Forest Lords that there's this system with intelligent life in it so they should probably take care of it.
Analysing the messages in this context seemed to lead to nowhere, too. Xenolinguists were on the bring of snapping out of exhaustion and needed to cool down their minds, but they felt responsible for the fuel harvesters stuck in their positions, unable to do anything, with six of them trapped in eternal darkness, deep in the hydrogen abyss. Too bad there was nothing anybody could do about this unpleasant situation and in the end, since the aliens continued to refuse to do anything, everyone had to stay right where they were, having to spend solar watches afraid of being shot at any moment.
No progress has been made, but in the meantime Conglomerate Defense Fleet has arrived in the system and immediately upon receiving updates on the tactical situation flew towards Iether. This has caused the potential enemy to turn on engines. It headed towards space, so the first squadron of fuel harvesters did the same, attempting to stay as far away as possible, while the two others went even deeper into the atmosphere, leaving the combat to be handled by ships that are actually armed. Long before alien ships could've been reached, they simply warped space around them and disappeared from the system, leaving confused Groaxians behind.
For the hibernation cycles to come best out of the best attempted to crack the alien code. Different paths have been explored, trying to translate the visuals, the audio from converted emissions, electronic signals or any mix of these interpretations. And eventually it worked. But the key to the translation was not what anyone expected it to be. First expressions could have been understood only when looking at Umbara language. They both shared some similiarities, namely the new one was also "cyclic", only this time each cycle was exactly the same. The possibilty of these two languages originating from similar sources has been ruled out, though - it was merely them expressing similar thoughts while remaining completely alien to each other. The civilisation responsible for using planetary signals as a means of communication was probably best translated as Tempestsaurs Of Achernar. That alone was enough to terrify many - the word "Tempestsaurs" had been repeated multiple times. "Cleansers", but namely cleansers bound by law, the ones who mop up the mess after Clan Master's verdict, so not quite exectuors that carry out the sentence directly, but still involved in the process when one's mind is too hot to be cooled down using conventional methods. Tempestsaurs had always had great responsibility resting on their shoulders since carrying out this job was considered to be extremely dangerous to the balance and as such great expertise was required, far exceeding the mental capacity of the one to judge, hence why most of them were recruited from former Clan Masters who excelled at their job and displayed above avergae intelligence.
The way how the alien civilisation titled itself was not translated by accident - there were many odd similarities between their command structure and Tempestsaurs. They appeared majestic and smart given the eloquence of their, in fact, short yet deep communicates which could be interpreted often in several ways at once, reducing the amount of speech to be used. And they seemed to be fixated on cleansing the universe from all evil, but they were smarter than Umbara about it - they really didn't like to do it themselves. Interestingly, the "evil" they declared to fight wasn't about other entities living in a Dark Forest, at least not directly. They have found something unsettling in the very foundation of the universe and wanted to ensure it'll be purged at all cost. Something they saw as worse than Dark Forest itself. Especially this bold statement was what confused Groaxians so much they were too confused to even be afraid anymore. Something worse than Dark Forest sounded like pure nonsense. Another unique trait of these beings was how they apparently shared Groaxian view on the "balance", with the possible exception of whatever "balance" meant for them. Similiairy to Tempestsaurs, they appeared to srtive to be careful about their cleansing operations as to not damage it. Shall they overdo it or be too quick, all efforts would be in vain and the force worse than Dark Forest would reign over what was left. Brightest soulseekers struggled to figure out what this force was exactly, but it was described as something that posessed the power to stop the cycles from proceeding and doom everything forever, without a chance of rescue. They explained that cycles repeat itself, but unlike Umbara saw them as completely separated and independent, with no mark of time being left, no information carried from one cycle to the next.
3417 AM hibernation cycle
Eventually they came to Qi. Human Space Fleet was put on high alert, but as always, Tempestsaurs remained cool and kept their weapons down. Or maybe they kept them armed but didn't fire. Instead, they sent more messages. They seemed really talkative for a Dark Forest player. Some even wondered whether eliminating lack of communication issue wouldn't help move over it in the long term. These dreams were quickly shattered, unfortunately. The messages were clear and easy to understand. Coordinates of both Qi and Mimung had been encoded into a sequence of gravitational waves and sent across the void right as Groaxians were listening. It was terrifying. Mass panic erupted in every major and minor city within the system. Until suddenly one of the hostile squadrons fired a powerful gravitational blast. It warped space across a huge area, demonstrating power surpassing phased curvature disturbance systems engineered by Groaxians. It obstructed the space around previously sent waves, messing them up and effectively destroying whatever information they were supposed to carry. At this point it was simply shocking how they first broadcasted position of Groaxian space only to cancel it themselves at the very last moment, but not for too long. It was a threat. They demanded no Groaxian starship to ever leave the territory marked by the two inhabited by Groaxians systems under the threat of a broadcast followed by a large-scale invasion aimed at destroying every enemy ship existing. On a sidenote, it was depressing how they wanted to be so sure that Dark Forest Lord would hear about Groaxians that they were ready to sent position of both Qi and Mimung, whereas Mimung was close enough and constantly communicating with Qi that once the home system was revealed, Mimung was too.
Conglomerate organised a high-alert secret meetings to quickly assess the new strategic and tactical situation as well as try to come up with the best solution possible. Firstly, the most important and optimistic information was that Qi had yet to be revealed to those who watch, ready to strike any moment. Secondly, Groaxians were in a big trouble. Thirdly, according to the Tempestsaurs doctrine, they should have sent the crucial information away right at the start. There was no need for them to make threats. Just broadcast and mark the civilisation as already cleansed. However, it ws also quickly realised that it couldn't have been so simple. Firstly, for whatever reason they were afraid of doing too many purges at once, meaning maybe they determined sentencing Groaxians to extinction at that exact moment was not viable and they were about to wait for who knows how long until the possibility opens up. Second issue with "fire and forget" approach lied in every starship that has ever appeared in the void over Groaxian worlds. These starships were ready to be launched. After latest pre-ignition optimisations it was very likely Curvature Propulsion Systems would've been engaged before their weapons, giving a decent fleet a chance at escape to spawn a continuation of the Groaxian race somewhere else. However if Tempestsaurs were to simply threaten Groaxians, of course escape was still possible, but at a price of dooming their homeworld and all colonies, something Conglomerate would never allow. Not that there was anyone who'd have tried in the first place.
There was also a possibility they were afraid of Groaxian space forces. They had already demonstrated a more powerful weapon, but maybe overall their fleet wasn't so strong and they didn't feel too comfortable about having a space battle under present conditions. In theory they could've launched an attack and still have their threat in place aka if even one ship tried to escape the system only then broadcast would occur, but maybe they weren't absolutely sure about no crew attempting to flee under such extreme and stressful conditions. However, some quick simulations have determined that their motivation for not attacking was most likely them not being sure about their victory. This opened up a possibility of dispatching combined Conglomerate Defense Fleet and Human Space Fleet and rooting the enemy out, restoring safety, albeit only temporairly, but that fell out of the question, too - the moment Tempestsaurs had seen any offensive manoeuvres, probably they'd have just sent their deadly message. A possibility about neutralising the broadcast the same way they did was also to be discussed, but there was too much uncertanity whether Pikes and their weapon systems would suffice for the task. Even very small risk was unnacceptable with stakes so high. This solution was not to be ruled out completely, though.
The last topic mentioned during the meeting was certainly the most important one. Less than one hibernation cycle before, another exploration mission to the Crack had been sent. As aliens were keeping the entire civilisation hostage, an independent fleet of Groaxian starships has been cruising at superluminal speed somewhere in interstellar space. They seemed to be the best chance at breaking free from the deadlock and resolving the situation without taking unneccessary risks. A question remained, awaiting immediate answer: what exactly they would be supposed to do. And how to tell them to do it without making Tempestsaurs aware of the plan as well as the presence of Groaxian vessels beyond the cage they'd prepared.
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Upon closer examination, it came as in fact surprising that Achernar hadn't restricted Groaxians to stick to the system they were currently located and allowed the transit between Qi and Mimung to continue freely. They seemed to have been establishing larger presence in both systems, but several light hibernation cycles is a damn huge distance to get lost somewhere along the way. Technically they could've simply register ships leaving and entering and fulfill their threat shall the numbers not match after enough time would have passed for the journey to be completed, but what if a ship would suffer some failure and have its journey delayed, or worse, end up destroyed? Technically they could've issued "travel at your own risk" rule and not care at all, but for some reason they didn't appear as really wanting to transmit the "killing signal". If that was the case then them doing so because a ship had been unlucky to get stuck in interstellar space for longer than estimated would have poor consequences, doing something they weren't fully set on doing because of a false alarm. And even with the current rule it was obvious a ship could've stopped for a while, far from any Achernar spying infrastructure and be free to at least send a message. But possibly that was the point - beyond sending a message, the ship wouldn't really be able to do anything, and taking explorers out of the equation meant there wasn't anything in particular that could've been accomplished that way.
But the explorers existed out there, so obviously stopping somewhere between Qi and Mimung was the safest and most reliable way to inform them about this mess. How to do that to prevent the enemy from intercepting the message, that was a separate question. Gravitational waves have been ruled out instantly due to them travelling in every direction, meaning they'd reach Achernar too. An interesting idea involved using neutrino beams for this purpose, an experimental technology showing promising results back on Genesis. Main reason why it worked was simply because of the radio pulses emitted by the interactions of neutrino beams with ice sheets. Baernoloths did not come equipped with onboard icesheets, though, let alone the proper equipment to measure and decode the input. There was also a possibility to try to encode the message in the patterns of warped space, utilising the property of Curvature Drives leaving permanent marks in place of usage unless the space has been straightened up again. That was nearly useless, though, as it was more likely the enemy would look in this particular direction and eventually break the code than explorers would bother since there was no reason for them to ever try to observe that particular region of space, being somewhere out there in the Crack.
The solution that was accepted at last seemed to be quite simple yet complicated at the same time. Groaxian Navy still had one important asset at hand: the warship captured mostly intact and later repaired and brought up to Groaxian standards during the last battle of Qi when Zenn had been captured and interrogated for the first time - Hobbiton battlecruiser. Since then this particle beam-firing ship had been adapted to serve as a command ship in Conglomerate Defense Fleet, replacing former squadron of Lensias. All there was left to do was to mount a Curvature Drive so that it could travel across the stars again (the one Umbara has been using had been destroyed beyond repair during the battle and it was much easier for engineers to build a new one than to try to work with alien tech specifications), make it fly disguised among a fleet of freighters or something and have it send a message in Umbara language. Of coruse with that method chosen Conglomerate had to be extremely careful with what the message body was supposed to be filled with, but the setup could basically guarantee that it'd be taken as simply Umbara attempting to do some random tactical stuff, not linking the incident with Groaxians at all. At least that was provided the enemy wouldn't detect an odd Umbara ship flying alongside Groaxian vessels without shooting at each other. The risk wasn't trivial, because enough Umbara interrogations via Transcendent Speech and communication translations in case of the new foe had confirmed Tempestsaurs having been already attacked by Umbara and likely knowing how their ships presented themselves. It was simply hoped that hiding it in a civilian fleet after already changing its signature via applied modifications would be enough for Tempestsaurs to not care about one odd "freighter". As long as they wouldn't take a closer look during launch hopefully everything should be fine. Key was to have the "freighter" stay really close to other freighters so that thermal signatures would blend together, hiding the odd one and not engage engines besides initial acceleration at all as to not emit anything beyond what was strictly unavoidable. The route should've been planned to avoid any patrols that possibly had radars to detect the odd shape of a "freighter", with Curvature Drives turned on when far enough from main monitoring squadrons.
BC Zahndrekh 006 (Hobbiton III class Battlecruiser) 21 889 tons 658 Crew 2 979,9 BP TCS 438 TH 2 100 EM 0
4797 km/s Armour 5-69 Shields 0-0 HTK 139 Sensors 6/18/0/0 DCR 12 PPV 105
Maint Life 2,18 Years MSP 1 021 AFR 319% IFR 4,4% 1YR 288 5YR 4 327 Max Repair 175 MSP
Captain Control Rating 4 BRG AUX ENG CIC
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Morale Check Required
Ion Drive EP350.0 (6) Power 2100 Fuel Use 59,76% Signature 350 Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 2 000 000 Litres Range 27,5 billion km (66 days at full power)
Particle Beam-4 (15) Range 150 000km TS: 4 797 km/s Power 10-3 ROF 20
Beam Fire Control R192-TS3000 (3) Max Range: 192 000 km TS: 3 000 km/s 71 67 63 59 55 52 48 44 40 36
Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor R4 (15) Total Power Output 53,7 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS69-R114 (1) GPS 12312 Range 69,6m km Resolution 114
Thermal Sensor TH1-6 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19,4m km
EM Sensor EM3-18 (1) Sensitivity 18 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 33,5m km
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
There was also a pending question of what message was to be sent, but it had proven to be easier than initially estimated. Probably one of the most common types of communicates sent back and forth between Umbara was a movement or investigation order, pointing out at a particular system. Simply sending the name of the star according to Umbara chart alongside the order to "move there" would be enough for the message to reach explorers while not raising suspicion of Achernar. Or, to be precise, raise their suspicion against a possible Umbara move rather than Groaxians attempting to break free. However, a simple Umbara-originating order to fly somewhere wasn't something explorers would've cared about, besides where they were supposed to be sent was next issue awaiting answer. The decision as to where send the explorers was made much easier after browsing through the old journey logs - three systems were determined to be the most interesting candidates, namely Shamshir e Zomorrodnegar. The system was dead, but a large Achernar fleet had been spotted there. Remaining two exploration prospects were Thuan Thien, with Thuan Thien-B I hosting an Umbara colony, something Conglomerate should have taken into consideration more extnesively but lacked the resources and time to do anything meaningful about this information, and Tizona, with Umbara fleet being detected there too plus a total of four planets very likely to host oxygen-based life. The aim of this special mission was initially proposed to be about gathering information regarding possible planets inhabited by Achernar, ideally their homeworld. Conglomerate hoped that if its location would became known, the threat could've been reversed, balancing out this assymmetrical situation, possibly opening up ways of negotiation as well, something so crucial if Groaxians were to ever make it alive out of Dark Forest. Currently there was a painful lack of good search spots, but if Umbara was actively fighting with Achernar then trying to get some information from systems were La or Zenn were likely to be well-established was still one of the better options at hand.
As to how to catch interest of the exploration mission, only one way made it to the accepted propositon stage: claim that the system with the cemetery of Umbara fleet, the origin of Mark of Time, has been found. It was supposed to be a simple message sent by Zenn, telling that "the time has come" or whatever like that and giving orders to pay close attention to the three systems Conglomerate intended to be visited as a starting point, with each one of them playing a "key part". Explorers had direct orders to always try to investigate priority targets like that and of course that mysterious system was the highest on the priority list, so message constructed along this subject was pretty much guaranteed to cause desired reaction and make the fleet move where it was needed, even if crews serving in it would end up having a wrong idea as to what their real task was about.
After reiterating through the accepted strategy for one last time, Conglomerate meeting on the subject has came to an end, at least in theory. The entire plan of finding and threatening a permanent population of Tempestsaurs (or their main fleet in case of more nomadic lifestyle like Umbara Commune after embarking from Zenn-La) to build symmetry in an asymmetric conflict didn't look very convincing. While explorers were bound to react to the message the way it was expected, how they were to find what they had to look after seemed to be beyond current imagination of the Conglomerate. That was very hard in itself, and the fact explorers weren't to know what they are in fact searching for added another layer of forced complexity. And the risk of enemies blocking Groaxian space figuring out the plan was still there, even if limited to minimum. At the end of the solar watch this was still the safest attempt proposed and discussed.
But such approach was highly controversial, and that had nothing to do with the risks involved and whether it would all work out. To threaten with a deadly broadcast was something no Groaxian had every thought of doing before, so for this to become an official Conglomerate-approved strategy sounded plain horrifying. Times were brutal and survival was at stake, as always since the first Groaxian starship has left Qi, though very likely long before that, but was that enough of a justification to do as much as threaten a world to be destroyed and all its inhabitants killed? But that in itself still wasn't nearly as worrying as something different. There was something wrong. The idea of a "counter-threat" was proposed all too quickly and moral dilemma hadn't been brought up until all strategic and technical details were thoroughly considered and worked through. Somehow it felt natural for these suggestions to be made. This impression was likely reinforced by the concept of "restoring balance" thrown as an argument as to why Achernar needed to be approached the same way as Groaxians had been by them. Was the state of mutual deterrence natural, too? Or, more precisely, was it in the nature of Groaxians to commit to such acts without feeling too weird or ashamed of them? The possibility of something yet undiscovered in the nature of the same species for so long didn't seem like a viable explanation, but whether this could be, influenced by Dark Forest, next step of evolution was a separate case. Most members of the Conglomerate still remembered the historical breakthrough of first Groaxian object leaving the atmosphere of Genesis and the solar watch the Conglomerate itself had been formed and still remembered how things were before. For them to come to such conclusion was a sign that maybe soldiers weren't the only ones who needed retirement, for the sake of the entire civilisation to not to move on further through the sloppy path of slowly adapting to more and more horrible deeds one could commit among the stars and accepting it "for survival's sake".
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PATH OF INSANITY
3420-3435 AM hibernation cycles
Shamshir e Zomorrodnegar was even more dead than when it had been visited for the first time, because Achernar weren't there anymore. All celestial bodies orbiting either of the three stars have been scanned in detail, but there was no trace of the enemy. Full spectrum deep space scanners didn't pick up any messages left whatsoever either. In that system, space felt the way it should - vast, calm, silent, also dead, with life being a rare miracle rather than common occurrence. But the pioneers of space expansion hadn't come there to just gaze at the stunning views. They were on an important mission that could serve as a turning point in war with Umbara, allowing insight into the genesis of their civilisation as an interstellar species. Why exactly Shamshir e Zomorrodnegar was put on the search list nobody was really sure as there was nothing specific there and no Umbara presence has ever been noticed on any of the planets or moons. Two next destinations sounded way more logical, though, with Umbara presence spotted in both, though the Expedition of Insanity was still a well-remembered event and to go visit these cursed and dangerous stars once again instead of exploring in the Crack vicinity and see what had remained yet unseen. Stakes were too high and orders clear, unfortunately. Curse of the Dark Forest had succeeded at tainting even the pure and innocent exploration. Nothing was the same anymore.
In Thuan Thien nothing interesting has been detected either besides already known terraforming candidate which was a moon too cold for habitability, but with traces of methane in the atmosphere and a deserted planet with oxygen in the air on which Umbara colony has been located. It still lacked any infrastructure suggesting the ability to reach space on its own and no fleets had been stationed nearby at a time. Having nothing better to do, Groaxians stayed at a safe distance for the planet, trying to monitor deep space or intercept any communication between it and whatever else it might attempt to get in touch with, but this yielded nothing particularly specific. Overall the colony seemed to be quite inactive, almost dead. Possibly something was up. Maybe Zenn were indeed well on their way to close yet another time cycle and the La extermination had been going on for quite some time already.
At last Groaxian fleet emerged in Tizona system, a perfect colonisation destination if not for the dangers lurking around every planet. This time no Umbara fleet had been observed guarding the system. Possibly it was too far to be detected, possibly it was not even there. Whatever had happened since the last visit, explorers were now free to scout the system, explore alien environments and try to come up with a satisfying conclusion to be presented in front of the Conglomerate. From the planets with oxygen in the air, Tizona V was the easiest one to terraform. Average temperatures matched Genesis perfectly. It was a large planet offering lots of space for perfectly balanced cities, but a bit denser than Genesis and with thicker air, making both pressure and gravity a bit high, but tolerable, especially with the first problem being fixable by Qive stations. It was mostly dry, though, with ice sheets covering only one fifth of the planet and a bunch of snow fields here and there. Dry fields of rocks was a common sight. That didn't mean life wasn't present there, far from it. For the dry conditions and a very high oxygen pressure, toxic even for the other oxygen-breathers encountered so far, it was bustling with life. Across dry fields six-legged, thick-skinned organisms were walking around. Their forehead served as a sturdy hammer, finished with a sharp horn. Both tools were used to smash and cut through the rocks. When it was all muched to the point of reaching gravel structure, sucking apparatusses sticking out of every leg were used to directly consume the prepared rocks. It was found out the digestive system of these animals allowed them to eat rocks and was good at extracting every tiny bit of organic matter from them before expelling them out of the body. It turned out the rocks weren't as dead as previously estimated - colonies of bioluminescent fungi covered vast areas, brightening them up in the night so that species feeding off them had an easier time locating them. The gain for these colonies from being eaten was the fact they could not multiply and grow on their own in the frozen drylands. They required the microclimate of a rock eater's stomach to remove the protective shell and allow them to merge and split in the pool of acid. Most of the fungi obviously died by being consumed, but some were lucky enough to escape with piss or breathing system and reinforce local population.
To much surprise of the xenobiologists, though, ice sheets were completely dead. A crucial part of the genesian ecosystem did not exist on this world at all. Instead, very deep below the ice, liquid water existed. In these dark abyss lurked horrors surpassing the most dangerous and fierce warriors of Genesis. Swimming saucers wrapping around their victims and choking them to death was one example. They seemed to be unnecessarily cruel, though, with only minority of their prey being eaten. Most of the time the killing was done simply because they could. But despite their body construction allowed them to take a beating and still recover easily, there was only so much they could've done when their natural predators, always hunting in pairs, would grab them simultaneously from opposite sides and stretch until their bodies were ripped apart. Sometimes the hunters would fail to catch the prey, because they were too busy fighting themselves and cannibalising on each other. The bed of the abyss, reached only by half the probes sent and the other half making their way to the deepest depths only thanks to the advancements in pressure-resisting hull structures engineered while coming up with fuel harvester designs, was covered with strange rocks that were not rocks at all. They were quite bulky and heavy species that evolved their own natural anti-pressure cabins and muscle mass huge enough to allow them to swim up to the "higher levels". They were observed to be dragging other species with their sheer mass down to their domain until the water pressure was too much, collapsing the victim's body into itself. Groaxians observing the recordings of the probes were utterly disgusted. Seas under ice sheets were deemed to be basically a Dark Forest on a micro scale. Some felt no terraforming would help this doomed place, even though the argument was completely irrational and it was the best choice for colonisation in Tizona despite its darkest secrets.
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Tizona IV turned out to be a letdown. Upon closer examination, the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere was barely noticeable. The pressure was only one tenth of the one on Genesis in the first place, making the brightest stars visible even during solar watch through the sparse air. As if this wasn't enough, water existed only in the form of two small ice sheets near the poles, leaving the surface dead and empty. No traces of life have been discovered. There was no organism in the entire universe to settle down on it naturally. Despite being closer to the sun, it was also much colder, not having a thick atmosphere to contain at least some heat. No Groaxian could ever live in such low temperatures.
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Next planet to be explored was Tizona III, with still low pressure and amount of oxygen, but obviously much higher than on Tizona IV. And that's where things became interesting. As the fleet closed in, multiple signals were detected, both across the surface and in orbit. This must had been the very opposite of a dead world. It was expected to be an Umbara colony, but the signals from orbit didn't really match what was known about Umbara at all. Instead, a few of them were assigned by scanning algorithms to belong to the second alien civilisation, first encountered in Eckesachs. It wasn't something to be expected. Looking after the mysterious wrecks and Umbara history, a world belonging to the civilisation still vastly unknown and not understood beyond what Dark Forest Theory was suggesting.
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Visuals that came in from onboard telescopes were stunning and every member of the mission wanted to set their feet down on the surface, but it was a possibly hostile world, so observing from distance was the only way. The planet seemed to be bustling with life, sentient and not sentient alike, as if it was inviting Groaxians to be explored. Groaxians hanged around for a while. It didn't take long to take notice of two fleets arriving into the system and a total of three leaving towards the unknown. Explorers wanted to believe they can't be seen from the range they had been occupying, but the problem was that even if they were detected, unless the aliens wanted to open communication, there was no way to tell after such a short period. The situation got much more complicated and stressful when space began to bend in strange ways not too far away from Groaxian temporary position. It was too late to get away before space straightened up again and alien starships, one by one, flashed in front of the onboard radars as their interstellar propulsion was switching off. If there had been any detection-related doubts before, in a time span covering a few deep breaths they were all clarified. The aliens knew. And they probably knew that Groaxians knew that they knew, too. Cybersoul mainframes autmoatically switched scanning mode to full spectrum and soon the logs were overflown by a sheer amount of bizarre signs. Before leaving Qi, xenolinguists still struggled with translating them, so there was no way to tell what it meant and given the proximity of their world it couldn't even be said whether Groaxians were the expected addressees of the messages. Soon one of the ships involved in the encounter fired a gravitational blast, demonstrating its capabilities to be based on the same concept as Groaxian gravitational weapons. Why only one of them fired was an interesting question. Especially given the waves were too weak to threaten the integrity of well-armored Baernoloths. What was even stranger was that a blink of an eye later they fired once again, this time leaving a more visible impact on the fabric of space, messing up with the former wave they'd sent. A warning was the simplest explanation, but Dark Forest Theory left no places for such concepts. Whatever the case might be, Groaxians had no time to think about it anymore, busy with engaging Curvature Propulsion Systems and getting the hell out of the danger zone. They might have failed their mission, but they still found something disturbing that required an immediate report.
The scope of the problem was beyond their expectations when several hibernation cycles later they emerged in Qi only to instantly detect several alien fleets positioned around key locations in the outskirts of the system, effectively making leaving it without having to come too close to them quite challenging. They rushed towards Genesis, freaking out about suddenly getting killed, but for some strange reason the fleets didn't move much and there were no signs of a battle going on, not really signs of Groaxians preparing to intercept the intruders. They still remained puzzled when they learnt Conglomerate Defense Fleet was defending Conglomerate that time quite directly by escorting several members into orbit of Genesis to arrange a meeting in space as to not waste time for planetary landing. Whatever had been going on when crews serving on Baernoloths were in deep space, must had scared everyone to death given nobody involved in arranging the emergency orbital meeting was seen in good health and shape. Even standard Mind Synergy Ceremony got skipped in favour of exchanging information ASAP. Still shocked from all the mess going on, explorers had barely managed to share their reports, all sensor logs and claim that their mission had failed, because none of the systems they'd visited contained anything related to the origins of Umbara, finishing with their observations on the Umbara inactivity and the discovery of a large alien-inhabited world on Tizona III.
They expected everything except the Conglomerate thanking them for excellent service and surpassing what was expected from them. Nobody before had been thanked so much for a failed mission, but at this point none of the arriving crewmembers was able to get more confused. Eventually this confusion started to be replaced with rising sense of dread and primeval fear when Conglomerate officials started explaining all the events surrounding the Endpoint War. Messages intercepted in Tizona were quickly translated. It was yet another warning. Why Tempestsaurs had issued yet another warning, as if giving a second chance, was strange, but only for the explorers who had missed several hibernation cycles. Tizona was only 11 hibernation cycles away from Qi. Broadcasting Qi coordinates was a very risky endeavour. It was likely both stars would get exposed. Sending coordinates directly from Qi was reducing the risk, but it was still there. Dark Forest Lords were very likely to think that another civilisation was involved beyond the one they were about to destroy and start searching for the senders as well. And discovering traces of interstellar flights between Qi and Tizona was possible. Or they could just annihilate Qi together with all nearby systems "just to be sure". As such, fulfilling the threat was suicidal for Tempestsaurs. As a consequence, exactly suicidal was fulfilling a counter-threat from the Groaxian side.
Before the emergency orbital meeting has come to an end, communication endpoints on Genesis detected incoming messages. Tempestsaurs Of Achernar wanted to talk. The historical moment of first proper conversation with an alien race was about to begin, but the circumstances were far from the ones Groaxians dreamed about when looking at the night sky. Soon Tempestsaurs Of Achernar introduced themselves. Their tone appeared as non-hostile, but it was just an illusion.
Tempestsaurs Of Achernar: We see you're smart... Had no way of checking if there are any ships of yours somewhere out there and you played your assets well and efficient... For a while we really believed Umbara tried one last desperate assault or something. Go ahead. Share your findings with Dark Forest.
Groaxian Conglomerate: We know how this goes. Can we get past the classic "i pretend I don't care" stage and discuss what really matters?
T: We really don't care. The goal of our species is not survival. No individual can live forever, no civilisation as a whole can either. Everything comes to an end. Even time.
G: Then why were you so hesitant about broadcasting? Why all this? Why not just simply fire and forget?
T: We weren't sure whether to push the button or not, that's correct. But it was not because of the suicidal nature of this move. It's because we are afraid of things currently beyond your understanding.
G: What are those things?
T: The universe as we know it it's on its way to collapse if things continue this way. And that's a good thing. The cycle will be complete, although everything that happened and existed through it will be permanently lost, but a new one will begin. But if not for effort of us and countless other civilisations, the universe would have expanded indefinitely, eventually dying out from entropy increase and reaching a state when nothing besides free-roaming photons in an eternal darkness exist.
G: We understand the possible outcomes of the universe's timeline coming to an end. Collapse and rebirth or entropy death are both valid theories. But what does it have to do with two photonic missiles, one for Qi and the other for Tizona?
T: Photonic missiles... Such primitive, savage technology would be too unfortunate and indeed would make this broadcast go to waste. But currently in our galaxy there are entities with far more advanced devices and we expect it is likely those would be used instead.
G: What are you talking about?
T: Ever wondered about the black holes suddenly appearing all over the place? Stars collapsing even if they were nowhere near massive or small in diameter to do so? You don't think it's a natural phenomena, do you? You've mastered Curvature Propulsion and soulgrain mechanics, you are not that stupid.
G: What do you suggest? Dark Forest Lords? How?
T: Oh yes, yes indeed. We don't know how. We're too primitive hence need to rely on coordinates broadcasts. If we knew how to do it, we would generate a nice black hole in the center of Qi and Mimung ourselves without making an appearance.
G: Still haven't answered as to why you haven't pushed the button yet.
T: We try to maintain equilibrium... From what we know about your civilisation, that should be very easy for you to grasp. Call advanced civilisations too many times over too small area and the additional black holes will be useless in the grand scheme of things while wiping out too many races that might start to send their own broadcasts as they spread. That's why we can't overdo it. Also if we die together with you, we won't help this universe anymore. Can't get us killed too soon. But the time is indeed coming to an end it seems, so might as well do that right now.
G: That's insane. That's not what equilibrium means. That's pure evil and destruction.
T: Maybe for you. But we see things differently. And we want you to understand, too. If things continue the way we wish, in a relatively short time cosmic-wise everything will collapse into one giant supermassive black holes, first galaxy-wise but then such strong gravity will pull the galaxies closer and closer, entire clusters of them, until it all collapses into one soulgrain singularity. This singularity will explode, though, giving birth to a new universe and a new cycle will repeat. The current one got started in the exact same way. The way the fabric of space behaves... It's all a proof everything had been sucked into a black hole at some point, until it began to spread again.
G: How can we believe this is not all a game of yours? You don't seem too confident in the outcome of the battle of Qi shall one be fought, so you try to break us down the other way?
T: You seem to think Dark Forest is evil... On an individual level it might be, but it's what allowed you to exist in the first place. Precursors weren't first, they were first just in this particular cycle. Countless of cycles of erasing everything with black holes is what kept the universe from dying out. The biggest fear is not Dark Forest - it's that eventually an anomaly will occur, with the civilisations somehow not applying the sacred rules that bound the matter together, sentencing the universe to entropy death. Dark Forest is what got us all this far. Your beautiful civilisation was able to rise only because of it. Embrace it. It's everywhere, even on your homeworld, even in your genes, because you were all born from it. Dark Forest is not a force of destruction: it's a force of balance.
No fleet would make it in time. Soon readings confirmed the gravitational waves carrying Qi coordinates were spreading at the speed of light across the universe in every direction. Before Conglomerate recovered from initial trance, all alien ships warped out of the system. Blockade has been relieved and space was peaceful once again. There were no traces of anything ever happening there except from the countless logs recorded. Conglomerate wasn't willing to believe the intruders, but them actually pushing the button and then simply leaving was a worrying sign. But wasn't it all a bluff? There was no way to make sure Tempestsaurs hadn't colonised space somewhere else, somewhere safe from the imminent attack. Sacrificing one colony was well worth destroying their enemy from their point of view, especially they might as well evacuate it to minimise losses, maybe even completely neutralise them shall they have enough time and lose only the system itself, but nothing of what belonged to them. That was a simple explanation, and simple explanations were often true.
Despite different opinions on the topic, Conglomerate came to a conclusion no significant strategic or tactical error have been made as every military action Groaxians might had attempted would face same response, which was especially clear after the button had finally been pushed. Explorers were the only chance and they did their job as good as they possibly could. Once they returned, no military fleet would make it in time to destroy each of the alien squadrons before at least one ship would be able to do the deed. But if Groaxians were on losing position since the beginning and had no way to prevent what had just happened, why would the aliens bother with all their show. That was not quick, silent and economical, something every Dark Forest Strike should strive to achieve. A worrying sign was also the fact that the theory about the universe being a product of all matter being sucked into a black hole at some point accompanied Groaxians ever since first among them had left Genesis as it was encrypted in a monolith among other early human theories about the nature of the universe. All in all, whether it was all a mystification or not, "Dark Forest is not a force of destruction: it's a force of balance" played on repeat in the minds of Conglomerate and circulated quickly via Transcendent Speech across larger and larger groups.
With entire civilisation now officially on a timer, Project Ascension was the only hope left. Before retirement, Conglomerate passed one last declaration, mobilising both the army and civilian population to focus on preparing for retaking the Precursor complex from the apparently severely weakened Umbara. Combining the findings of the Ancients with knowledge stored in a monolith seemed to be the key to completing the project, or at least so did soulseekers studying the monolith believe.
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BRAVE NEW WORLD
3436-3441 AM hibernation cycles
Quick medical examination confirmed all members of the Conglomerate had at least a mild case of Dark Forest Disease. When last of them had been placed in an emergency hibernation, a new one had to be elected, from younger generation to ensure long-lasting and unobstructed leadership to guide Groaxians through the cosmic fires of Dark Forest, all the way into Ascension.
An official election had to be announced, with the closest advisers of former Conglomerate responsible for smooth organisation and having decisive vote themselves, but every citizen being welcome to participate in the discussion that was a mandatory step preceding the final vote, moreover, with every citizen being allowed to candidate provided they could pass intelligence test to prove their capacity to take the lead. Within thirty solar watches, a list of candidates have been completed and published for everyone interested to take a look.
Chi'Shosujaj, Clan of Arkaits, Mental Cooling Squad officer
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Chi'Shosujaj expressing tranquillity that overshadowed the sky behind him with purple after awakening from hibernation, 3495 AM
Chi'Shosujaj, born in Thoania Rift in 3382 AM hibernation cycles, was one of the older candidates, but still having yet to reach the middle cycle of his life. Having received solid education from the finest soulseekers, he seemed to grasp more than others. His complicated spawning process, involving a total of two genetic fixes from a middleman on Yatune, hadn't set him back, in fact it was the key trait that allowed him to succeed. He was a prime example of Groaxian nature, always hibernating and waking up on time, constantly in love with the precisely balanced ecosystem of Genesis, his mind strong and untainted by the horrors of Dark Forest. From his first solar watches his parents knew he was gifted, but that did not make him arrogant. He was always there to help others when periods of instability would strike or when someone's brain temperature got a bit too high. But thanks to the essence he got from middleman on Yatune after a bunch of his genes requiring a fix, he was also capable to grasp the nature of war as well as he was able to understand the culture and history of his species. Such rare and perfect combination of knowledge of war and peace merged in one soul is what made him remain calm during Operation QiSet as the Lensia he served on was falling apart under heavy Umbara fire, saving a lot of his colleagues not only from death as they rushed for escape pods, but more importantly from insanity, spreading his calm posture via Transcendent Speech. After the battle he received a direct proposition from the Conglomerate itself to oversee Mental Cooling Squads protecting citizens on Yatune as his talent was better spent on preserving Groaxian nature than to have him risk his life too much. That he was always ready to fight is what allowed him to resolve most of the interventions he was personally involved with peacefully, because he used the knowledge of Groaxian violent essence to his advantage. His candidature was seen by many as a chance for Groaxians to take only truly unavoidable battles to come while leading the race towards restoration of the shattered minds and restoring the balance as it was before Groaxians were aware of Dark Forest.
Ghu'Zhasovix, Clan of Caaneik, soulseeker
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Ghu'Zhasovix carefully gazing at the monolith and talking with its creators via Transcendent Speech, shining dark purple from the light emitted, 3420 AM
Ghu'Zhasovix, born in 3400 AM hibernation cycle, started his career as a scientist working on improving the Curvature Propulsion System, inspired and encouraged by the discovery of a the Crack, trying to make FTL travel possible beyond that region of space. Having failed that, later in life he took a path more akin to a soulseeker, having excelled at wielding Transcendent Speech, he was redirected to work with monolith, focusing on understanding the Human nature and the way of thinking of that ancient civilisation. His collaborators often mentioned he was so invested in this job he really began to think like a human even during his free time. However, despite the blood-drenched history of this civilisation, he managed to only take the best aspects of this race, namely scientific curiosity, eagerness to explore and will to cooperate and help each other. When he signed up for the Conglomerate election, his supporters claimed he will be invaluable asset at uncovering the path to Ascension, wisely guiding researchers through the arcane of sometimes irrational human mind, showing which parts to focus on the most and in what order to yield best results.
Zu'Zhuchuziv, Clan of Thrustrax, Human Space Fleet admiral
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Zu'Zhuchuziv in a cybersoul reactive combat suit painted in expressions calling for battle on board of a Pike, 3431 AM
Soon after spawn in 3411 AM hibernation cycle in the rising colony on Sodara, the middleman enlisted for fuel shiponing in Iether, fascinated by the wonder of a planet without surface. Unfortunate enough to participate in beginning of an Endpoint War, but showed great degree of steel nerves and cool mind as the ship the middleman was assigned on descended deeper and deeper into the clouds to face the unknown. But such expousure after barely arriving in this universe hadn't come without any consequences. This experience resulted in leaving Mimung and moving in to Yatune to cooperate with other middlemen in their experiments on cybersoul-based internal implants and genetic modifications, despite the latter still being forbidden to leave the lab and reach the general public. Overall it didn't take long before Dark Forest Disease was diagnosed as the middleman expressed more combative approach that average Groaxian. Calling for the Groaxians to rise and stand up to Dark Forest, killing or be killed, initially couldn't gain much support, but the fierce warrior spirit boiling inside is what made the middleman advance through the ranks up to the rank of a fleet admiral. However, with such attitude and opinions Conglomerate Defense Fleet was off limits. Instead, Zu'Zhuchuziv had been taken care of by soulseekers responsible for teaching the human way, thus directing the violent side into something more tame and structured, ultimately leaving to the middleman taking the lead of Human Space Fleet. More conservative Groaxians refused to give support for this candidate, but it was also pointed out that times were more difficult than ever and with Groaxians on an extinction timer someone not afraid of pulling the trigger was a sad but neccessary addition to the highest level of command.
Lhu'Zhothamum, Clan of Nihmu, explorer
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Lhu'Zhothamum in front of her personal orbital shuttle visiting half-terraformed Sodara before heading out into deep space, 3420 AM
Ever since she was born in 3390 AM hibernation cycle, she looked at the cosmic watch sky wondering what's out there, set on following the path of an interstellar explorer. Focused and practically approaching every challenge thrown at her, she quickly caught attention of more experienced space pioneers and was allowed to take part in the memorable expedition that discovered the Crack. Her expertise was of great value in figuring out that Groaxians indeed travelled faster than light for the first time in history back then. She surveyed lots of alien worlds during her career, wisely using soulgrain mechanics-based evolutionary emulators to determine past and future of the ecosystems visited alike. Having seen so many planets, she saw more clear than others than the nature of Groaxians, albeit beautiful, is sub-optimal, to put it euphemistically, at surviving the Dark Forest and wished more would see why evolution and change shall never end - just because Groaxian nature was the way it was at a time did not mean it was never to change, to evolve into something better, to adapt to the ever-changing circumstances, to continue existence despite challenges thrown by Dark Forest. Most of her supporters lived on Yatune or in Mimung, but even on Genesis she became quite popular. On the one hand she openly admitted to wanting to change some fundamental parts of Groaxian nature via genetic modifications, but on the other hand her idea was less about making the race more combat-oriented, but rather to allow them to handle Dark Forest in a way that would ensure Groaxians came out of this as unscratched as possible, with modifications allowing breeding of a new kind, one immune to the Dark Forest Disease and requiring more mental beating to be thrown out of balance, ultimately reducing the overagressiveness of certain groups and clans and building a more stable society despite unstable era.
Cho'Shuvewus, Clan of Qakrons, hunter
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Cho'Zhuvewus traversing ice in Ez'uts in search of a prey near the end of hibernation cycle, attempting to claim one more trophy before hibernating, 3421 AM
Cho'Shuvewus spawned in the Ez'uts Fields region in 3417 AM hibernation cycle and spent all her life hunting rare, valuable animals for food, the ones that were deemed too pure for anyone to attempt to tame and breed them artificially. While it sounds like a simple job, it required lots of expertise as to carefully select targets, time period, frequency and check tons of other circumstances before pulling the trigger as to not damage the fragile balance of Ez'uts ecosystem. Spending solar and cosmic watches all alone with her ancient kinetic rifle out there among nature, she possessed an unique bond between the civilisation built by Groaxians and the biosphere evolved on Genesis. She felt she understood what the hapless race in turmoil needed to get back to how things were before, while her hunting experience was something her supporters advertised as a great strength: soulseekers hoped her hunting knowledge could be extrapolated to the Dark Forest Theory and understanding of the prey-predator relationship between two civilisations, especially from the hunter's perspective which could help gain insight into the ways the ones who attack think and act. Her lack of interest in politics was worrying, but at the same time if she played that trait of her well she could be used as a mediator when lack of united voice would interrupt Conglomerate's work.
Ghu'Shositigh, Clan of Fizers, Conglomerate advisor
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Ghu'Shositigh on his way to the Conglomerate meeting regarding sending a message to explorers during Endpoint War, 3417 AM
Ghu'Shositigh sacrificed his right to vote in the incoming election in favour of candidating himself. Ever since his spawn in 3397 AM he'd been actively participating in many public discussions and his smartness unlocked the career of a Conglomerate advisor in front of him. He strongly opposed any changes to Groaxian nature, but he was the last one to be ignorant of the challenges thrown at the entire civilisation at the same time. Spending a lot of time with soulseekers discussing the nature of societal processes and changes undergoing in Groaxian society and even studying medicine for some time and the correlation between soul and biology, he was well-informed about the harmful effects Dark Forest had on the species he wanted to represent from a scientific side. At the same time he was educated enough to be aware of how accurate Dark Forest Theory is, but instead of falling into despair retained enough willpower to continue his push towards saving the values and tradition of Groaxians regardless of the odds, treating as an enemy not any particular alien race, but rather Dark Forest Theory itself, with Project Ascension being the best weapon to be used in this war.
Xi'Watipath, Clan of Kondrin, Tempestsaur
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Xi'Watipath analysing mental map of a patient involved in a negative Mental Synergy, 3406 AM
Her career couldn't be more typical to other Tempestsaurs - after throwing out enough useful ideas during Clan-wide conferences she eventually earned the title of a Clan Master in 3399 AM hibernation cycle, only 14 hibernation cycles after her spawn. She was especially gifted at handling complex Mental Synergies, when a bunch of Groaxians had their brains overheat, but even after resolving the conflict, negative thoughts would continue to circulate among them because a negative feedback loop had been established via Transcendent Speech, not allowing any of them to drop these thoughts because they were constantly receiving them from the others, like bullets ricocheting in a metal room. To untangle such situation without causing harm to the Groaxians involved required a lot of time, patience, mental strength, but most importantly extreme faith in everyone involved and someone who could reliably do so without much trouble has always been a perfect candidate for a Tempestsaur. Medics had diagnosed her with something that, out of better terms, has been named as "internal feedback loop condition" and was truly bizarre. Basically her brain operated in a way that made her experience Mental Synergy with herself all the time which is why she felt so comfortable interacting with the others experiencing the same. As if that wasn't enough for her to become quite popular during the incoming election, her observation skills were exceeding the ones of an average female, making her one of the most perceptive Tempestsaurs in history, hardly missing the truth and key points of a problem in her judgements and actions. The gap between her skills in that regard and the ones of other females was almost as big as the gap between observing ability of an average male and female. As a member of the Conglomerate, she hoped to be able to leverage her skills to "untangle the problems persisting in the modern society".
Wo'Bepexut, Clan of Thraar'iels, astronomer
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Wo'Bepexut in front of her favourite stars during a cosmic watch, 3413 AM
Following a typical female career as an astronomer since 3401 AM hibernation cycle when she had spawned on genesian ground, there was nothing about her that suggested she might even be interested in candidating, having her observation skills best used in her field of choice. However, after other candidates have been announced, she felt that in such shape the Conglomerate would lack required expertise from a purely astronomical standpoint. Dark Forest Theory originated from certain facts about the universe, after all, so having someone contribute to the research revolving around it was a valuable addition if Conglomerate's decision was to be made on the basis of analysing the situation from all possible points of view. In her opinion, understanding the scientific foundation for Dark Forest Theory or the actions of Achernar in regards to contributing to having the universe collapse back into soulgrain singularity was the key to fight it and to adapt to the universe.
We'Duhadaz, Clan of Zeere, artist
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Artistic vision of We'Duhadaz and a human being watching ground-constructed space station being raised above Earth's sky, 3393 AM
Born in 3383 AM hibernation cycle, We'Duhadaz started his life by becoming a soulseeker dedicated to finding out possible common traits between Groaxians and Humanity. His research had yielded less results that he wanted, though, and as a result he followed a different path - he wanted to express his feelings towards Humanity via art. At first glance his works might appear monotonous, always portraying a Groaxian and a human together on planet Earth the way he imagined it, but after taking at least a few moments to watch them one was able to see the uniqueness of each piece. In his art style inspiration by human culture was omnipresent, with paintings and picture compositions taking the same form as the ones made by humans. He justified his candidature by pointing out that it all started with Humanity sharing their gift and entire civilisation being founded on that, hence Conglomerate needing someone capable of thinking about Humanity in a way that'd allow for a smooth first contact. This approach was highly controversial, though, because meeting humans was a far-fetched goal no Groaxian had an idea how to tackle and art alone wasn't enough to figure it out. On top of that many assumed that shall the Humanity finally reveal itself, extreme cautious will be required because their motives behind not destroying Groaxians weren't understood and the universe was a Dark Forest. From the other perspective, an addition of an artist could introduce frequent positive Mental Synergies during meetings, increasing the odds of Conglomerate not doing anything against the nature of the race unless absolutely necessary.
Pa'Voxihik, Clan of Krovrans, Conglomerate Guardian
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Pa'Voxihik on the way for the training session in Qusmont underground facility, 3422 AM
Spawned on Sedara and joining Conglomerate Guard stationed there in 3419 AM, Pa'Voxihik was just an ordinary soldier, albeit showing a great degree of understanding when it came to both modern tactics and the history of Groaxian warfare. Despite never seeing combat, the middleman excelled at simulations and officers were proud of him, believing the middleman would perform well in any battle to come. What was worrying is that Dark Forest Disease was affecting the ambitious soldier, but Pa'Voxihik had refused to retire, claiming likely being lost already personally, but it's a sacrifice young middleman was willing to make to ensure others can continue to thrive and enjoy the wonders erected by the perfectly balanced civilisation. Pa'Voxihik had his own vision about direction Groaxians should turn into. The proposed "lost generation strategy" was about pushing for establishing an army of volunteers willing to undergo drastic training and nature overriding to carry out what was necessary so that after this generation passes away no Groaxian would have to undergo through such traumatic experiences ever again. In some way this proposition resembled Declaration of Human Rights taken to the extreme and probably that's the sole reason the middleman gained the amount of support gained.
It came as quite surprising that out of well over two billion Groaxians alive, only ten were interested in taking the role of a Conglomerate member, but on the other hand the responsibility was much higher and situation way more challenging than back in the day Conglomerate was proclaimed. Advisers responsible for casting votes had mixed feelings about the election. Perhaps their responsibility was in some way even greater than the one of the leaders to come, because depending who would end up being selected, Groaxian civilisation might take radically different turns and shift its character to pursue vastly different ideas, possibly venturing into dangerous territory of militarism as well. On the contrary to these worries, a large portion of population expressed hope that the new Conglomerate, whoever might become a part of it, will carry the weight and save Groaxians from Dark Forest, guiding them towards Ascension before the timer ticks down to zero and unavoidable Dark Forest Strike comes.
-
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Everyone important was preparing everything for the first few discussions preceeding the Conglomerate election, trying to hurry as to not waste any solar watch because time was so precious after the deadly broadcast. But there was only so much that could be done when one of the advisors, closely monitoring development of space forces and one of the Declaration of Human Rights supporters, showed first symptoms of Dark Forest Disease. Technically he was still capable of voting, but concerns were raised as to whether his vote would reflect his true soul instead of being affected by rapidly deteriorating health. So far it was already a well-established practice that the ones affected would end up retired, on the other hand the moment was critical. Questions as to whether breaking the balance by introduction of retirement was a good thing, even if getting sick was also of same consequences, were asked again. And despite best efforts, doctors still lacked an effective treatment, even after so many hibernation cycles worth of research. The single case wouldn't probably influence that much, but when within ten solar watches another three advisors started having trouble with talking, breathing and digesting and repeatedly lost focus during meditation, something needed to be done. Before anything constructive has been brought up, though, several more advisors as well as a few other Groaxians directly cooperating with Conglomerate felt sick.
On top of being seriously worrying, it was also beyond the comprehension of medical personnel. So many Dark Forest Disease cases popping up at once in short time frame in the past had always been linked with one particular tragic event, for example an entire crew falling sick after being fired upon, but this time there wasn't anything like that. Sure, the broadcast could be described as such event, but it wasn't something affecting precisely the Conglomerate and whoever it was collaborating with, being a more global, and as such distributed, problem. Dark Forest Disease was not infectious, having a purely psychological background, but that statement was put into question when most of the advisors were already sick. Everything was thrown off the balance, making election impossible. Some experts demanded the Conglomerate members to be awakened, but being ill themselves, their capability of taking the lead before the election crisis would be resolved was questionable at best and would likely not end up better than ill advisors selecting new Conglomerate before their health would deteriorate further.
As these pending topics were discussed, Dark Forest Disease started manifesting in a larger groups of population. It spared no one, soulseekers, scientists, engineers, technicians, industrial workforce, mental cooling squads, doctors, explorers, terraformers... Unlike in all previous cases before, there was no pattern. Nobody could predict anymore who will be next. Industry and services on Genesis started experiencing slowdown as solar watches went by and balance, already disturbed by the events of the last hundred hibernation cycles, took a beating. The end of 3439 AM hibernation cycle was nigh and everyone feared incoming hibernation. Relatively few cases were manageable, but large portions of society at large not being able to hibernate properly could have apocalyptic consequences. With no more time to waste, sick advisors changed the election rules, hoping to not only elect strong leaders, but also restore order at the same time. All candidates had one task to fulfill: end the rapid spread of a Dark Forest Disease and preserve the societal structure. It was expected that how each candidate approaches the crisis would also determine the kind of decisions likely to be made in the future. Microelectronic cybersoul readers prepared a complex set of simulation tools serving the purpose of extrapolating approaches made by the candidates to a new set of problems, likely the ones they'd face as Conglomerate officials. After a few more controversies, Conglomerate members were awakened with the sole goal of overseeing the candidates to control their power.
Zu'Zhuchuziv was the first one to come up with a plan. The middleman reminded about one of the experiments conducted in Qusmont labs. technology for rapid tissue expansion and cybersoul-based machines for shaping it into any organical form desired were widely used in medicine to heal wounds or replace corrupted organs, capable of even completely replacing all of them in case of advanced stages of most severe diseases. But that was just a mere entry point to more advanced cases. Bioengineers working with this technology predicted it was capable of doing much more, for example regenerating whatever part of a brain required replacement. The research on this part was mostly theoretical, though, with a few of experiments with animals here and there. Groaxian applications were strictly prohibited by Conglomerate. The plan of the candidate was nothing more but to continue the suspended project and replace damaged parts of the brain with a new tissue. This posed a significant challenge as to not override any personality trait, but at the same time with the way Groaxian brains worked, in theory one part could be replaced freely as the remaining nodes, spread across whole body, would easily handle the workload. The one crucial thing that wasn't clear was how the brain would react after the transplant. Cutting out a part of it was perfectly safe and at worst would only make the patient think a bit slower or remember a bit less, but what would happen after insertion of the replacement was a mystery. In theory patient's soul should flood it with own stream of consciousness, but purely theoretical risk involved it starting to "think on its own", forcing its "mind" onto the patient. After a few of emergency meetings Conglomerate finally approved a next set of experiments. Its focus was to grow replacement brain parts that hypothetically could be used to restore sanity of the affected and later attempt to communicate with them via Transcendent Speech, first tried by healthy Groaxians, then by the sick ones. Further approval or disapproval of this approach dependent on the results.
As labs on Yatune were reactivated with full power, Xi'Watipath decided to tackle "the biggest challenge in her career". She believed the rapid and sudden, infectious spread of the well-known disease was possibly some kind of Mental Synergy originating from exhausted members of the old Conglomerate and took the burden to slowly untangle it. Cooperation with experts on the matter actually led to a first breakthrough - it was indeed a Mental Synergy. To further add to it, it was possible to happen at any moment and with the complex network of Transcendent Speech connecting entire society it was just a matter of time. Maybe that would even be enough to resolve the crisis, except Xi'Watipath was only able to untangle local outbursts of "Dark Forest Nodes" how the clusters of sick patients became referred to, but it was not possible to restore Groaxians back to a healthy state. This still would have been enough to at least stop the spread and buy time, but all Tempestsaurs united weren't fast enough to prevent new cases from popping up.
The research was not wasted, though, as it became confirmed that Dark Forest Disease has been spreading like a pathogen and quarantine orders could be set in place. Pa'Voxihik and Chi'Shosujaj took the lead in this complex task. Unlike with typical infectious diseases, simply isolating the cases physically was nowhere near enough. Patients had to be cut off from the Transcendent Speech network. Quarantine this harsh was expected to severely impact all areas of work, not allowing teams to collaborate with each other, plunging Genesis further into chaos. Pa'Voxihik took a more radical approach, demanding a total lockdown of affected areas whatever the cost, meanwhile Chi'Shosujaj preferred a more "modular" approach. The plan of the latter was based on the advantage Groaxians had from the fact that Dark Forest Disease, being of purely mental origin, had no incubation period. Because of that, each group of Groaxians directly communicating with each other was assigned a Tempestsaur who would immediately get to untangling shall someone from the monitored group get sick while everyone was supposed to be quarantined unless confirmed there are no new cases and everyone is safe to get back to daily life. This plan had one significant drawback, though - there was not enough Tempestsaurs to handle entire population and thus groups needed to be prioritised based on their latest activity within the network and risk of coming into contact with someone already infected.
Having isolated himself from all the mess going around, Ghu'Zhasovix decided to study the monolith in peace and the history of the ancient civilisation who left it on Genesis. He understood it all happened before. Once upon a time Humanity faced a deadly plague. Not for the first time, and apparently not for the last (though the pace of progress in medicine afterwards made that particular one the last truly devastating pandemic), but that one was special. It spread across the Earth back when fancy biotechnologies were still a dream and science fiction for Humanity, turning most of them into horrible abominations devoid of what they once were. Most of the population was killed and a new government rose, taking the lead and uniting all survivors. Shortly afterwards a new era began. Humanity had no limits in experimenting with cybersoul-based body implants, genetic modifications and sophisticated mind-reading and mind-control. While for Groaxians feeling each other's thoughts was natural, for Humanity, emphasising the importance of a personal freedom (or rather an illusion of it), concept still widely misunderstood among Groaxian society and likely conflicting with balance, it wasn't something trivial.
Ghu'Zhasovix tried to understand the consequences it had for humans and later try to translate it to Groaxian society, attempting to predict how the crisis would impact it. Especially given the plan with growing synthetic brain parts and replacing the ones with tainted toughts with them looked somewhat similar to the side effect of human battle against COVID-19. He believed that so far nobody really tried to answer this question and because of that implementing any of the presented solutions was too risky without additional research. He came to unique conclusions: dawn of bioengineering and transhumanism on Earth was strictly correlated with Humanity coming close together and giving up on internal wars for a good while. As some remote association, it might be compared to the intended balance of Groaxian society in ideal state. Ironically, in case of humans, all the things many feared would threaten the balance even further, for humans seemed to have a different outcome, at least short term. Obviously it was not a solid argument given the fundamental differences on a biological and neural level, affecting everything from the simplest tasks to the thinking processes and perception of time, but it was still a hint of some sort.
Lhu'Zhothamum quickly picked up on Ghu'Zhasovix's work. COVID-19 on Earth was a kind of crisis that precisely took away the nature of infected humans, turning them into mindless, overaggressive even for human standards, restlessly-wandering, raw flesh-eating cannibals. Since the pathogen wasn't neccessairly killing, but instead often turning humans into monsters devoid of any values shared among this race, it was a good comparsion to be made with Dark Forest Disease, similarily affecting the nature of a patient in a negative way. And it was the change, the constant evolution that allowed Humanity to prevail. After the pandemic they evolved into something different, achieved a society never seen before on their homeworld. Implementing it on Genesis obviously sounded like a horrible idea, but at the same time one important detail was worth of noticing: human nature remained mostly intact. It was only later that it was changed in some cases, with abusing Transcendent Speech and ideas like Project Amazons. But Groaxians were rather safe from this particular threat, because with Transcendent Speech being natural the risk of doing something against the nature while tinkering with it was low.
Resurrected research on Yatune yielded first promising results. Grown brain tissue was devoid of any thoughts. It was possible to use Transcendent Speech to communicate with it, effectively using it as a remote-controlled device or data storage of some sort, but on its own it was worthless. Groaxians who connected with these artificial parts of brains reported no feelings of discomfort whatsoever and psychological evaluation didn't show any changes in personality. However, that was just the beginning, a mere proof of concept. Meanwhile Dark Forest Disease was spreading, Tempestsaurs were overwhelmed with new cases popping every solar watch and a hibernation cycle was about to end. And big trouble about to start. As the entire ecosystem on Genesis was falling asleep and coming to a halt, preparing to regenerate at the beginning of next cycle, ill Groaxians could not hibernate properly. They entered a werid state, on the one hand not being able to rest, on the other not being able to work anymore as their bodies were too worn out to carry them anymore. There was not enough medics to take care of these patients and help them overcome their difficulties. The period of rapid atmospheric pressure changes and methane level fluctuations was about to begin. Temperatures were falling down far beyond comfort zones.
Amid the panic caused by the first time in history a large portion of society faced trouble with hibernation, Cho'Shuvewus stepped in. Her survival expertise gained during countless hunting trips, sometimes really pushing at the edge of what was considered a safety deadline for hibernating to catch rare prey, was what made her feel she would be able to lead the restless masses through this troubled period on Genesis. She concentrated on building a set of heated encampments with regulated methane intake from outside air to survive the worst climate conditions, basically an improvised version of space habitats like the ones protecting from the toxic environment of Yatune. But simply surviving the brutal climate of the planet at this period was nowhere near enough to ensure affected Groaxians won't face severe health problems, lower productivity and shortened lifespan in the future.
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Si'Gitithus, overseer of one of the encampments for the sick to survive the final act of a hibernation cycle, checking the methane concentration in the air
Simultaneously Wo'Bepexut (as always) turned her head towards the stars and decided to temporarily evacuate as many Groaxians as possible into space, to give them chance at well-prepared for hibernation-related troubles spaceships and space stations. Quarantine in such case was easy to do and very effective: load Groaxians on board, fly away far enough to prevent any Transcendent Speech communication and if nobody was sick at that point, another batch of Groaxians was considered successfully evacuated. The capacity of space infrastructures or evacuation to Yatune and Sodara was far from enough, but at least it allowed to face a problem already reduced in scope.
To further help the sleepless population, old Conglomerate agreed to increase the usage of cybersoul-based autonomous machines. So far it was hesitant of introducing too many of them into the industry as to not break the balance, but at that stage it was a necessity to compensate for the lowered productivity. It felt surrealistic: dead machines working solar and cosmic watch among deserted cities and factories while ice storms strike against them and with many Groaxians fighting in heated encampments to finally hibernate and sleep well till a new cycle begins. Despite everyone's best efforts and all the progress made, the pandemic of Dark Forest Disease was about to change Genesis forever. With balance completely thrown out of the window by the unfortunate chain of events, Groaxians overseeing the global battle knew the civilisation was taking a turn into the unknown. To adapt to the new reality while preserving the original values and eventually rebuild the balance was a huge task future Conglomerate was to undertake, regardless of who would end up becoming its member.
-
Frozen, lifeless wastes of Genesis, with eerie silence interrupted only by the sounds of ice cracking during extreme winds and steady march of precisely engineered machines smelting titanium, steel and plastics and shaping new vehicles, machines, weapons, tools out of them, looked different at the beginning of 3440 AM hibernation cycle. Not only because of the rise of machines on an unprecedenced scale, but also because too many Groaxians were left awake to witness it with their eyes, not only from orbit, but from the surface too. Aaccording to human history, this picture would combine several apocalyptic visions for them. Either cybersoul revolution or permanent winter caused by unleashing too much energy compacted into grains of matter, but the outcome was the same. Their scientists observing Groaxian homeworld from Yatune were amazed how such rich ecosystem can thrive under such violent and radically changing climate. It was not their fault - what for human beings was a definition of apocalypse, for every alive entity originating from Genesis meant a perfect equilibrium of life cycles, the one and only true model of existence.
With the technology at hands, surviving the storms and cold, winds and lack of food sources was no trouble in terms of keeping biological functions in check (at least to the extent Dark Forest Disease and its influences over digestive and breathing systems allowed), but to be awake through such time, too tired to work at the same time, did not treat the minds of the Watchers kindly. Survivors of the deadly conditions of a transition period between hibernation cycles formed their own societies over the course of extra solar watches they had at hands, even though nobody was able to see Qi from the surface through all the frozen clouds forming in the lower parts of atmosphere, later literally crashing down to the surface, raising dust and snow to further fuel the unceasing blizzard. Enough Groaxians became Watchers for a new concept to raise and circulate among them, something not possible to emerge with the amounts of Dark Forest Disease patients from before the pandemic. They were no longer centered around the idea of balance, but instead took the idea of adaptation as their main guiding light. Instead of trying to lay down for sleep, the need to be productive overriden the desire to hibernate. They proclaimed that from now on, they would no longer hibernate, living shorter, but getting more of each hibernation cycle, hoping to get roughly the same awake time as the rest of population. They would work and rest according to regular schedule no matter if it's Qi shining upon clear skies or icebergs raining from above. They would adapt to their lifestyle and eventually build a strong society capable of adapting to Dark Forest as well, ultimately leading the entire population light hibernation cycles away from the area possibly affected by Dark Forest Strike in some uncertain future.
The greatest irony about the entire situation expressed itself in the form of who took the lead of the Watchers. It was Ghu'Shositigh, the very Conglomerate advisor strongly opposing any form of change, let alone something no Groaxian had dreamed of before. Awakened from hibernation by the more skeptic Watchers requesting him to "do something", he faced little opposition when claiming the title of a Piercing Watcher. Interestingly, most Watchers expected the title being given to a female because of the great observation skills leaving males and middlemen far behind, but at the same time it was a clear symbol of adaptation: things were about to change and traditional societal model was no longer considered a valid approach. This symbol was just an additional advantage, as the deciding factor was obviously the enormous konwledge of sociology Ghu'Shositigh was representing.
Things weren't so simple. At his core, Piercing Watcher never rejected his older beliefs. He simply saw what other, more conservative (or rather, in that case, a bit less sick) Watchers did not: that opposing this radical change before things cool down was pointless, and there was a task of surviving till everyone else awakes at hand which was the best short-term goal to be had. Ghu'Shositigh hoped to have as many positive interactions with everybody as possible as to cool down the boiling minds of the Watchers in the long term, possibly allowing them to calmly fall asleep when 3440 AM hibernation cycle would come to an end.
Rest of the society, the healthy ones and the few sick who somehow hibernated for most of the time despite their condition, did not believe what it saw when the temperature rose again and all life returned to the surface from ice pockets. They expected to see their machines turning on all the facilities, preparing them for overtaking by Groaxians employed in them, but instead they saw a thriving society about to start another busy solar watch. The plans to have the patients hibernate all failed. They were quickly introduced to the idea of adaptation and the structure of Watchers, but these concepts were too much to understand. Pandemic was still raging, claiming more and more victims, and as if that wasn't enough, old Conglomerate and candidates for a new one had to face a total revolution happening. Nobody before could reliably predict hypothetical scenarios of a large chunk of population not hibernating, but now everyone had a possibility to directly study the results. Zu'Zhuchuziv requested to start experimenting with the Watchers to verify whether the experiments with brain replacement tissue would work with them too, meanwhile Xi'Watipath wanted to check if the ideals of a new group were something more than good, old, well-understood by her Mental Synergy. Unfortunately, that time it was not. Transcendent Speech had its contribution, but doctors and biologists could only conclude that the changes in psychology and views presented were simply a total mess originating from doing something no Groaxian should ever attempt to do, especially with a large group of other risk-takers.
A breakthrough on Yatune was announced shortly afterwards. Watchers not only were able to use the "spare brain parts" like evryone else, but it also turned out that after having genome sequence enriched with a tiny bit of small modifications to alleviate for missing hibernation, their mental condition was improving while doing so. Ironically, this was exactly what Watcher's ideals were about - as test subjects believed themselves, their adaptation allowed to pave the way towards ending the pandemic. Under the pressure of new cases constantly being detected, old Conglomerate approved moving onto the next stage of experiments. A brave middleman from Qusmont, pretty seriously ill by then, was selected as a first one to undergo the operation. During a complicated operation, every part of the brain showing parts of corruption or taint was cut out. Then the patient was brought to consciousness just to verify everything was fine, and except predicted difficulties with thinking or communicating via Transcendent Speech, everything was within norms, so doctors received the final clearance for the last, most delicate part. A set of new brain parts, carefully shaped to lay perfectly within patient's body, forming the structure as close to the one present before getting infected as possibly, were inserted into their slots and merged with the rest of organism.
And, without anything eventful, the patient woke up and stood up after the operation had been finished. Tension rose across the room and in front of every visualisation screen displaying the live transmission, but nothing seemed to be happening. Then the patient simply walked towards the window, watched Qi shining bright over clear horizon, breathed in fresh methane from the outside and expressed tranquility. "Could the universe really be a Dark Forest" were the first words every Groaxian saw forming around the middleman. The results... They were... too good. After so much time after the discovery of this theory, to have someone question its validity sounded strange at best and worrying survival-wise at worst. Groaxians, put on extinction timer, could not afford to waste it wondering whether the universe really operated the way it operated. But at the same time the outcome was hopeful: it served as a proof that a total reset of Groaxian society was doable. The "lost generation stragety" proposed by Pa'Voxihik was examined in a new light and gained more support than ever. And in the latest version nobody would technically have to end up "lost". Do what needs to be done, evacuate the race to a new home far from Qi and cure the society only after the imminent danger is avoided were the new points raised by many.
Many soulseekers noticed how important the event was - for the first time, Groaxians truly took control of their own nature. Like it had already been proposed from time to time, the best way to fight was to defeat enemy with its own weapon - in this case overcome the corruption of nature by purposefully overriding Groaxians via artificial techniques such as genetic modifications and body replacements, for example. But that gift was not only a gift - it was a dangerous weapon as well. It was possible to completely purge the Dark Forest influence and restore the balance, but it was just a matter of a few experiments to likely do the opposite. This had proven to be a significant existential issue, because the achieved consensus obligated Groaxians to return to their original state after all the population had been evacuated, but at the same time if too many Groaxians became bound by Dark Forest they might as well decide to override the remaining few and enter a dark, terrifying age of endless cosmic wars, with Project Ascension scrapped in favour of developing photonic missiles and black hole generators of own design. But a lot were also painfully aware about an opposite risk: restore society to how things were before, leave too little Groaxians recruiting themselves from Watchers or other supporters of adaptation strategy and more military approach and the society would lose all that was achieved in terms of understanding the default state of the universe and likely loose the merciless race against time.
After more thoughts thrown at the issue, all sides involved managed to negotiate a new compromise: exactly half of the population would be cured and focus on Project Ascension, meeting Humanity and other tasks relating to overcome Dark Forest, the other half would be reprogrammed to take responsibility of preparing and later fighting the battles that were yet to come, and on top of that, a new Conglomerate alongside with its closest collaborators would remain how they were, without any genetic modification or mental overrides. Their task would be to carefully oversee the new status quo and intervene whenever they'd see it being skewed towards either side. And finally, when the time comes and either Qi and Mimung are evacuated or Project Ascension completed, they shall be the ones to pull the final switch and restore peace and bring the society to how it was before the interstellar era had begun.
The final chocie made announced members of a new Conglomerate itself. It was supposed to have five members. In recogntion of their efforts during the pandemic and the overall posture represented and vision they followed, Chi'Shosujaj, Ghu'Zhasovix and Xi'Watipath were selected because of how strong they were mentally and how well they all understood the nature and society of the race they were about to guide and protect among the stars. The title of a Conglomerate member was also offered to Zu'Zhuchuziv who was to become main representant of the "Bound by Dark Forest" and Lhu'Zhothamum because the mind of an explorer, fairly open to new ideas, was deemed crucial in maintaining the new order. Pa'Voxihik, despite first coming up with the survival strategy that was, even though after undergoing significant overhaul, accepted, was not selected as the middleman focused too much on one aspect, but instead was given a chance to directly influence the shape of the future military forces.
By the end of 3441 AM hibernation cycle Groaxians have officially entered this new era. Things had ultimately changed, but from that moment these changes were structured and controlled rather than chaotic, allowing for a completely new balance and more mature, evolved society to emerge.
Groaxians still remembered Tempestsaurs Of Achernar saying that "Dark Forest is a force of balance". And as they looked upon what their race had become, they feared that this was the ultimate truth their civilisation was yet to learn.
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BOUND BY DARK FOREST
3442-3449 AM hibernation cycles
Society was slowly adapting to the new post-pandemic reality. Tempestsaurs had more work than ever, because tensions between the two main groups were on the rise. Those left in a state aligning with the original nature of Groaxians often were afraid of this "new generation" existing in such large numbers and having such an influence on the direction the civilisation was heading towards. Ever since the new order became official, their experiments with genetic modification and cybersoul mainframes implanted directly into the body skyrocketed, despite Groaxians on the other side of the barricade believing the line had been crossed way before. The flag achievement of biology and Transcendent Speech was the creation of "distributed Groaxians". Taking advantage of the brain's anatomy being spread all across the body beneath the protective layer of thick skin and each region easily replacing others if needed without much brainpower loss unless a large chunk was already non-functional, leveraging the achievements from fighting the pandemic, scientists found out that there were no constraints preventing to cut out part of the brain, move it somewhere else and the patient would still be able to use it for as long as the separated part was plugged to life support system. With the next-gen soulgrain-based Transcended Speech amplifiers the communication between brain parts was easier even across the entire planet, allowing one to essentially exist in many places at the same time while not suffering from losing parts of a brain.
Experiments confirmed this revolutionary theory and soon first volunteers arrived in a few major cities on Genesis at once. Moreover, that way death from any reason but natural body wearout could be prevented - in case of an accident or rare disease instance only part of the brain, at worst with the main body, would be destroyed while the soul of an individual could still survive in the other ones. But simply having brain distributed across a few locations was not enough - progress in the project saw first adapting synthetic eyes to allow participants of an experiment to see from all their current locations and even machine interfaces for having avatars at their disposal, allowing them to physically exist and interact with the environment in many places at the same time. Unfortunately controlling more than one body at once was too much to handle, but with proper training it was estimated that at least two could be used and it still remained as an interesting way of instant travel and switching attention between places.
This breakthrough was to become a foundation for the future army responsible for taking ruins of the Precursors from the hands of Umbara in Blutgang. Zu'Zhuchuziv and Pa'Voxihik were directly overseeing the rise of a new military doctrine and the first seriously threatening forces of Groaxians coming to existence. The basic component of every formation was elite infantry equipped with latest cybersoul-based heavy combat suits and next iteration of laser-guided plasma rifles:
Dark Forest Shadow
Transport Size (tons) 6 Cost 0,9 Armour 24 Hit Points 24
Annual Maintenance Cost 0,11 Resupply Cost 1,3
XY-5057A3 Laser-Guided Plasma Rifle: Shots 1 Penetration 19 Damage 15
Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Extreme Temperature Combat
Heavy Reactive Cybersoul Combat Suit
Full Spectrum Vision System
Enchanced Eyes
Integrated Aiming System
Stasis Stealth Module
Emergency Hibernation Kit
Transcended Speech Communication Endpoint
Combat Trance Inducer
Combat Synergy Stabilizator
Vendarite 0,24
Development Cost 150
These soldiers went through a harsh training during which they had to master not only the rules of warfare and excel at physical activities, but also enhance power of their minds and learn how to use Transcendent Speech to quickly propagate orders and communicate with multiple Groaxians at once while not allowing it to disrupt their focus on pure fighting. Many autonomous systems, both in forms of implants and changes applied to their bodies were to help them, but they had to be able to control all these components comfortably. These units were directly commanded by a first combat-adapted batch of Tempestsaurs, trained specifically to use their Synergy resolving skills and best judgement in the heat of battle. Despite them forming the bulk of the army, their strategy was to approach silently and launch a surprise attack, supporting the mechanised and vehicular units. In their formations they were also accompanied by Elite Guardians from Qusmont, veterans from Conglomerate Guard trained and equipped with the somewhat cumbersome experimental prototype of particle beam guns suitable for handling by an individual soldier. Many of them were already quite old, still well-remembering the desperate battles with Umbara, but their experience and knowledge about the enemy was unparalleled.
Qusmont Elite Guardian
Transport Size (tons) 20 Cost 3 Armour 24 Hit Points 24
Annual Maintenance Cost 0,38 Resupply Cost 9
HF-3000X30 Particle Beam Pulse Accelerator: Shots 6 Penetration 22 Damage 15
Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Extreme Temperature Combat
Heavy Reactive Cybersoul Combat Suit
Cybersoul Lifting Core
Reinforced Heat-Dissipating Skin Layer
Microscopic Particle Visualisation Module
Full Spectrum Vision System
Enchanced Eyes
Integrated Aiming System
Stasis Stealth Module
Emergency Hibernation Kit
Transcended Speech Communication Endpoint
Combat Trance Inducer
Combat Synergy Stabilizator
Vendarite 0,8
Development Cost 273
Forces responsible for leading frontal assaults consisted mainly of vehicles closely resembling Umbara gliders encountered on the battlefield, but better adapted to Groaxian physiology and handling capabilities. Most interesting feature was experimental cryogenic module which was capable of spitting frozen mixture of gasses right at the ground in front of a glider and keeping it cold enough for them to remain frozen until the glider moves forward, allowing the vehicle to move on ice even in the most scorching temperatures. The reasoning behind this idea was a simple fact of every Groaxian-made thing to be naturally adapted to ice more than anything else, but the positive results and actual movement speed and agility of vehicles gliding on ice no matter the environment surprised even the team behind the project.
Autonomous Combat Glider
Transport Size (tons) 114 Cost 13,68 Armour 48 Hit Points 48
Annual Maintenance Cost 1,7 Resupply Cost 36
HH-3000Z Particle Beam Heavy Accelerator: Shots 3 Penetration 45 Damage 30
HH-3000Z Particle Beam Heavy Accelerator: Shots 3 Penetration 45 Damage 30
Extreme Temperature Combat
Cryogenic Gliding Enhancer
Multi-Layered Nanocomposite Armor
Adaptive Modular Kinetic Shielding System
Transcendent Speech Hub
Long-Range Targeting Module
Internal Methane Recycling System
Artificial Soul Mainframe Advisor
Combat Simulation Endpoint
Advanced Terrain Profiler
Adaptive Navigation System
Full Spectrum Scanner
Onboard Medical Bay
Vendarite 9,12
Development Cost 584
While the default gliders were jacks of all trades, there was also a more specialised version, consisting of both a pulse laser for plowing through waves of enemy infantry and a specialised missile cannon for dealing with heavily armored vehicles and structures. The power constraints from the requirement to remain as mobile as the default model to keep up to them during assault made it impossible to use both weapons at once, but a smart modular system made it possible to switch between them during combat with almost no downtime. For as long as there was spare hydrogen, cybersoul mainframes and titanium left, its crew was even able to manufacture some emergency missile supplies - worse than the fresh batches leaving factories, but still packing a punch more than a dry gun.
Modularized Combat Glider
Transport Size (tons) 110 Cost 13,2 Armour 48 Hit Points 48
Annual Maintenance Cost 1,7 Resupply Cost 39
M5-200 Fusion Missile Launcher: Shots 3 Penetration 75 Damage 30
LX-5000R3 Heavy Pulse Laser Multicannon: Shots 6 Penetration 22 Damage 15
Extreme Temperature Combat
Cryogenic Gliding Enchancer
Mutli-Layered Nanocomposite Armor
Adaptive Modular Kinetic Shielding System
Modular Power Distribution System
Emergency Fusion Missile Synthetizer
Transcendent Speech Hub
Long-Range Targeting Module
Internal Methane Recycling System
Artificial Soul Mainframe Advisor
Combat Simulation Endpoint
Advanced Terrain Profiler
Adaptive Navigation System
Full Spectrum Scanner
Onboard Medical Bay
Vendarite 8,8
Development Cost 574
The main gliders were supposed to be supported by a relatively large bulk of kinetic artillery moving behind them. To reduce weight and cost, these support units didn't have Cryogenic System of their own and weren't gliders at all (though still named as such to stress out their strong connection with main gliders and that they were not meant to be used independently). Hopefully not exposed to direct combat, they were made of light alloys that made a fusion-based liftoff possible, keeping them hovering above the ground at all times and thus move disregarding the terrain beneath them.
Kinetic Support Glider
Transport Size (tons) 98 Cost 11,76 Armour 48 Hit Points 48
Annual Maintenance Cost 1,5 Resupply Cost 36
SCK-7000X500 Space Kinetic System: Shots 3 Penetration 22 Damage 60
SCK-7000X500 Space Kinetic System: Shots 3 Penetration 22 Damage 60
Extreme Temperature Combat
Hovering Engine
Light Reactive Armor
Adaptive Modular Kinetic Shielding System
Transcendent Speech Hub
Long-Range Precise Targeting Module
Internal Methane Recycling System
Artificial Soul Mainframe Advisor
Combat Simulation Endpoint
Adaptive Navigation System
Full Spectrum Scanner
Onboard Medical Bay
Vendarite 7,84
Development Cost 542
Gliders were not all units responsible for frontal assaults, though: for heavy support, Groaxian engineers assembled a monstrous mech units. They were the embodiment of the Reverse-Barricade doctrine: from previous battles it was clear that a well-organised barricade can hold off the enemy quite efficiently most of the time, even if it's an improvised formation from civilian scientific and exploration vessels, but trying to use barricades to encircle enemies had disastrous consequences during Eckesachs III assault. The proposed solution was a heavy barricade breacher, a fearsome monstrosity slower than gliders, but well-adapted to destroy everything on its way while providing a shelter from incoming fire for troops hiding behind it. It was armed with two fusion missile launchers, except these were modified to follow a trail paved by a combat-grade laser, so the target would've already been softened before the main impact. The missiles themselves were two-staged, with an armor-piercing core drilling through whatever it came across and using the friction heat to trigger the uncontrolled fusion in the main warhead. The mech itself was carefully shaped for fast-paced assault, being very short and narrow, but of massive length, looking like a big missile ready to rip and tear through the enemy barricades itself. Turning rate suffered because of this design decision, but at the same time higher speeds were possible to reach.
Blockade Breaker
Transport Size (tons) 132 Cost 23,76 Armour 72 Hit Points 72
Annual Maintenance Cost 3 Resupply Cost 72
M5X-1000A2 Laser-Guided Fusion Missile Heavy Launcher: Shots 1 Penetration 90 Damage 90
M5X-1000A2 Laser-Guided Fusion Missile Heavy Launcher: Shots 1 Penetration 90 Damage 90
Extreme Temperature Combat
Breaching Engine Booster
Heavy Modular Armor System
Adaptive Modular Kinetic Shielding System
Transcendent Speech Hub
Long-Range Precise Targeting Module
Weakspot Detection System
Internal Methane Recycling System
Artificial Soul Mainframe Advisor
Combat Simulation Endpoint
Adaptive Navigation System
Full Spectrum Scanner
Onboard Emergency Hospital
Vendarite 15,84
Development Cost 770
The main composition of the army was complete and first recruits were to begin their training, but then physicists announced a breakthrough possibly affecting the ground warfare as well. Their experiments with Curvature Propulsion System and its interactions with matter present around the bubble conducted on Vrath allowed them to tame the power of warping space heavily occupied with matter. After blowing up many Curvature Drives used on the surface of this hellish world useful only for heavy automated industry and experiments, they discovered ways to direct the gravitational pulse across the surface roughly where they wanted to rather than contracting or extending the ground around used device, burying it with together with the landmass awakened in these genesisquakes. Energy costs were so massive they even caused a few short blackouts for the industry on the other side of the planet, but it was still worth it. Weapons of gravitational destruction was the last final response to Umbara threat, the pinnacle of Groaxian military mind.
Phased Surface Gravitational Destabilisator
Transport Size (tons) 118 Cost 7,08 Armour 24 Hit Points 48
Annual Maintenance Cost 0,89 Resupply Cost 36
GV1000 Curvature Phase Shifting System: Shots 3 Penetration 22 Damage 60
GV1000 Curvature Phase Shifting System: Shots 3 Penetration 22 Damage 60
Extreme Temperature Combat
Heavy Modular Armor System
Antigravity Protection Layer
Curvature Stabilization Layer
Transcendent Speech Hub
Gravitational Tunneling System
Artificial Soul Mainframe Advisor
Combat Simulation Endpoint
Full Spectrum Scanner
Vendarite 4,72
Development Cost 420
Protected by antigravity systems, these mobile gravitational devastators could even trigger a pulse right near them and have its crews survive. Their only drawback was that for the safety of the other soldiers they had to be separated from the army at all costs (and from each other as well) so that the enemy doesn't wipe out half the forces with their destruction as these systems were proven to have catastrophic consequences if destabilised. Keeping them separate meant keeping them vulnerable, though, but for the amount of firepower they were to bring it was decided to be worth the risks.
Such powerful military force raised concerns among the other half of the society, focusing on preserving the original culture and values rather than trying to come up with ways to get better at killing and destroying. The achieved consensus was still solid, though, and the fact that so many citizens are worried was a sign there was still hope left and that future restoration of original balance once Dark Forest has been dealt with should be possible. For the time being, sacrifices had to be made.
The army was getting ready for its first operation on Eckesachs III, but Zu'Zhuchuziv wanted something more to complete the composition and make sure soldiers would be ready for everything. That's how the concept of using combat atmospheric fighters was born. And so both a fighter and a carrier for transporting them were prototyped, mimicking the strategy used by Humanity long before.
Avenger class Fighter 250 tons 10 Crew 117,6 BP TCS 5 TH 150 EM 0
30033 km/s Armour 1-3 Shields 0-0 HTK 1 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 1,6
Maint Life 12,14 Years MSP 58 AFR 2% IFR 0,0% 1YR 1 5YR 11 Max Repair 75 MSP
Magazine 32
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months Morale Check Required
Internal Fusion Drive EP150,00 (1) Power 150 Fuel Use 1558,85% Signature 150 Explosion 30%
Fuel Capacity 5 000 Litres Range 0,23 billion km (2 hours at full power)
Size 16 Fighter Pod Bay (2) Pod Size: 16 Hangar Reload 200 minutes MF Reload 33 hours
Missile Fire Control FC4-R1 (1) Range 4m km Resolution 1
SY-1000A1 Heavy Pulse Laser (2) Armour Penetration: 36 Damage: 30 Shots: 3
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
This design is classed as a Ground Support Fighter for auto-assignment purposes
Raven class Carrier 20 000 tons 442 Crew 2 761,5 BP TCS 400 TH 800 EM 0
2000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 5-65 Shields 0-0 HTK 119 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 53 PPV 0
Maint Life 6,66 Years MSP 2 847 AFR 97% IFR 1,3% 1YR 111 5YR 1 667 Max Repair 400 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 10 000 tons
Captain Control Rating 3 BRG ENG PFC
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months Flight Crew Berths 200 Morale Check Required
Artificial Gravity Field AS Advisor Autnomous Piloting System Automated Docking Guidance Canteen Combat Simulation System Combat Trance Chamber Curvature Stabiliser Cybersoul Hangar Synchronization System Emergency Repair Module Emergency Treatment Section Equipment Repair Workshop Fighter Refuelling Station Fighter Repair Bay Flight Navigation System Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Gravitational Signal Filter Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Onboard Armory Onboard Hospital Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module
J20000(3-50) Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 20000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Internal Fusion Drive EP800,00 (1) Power 800 Fuel Use 25,00% Signature 800 Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 572 000 Litres Range 20,6 billion km (119 days at full power)
Active Search Sensor AS5-R1 (1) GPS 16 Range 5,5m km MCR 497,5k km Resolution 1
Strike Group
40x Avenger Fighter Speed: 30033 km/s Size: 4,99
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Just like humans before, during Blutgang invasion Groaxians planned to launch a swarm of Avengers to help the troops gain a foothold and scout the surface in detail before most soldiers would unload from their brand new transport ships, loosely based on adapted human designs as well, heavily armored to withstand even the most fierce planetary defense fire and provide as much cover for the soldiers as possible, able to both drop them from orbit and land on the surface to give them precious cover for some time. They ended up so massive that optimising them for atmospheric flight was basically impossible, but with so much armor they were expected to just plow through the atmosphere with brute force and survive the air friction and heat just by a sheer thickness of protective layers.
Starhunter class Assault Transport 150 000 tons 710 Crew 8 387 BP TCS 3 000 TH 3 000 EM 0
1000 km/s JR 2-25(C) Armour 16-251 Shields 0-0 HTK 261 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 34 Max Repair 200 MSP
Troop Capacity 75 000 tons Drop Capable Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 4
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months
Combat Trance Chamber Emergency Treatment Section Artificial Gravity Field Canteen Curvature Stabiliser Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module Emergency Repair Module Kinetic Landing Launch Center Onboard Armory Onboard Hospital
JC150K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 150000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 2
Commercial Internal Fusion Drive EP600,0 (5) Power 3000 Fuel Use 3,61% Signature 600 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 2 046 000 Litres Range 68 billion km (787 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Troop Transport for auto-assignment purposes
When the forces were gathered, adequate equipment produces and a fleet of Ravens and Starhunters built, Groaxians were ready to take the mandatory leap forward and win the access to the knowledge of Precursors, overcoming hostile Umbara and moving one step closer to escaping from the Dark Forest. Eckesachs III, with even accounting for the possible development routes displayed by simulators, was estimated to stand no chance and was to become a testing ground before the major battle. Tensions were high, but the precise goal of this entire undertaking was that no Groaxian would ever have to pay such a price for preserving the existence and balance or repeat these steps ever again.
-
KUSANAGI-NO-TSURUGI ENCOUNTER
As hibernation cycles were passing away, from the perspective of soldiers on board of Starhunters only a brief moment passed till the saw Eckesachs from up close. The third planet from the sun was about to get conquered, with everyone fully aware most shall survive, but most did not equal everyone. Xenology specialists accompanying the journey were excited when they thought about setting feet on the Umbara city and discovering what secrets it held, hoping to get anything useful in terms of escaping Dark Forest from them. The journey passed on peacefully, in the exact opposition as to what was expected to happen once the soldiers drop from orbit into the hot atmosphere of targeted planet.
Soldiers grew more confident as they approached the planet closer and closer yet the sensors of Ravens still couldn't pick up any signals from the surface. This meant this lonely, seemingly forgotten colony was really lonely and forgotten, not able to withstand the force of the newest Groaxian army. But no matter how small their force, it was ruled out as impossible that everyone would survive. As the soldiers were thinking about Dark Forest and their role in it, Starhunters achieved high orbit around the planet. Its purple-yellow surface looked exactly like remembered by the last ones who saw it with their own naked eyes, except the actual layout of yellow and purple patches of the omnipresent root system had been changed. The world was still alive.
However, even when hovering directly above the saved coordinates of Umbara colony, Ravens were not detecting anything. This might be their first mission, but the sensors mounted on ships were thoroughly tested and still picked up signs of bustling life in Qi before till interstellar departure. Even after additional checkout and maintenance routine there was nothing wrong with them. A few probes were sent down to the surface, but still no traces of Umbara-made infrastructure could be spotted. Eventually a scouting mission landed on the surface, expecting to be attacked by a surprise from the enemies pouring from below the ground or something similar, but nothing happened. The planet was full of life, but devoid of any traces of intelligent life. Right where the city should have been located, there was only a patch of yellow roots steadily consuming their purple versions. A few of them had already matured to the full size, surviving the brutal cycle of their life barely any young organisms went through without being eaten. Ground excavations did not help find anything either. The fleet spend quite a long time orbiting the planet, with scientists running multiple scans per solar watch and still coming up with new unconventional measurement methods to detect the hidden Umbara force, but to no avail. Eckesachs III looked as if Umbara never set feet on it.
Before Groaxians left, a single Achernar starship was detected quite far away, in between Eckesachs III and II. It must had detected Groaxian fleet too, because as soon as the logs came in, it warped out of the system. They had already sentenced entire Groaxian civilisation to face extinction, there was nothing more for them to do. A grim reminder of a dark future and of the events that led to the creation of the army and fleet carrying it. All there was left to do was to report to the Conglomerate, refuel and head for the inevitable in Blutgang. But the return of the Groaxian army was paired with the return of explorers who travelled to the Crack again. The explorers had shocking news to share.
Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, an already explored system serving as a mere first checkpoint two light hibernation cycles away from the Crack on the other side of it from where explorers expected to take some uncharted routes, turned out to contain an unique finding, previously omitted: as the starships were trying to use one of the moon of Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi IV gas giant as a small slingshot (just to get them closer to the gas giant for a proper slingshot), scanners flashed with warnings about Groaxian distress signal coming from the surface of this barren rock. Out of everything, it was the last thing mission members expected to find out there. "It's a trap!" was an obvious explanation, but why would anyone try to lure defenseless scientific vessels into a trap instead of just blasting them into space dust was a question too hard to answer. But a true surprise was yet to come in the form of the faint signal still originating from a derelict wreckage of a former exploration starship used by Groaxians - Vrilxel. Attacks on exploration missions had happened in the past, but no leader had ever reported a loss particularly in Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. All ships that entered the system had safely left it according to mission data and recordings. Moreover, the planets around this particular star were surveyed when Baernoloths were already in service, replacing Vrilxels, so not only no Vrilxel had been destroyed in the system, but also no Vrilxel had warped in there in the first place. The only thing that was explainable is how the signal still survived, even if it was very weak, because according to the tech specs of exploration-class starships their transponders were able to run on internal battery for hibernation cycles to come so that some solar watch in the future some Groaxian would find their wrecks and piece together their fate.
The discovery on the moon was only the beginning of strange encounters, though. As the explorers continued on their route, this time trying to just get back home and tell the important tale, another popup disturbed them, this time warning about a small Umbara colony detected on the other moon Groaxians were coming dangerously close too. Fearing it might be prepared to blow up stuff in space, expedition leader bruned more fuel than intended just to do a rapid course shift. As soon as she was sure the danger was avoided, more signals appeared on the radars, this time of Achernar origin. A total of seven spaceships of theirs arrived near the moon on which the mysterious wreckage had been discovered, but it did not seem to want to attack Groaxians. After some time they flew towards Umbara outpost and, before Baernoloths steered clear from the gas giant's gravity well and noped out of the system, started blasting them from orbit. Umbara seemed to be capable of returning fire. It was weak, but certainly more than enough to wipe out the exposed exploration fleet.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/857637437157408798/weird_umbara_enc.PNG)
Conglomerate immediately scheduled an emergency meeting. News brought by both explorers and soldiers were determined crucial and dangerous. First of all, from what was known about the history of Bootes Wars waged by Humanity against the menace of Invaders (or rather waged by Invaders against Humanity), the pattern of all traces of intelligence suddenly disappearing from a planet but other lifeforms being left unharmed to thrive was very characteristics to how Invaders dealt with their prey in a Dark Forest. Of course there was no proof, but if Invaders were already wiping out life so close to Qi then the Dark Forest Strike might arrive even faster than expected and on top of that likely having nothing to do with the Achernar broadcast in spite of the fact that from Humans knew Invaders rarely responded to such calls, preferring to methodically clean star after star in a predefined pattern rather than bother with wiping out civilisations at random. The only problem with this explanation was that Invaders seemed to prefer to use space rifts to send their fleets directly from Bootes Void, but with them as well as FTL travel in general not working beyond the Crack it became a serious problem to organise such a large-scale invasion. Bootes Void was millions of light hibernation cycles away, after all, which meant no support for whatever forces were present in the galaxy. They could simply know something about the Black Wall that Groaxians didn't and have the technology to jump over it, though.
The second pending issue was obviously the weird encounter in Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. Databases with information regarding space launches and landings, taken routes, crews, cargo and passengers involved in every flight of every starship that ever left any spaceports, even if it was just a failed prototype that got recalled and scrapped shortly after its first journey to high orbit and back. There was still no trace of anything arriving in Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi and not leaving after. A case of losing contact with a fleet of Vrilxels during exploration of Blutgang for the first time had been brought up, but even the Blutgang Expedition made by Human Space Fleet confirmed the presence of related wrecks still in the system (among many others), besides with the temperature spikes on board no Groaxian could ever survive, let alone fly the starship to a different system with every module failing around.
A mysterious colony of Umbara, probably long reduced to moondust by the time Conglomerate mentioned it, brought up another theory: some Groaxians working on the issue linked the case of non-existing spaceship and its wreck with the case of Umbara fleet which was classified by them as "alien" when their other ships stumbled across its remains. The two cases were fundamentally different because Groaxians were able to recognise their own ship, but while this explanation was purely speculative, it was true that what explorers experienced in one way was similar to what must had been experienced by Umbara when they stumbled across strange fleet of theirs - no matter how hard everyone tried, the conclusion was always that this lonely wreck should not exist and could not be of Groaxian origin. The possibility of either Umbara or Achernar falsifying it was also ruled out as "nonsensical". Achernar fired and forgot and what was left of Umbara after the struggles with both Groaxians and Achernar (possibly with Invaders, too...) could not defend itself by preparing a wrecked Groaxian starship, especially if it was Achernar that were far more aggressive in their campaigns (not including planned Blutgang invasion, but it was only planned, without any visible action having been taken yet). There was also a third possibility, of some "silent observer" studying Groaxians and their wrecks left out there only to prepare one just like them and drop it in some random place, but again, according to Dark Forest Theory such games made no sense. At the very least it could've been the work of Humanity, but then again, for what reason? Besides, it was rather unlikely to be the case also because of the report of analysis of the data about the wreck - it appeared to be roughly as old as the times during which most Vrilxels had been assembled.
Since besides Project Ascension simply searching for a new home far enough from the range of incoming Dark Forest Strike, explorers wasted little time till leaving to continue their mission, albeit this time without stopping in the suspicious system. They flew directly towards Hrunting just to confirm that really no planet orbited this star and travelled further towards Joyeuse. Similar to many cases before, Joyeuse was a pair of binary systems close enough to be classified under one name. The first pair of the stars hosted only two planets, a gas giant and a violent world engulfed in carbon dioxide, but the second one was much more diversified. One planet even had only a bit lower atmospheric pressure than Genesis, but it was composed of nitrogen with traces of carbon dioxide and the world was dangerously hot, making survival without thermal protection impossible. Liquid Water covered almost three quarters of the surface. Scientists were shocked when they discovered the planet was not only not dead, but quite advanced in the evolutionary path given the suboptimal conditions. Most organisms were breathing carbon dioxide. It appeared to be similar to the case of plant life from Yatune, but such conclusion was misleading - flora of Yatune was using carbon dioxide to produce food, meanwhile life on Joyeuse-B II used it to just breathe. However, later it was discovered that their breathing has more common properties with eating rather than classical definition of breathing, though. During each air intake their organism would convert the breathing gas into fuel feeding their bodies, but only for a short while. The nutritional value of a product of one breath was so low it always ended up burned after a few short moments and then the next breath was required. Xenobiologists found it fascinating that these beings were able to starve to death after a short while of not breathing, but at the same time expressed no need to eat from external sources at all. It looked like they got a "two in one" package and their breathing also allowed them to stay well-fed. This made sense in the context of the world being mostly barren, with no plant life at all and toxic, dead waters. The ecosystem looked very inspiring, though, for one simple reason: during the time spent on the surface no predator-prey iterations were observed between various species. They did not need to eat, so they did not need to hunt. They appeared to coexist in a harmony, their own version of balance, eating the same air. This picture of harmony clashed with the high volcanism, though, from which most of the carbon dioxide supply in the atmosphere came from.
Hauteclere was the next exploration candidate. It was a ternary system with two gas giants, three genesian planets and one dwarf planet. First thing noticed was that the system was in an unstable configuration, with three stars having unpredictable orbits and thus planets too. The possibility of even some of them crashing into each other or into one of the three suns existed. Such system should be hostile to all life, but surprisingly one of the genesian planets was overflowing with it. Currently orbiting Hauteclere-A, it was a huge world with crushing gravity, crushing atmospheric pressure with high concentration of oxygen and boiling average temperatures easily reaching sixty degrees and more. Oceans of liquid water spanned across the surface. Lots of young mountain ranges with high peaks and sharp cliffs had been formed thanks to the planetary tectonic movements. In the valleys and patches of open land huge forests grew. The trees were of massive size, like everything on the planet. Despite what was expected from such conditions, rains were of rare occurrence in these lands. And these plants did not appear to drink liquid water. They seemed to need the air to breathe and with every breath filled themselves with a lot of water vapour, quenching their thirst at the same time. Because of this, the humidity of the air was very low and there was simply not enough water in the air to rain. The reason behind such mechanism originated from the fact that liquid water was full of microorganisms that were dangerous for the trees. Because of that, they could not drink the water, but these bacteria could not survive in water vapour, so that was the only way to safely quench the thirst for the local flora. Interestingly, among many animals discovered there was one particular species of tall, bipedal walkers with long, massive legs but very short torso and no head present besides a simple eating apparatus. They seemed to feed by eating the tree trunks directly, however as a defense mechanism their food sources used breathing to produce toxins that scared these bipedal animals off. The legs of the tree-eaters were found out to contain pockets of water in which the bacteria colonies were growing. As such, the animals were getting food by infecting the trees and feeding from their dead, fallen trunks after the bacteria would have finished them off.
Everything else was massive, too. Gravity and dense atmosphere were no joke. There was one particular species that dominated the skies: a massive beast with four pair of strong wings, strong enough to overcome gravity and resilient enough to withstand the pressure. It lived high up in the mountains where the temperature dropped to "only" twenty degrees. They were never observed to come too close to the valleys, though, possibly not adapted to the temperatures down below. Another example of diverse biosphere was a pink blob gliding across the surface. It appeared weak, but the jelly-like structure allowed it to bend however it pleased, without having to worry about getting squashed by the extreme planetary conditions. Its neural structure brought associations with Groaxian brains because it was also a distributed system, this time spanning across the entire body, not just through one layer behind protective skin. The most obvious type of procreation for them should be splitting into more individuals, but surprisingly they had two genders, differed by the density of their body. They merged together and the children would initially all start with a body of an average density, with their gender determined later depending on whether they'd shrink in size and become dense or grow larger than they already were. They were also bioluminescent and the bright pink lights glowing through the night were used by many other animals as navigation beacons through the thick vegetation. This world might be dangerous, but it was so beautiful to look at according to the reports explorers brought home.
The mission was planned to last, but then out of nowhere a fleet of Umbara starships flashed on sensors. Interestingly, it appeared to be damaged. The ships were flying slow despite being military-grade. That alone obviously did not mean anything as acceleration and deceleration caused spikes in fuel consumption so there was nothing strange in keeping low speed if not having to be fast, but quick profiling revealed their engines were damaged. Some had holes in the hulls, too. Damage profile matched particle beam shots as the most probable cause. What explorers were looking at was possibly a fleet of Umbara running away from Achernar. Or some other, yet undiscovered threat lurking out there in the void. Despite it being an interesting case study, leader of the expedition tried to steer clear from them, because damaged did not mean completely harmless. Unfortunately, even best efforts weren't enough. A hail of kinetic fire greeted Baernoloths, instantly shredding one of them and severely impairing the armors of the other two. However, some explorers survived the destruction and launched escape shuttles. Expedition leader knew their fate if they were to be left there. With no time to waste, she ordered her ship to turn around and rescue the survivors. Enemy kept on firing, but Baernoloths had a large speed advantage and at longer distance the fire was less accurate. But as the leading ship slowed down to come back for the survivors, more shots connected with its armor. Predicting how this manoeuvre would end before the ship picks up enough speed once again, on top of the problem of having to come closer to the enemy to collect the shuttles, remaining ships were ordered to come back too and hopefully help spread the enemy fire a bit.
But Umbara insisted on destroying the leading starship, so its crew had decided it had to stop decelerating and needed to gain distance from the enemy to avoid destruction. A few shots had already gone through the armor, killing some of the crew. One of the other ships was elected to collect the shuttles instead. But as the remaining ships came to full stop, before they began accelerating in reverse direction the enemy concentrated fire on one of them. Its armor did not prevail. More casualties were taken. Leading starship decided to try to pick up whoever was spared by high-energy debris piercing through the vessel, meanwhile bulk of the fleet was on their way to meet the shuttles. Unfortunately some of the latter were blown out of the void with more volleys that followed. But even the escape shuttles were faster than Umbara fleet in its current state, so the pickup could be done further from the enemy than initially predicted. A few more holes had been made, but no more ships were lost until the rescue operation was completed. Eventually all surviving starships gained enough distance for Umbara to not be able to lock onto them anymore with only a few more scratches on their hulls, cleared the gravity well of the star and warped out of it, heading back to Genesis.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/857670416340615228/explorers_enc.PNG)
The leader of the exploration mission was awarded by the Conglomerate for her bravery and successful attempt to save the ones left behind. This helped the society move past the tragic loss of next group of Groaxians to the forces of Dark Forest. In the meantime, while the explorers had been cruising light hibernation cycles away from Qi, Ascension Pathfinders, as the invasion fleet had been named, had already left its homeworld, heading towards Blutgang, where the deciding battle was about to be fought. Its results were likely to determine the fate of the entire civilisation and every soldier departing knew it.
-
BLUTGANG INVASION
3450 AM hibernation cycle
Double suns greeted the soldiers the moment Curvature Drives stopped working, space in front straightened and visible colours returned to their normal spectrum. The time has come. Ravens and Starhunters maintained constant speed and drifted silently through the void. That time everyone was sure not everyone would survive and the incoming battle was likely to mean high casualties. The only realistic expectation was for everyone to survive planetary defense lasers striking at the fleet till it reaches orbit, deploys soldiers and leaves the range of these weapons. Radars mounted on Ravens serving as the only eyes Ascension Pathfinders had still could not pick anything. No Umbara presence anywhere. The route to their planet remained silent and clear. Soon Human Space Fleet warped into the system to serve as a rear cover in case of emergency space situations and kept its distance, ready to close in any moment.
Eventually the sensors picked up all kinds of signals originating from Blutgang-A I. A quick comparison with data brought by 3410-3416 AM Blutgang Expedition was made, because something didn't feel right about them. And for a good reason: they were much weaker. A plethora of space-originating signals was reduced to only two spaceships resting in orbit, various space stations, starports and all kinds of bizarre constructions with no clear purpose were non-existent and the surface activity was much lower, as if half the planet went hibernating or something. Moreover, a brief telescope checkout and full spectrum scan displayed the temperature on the planet being much lower, in fact reaching the Groaxian comfort zone. The atmosphere composition and weather had changed, too, now featuring a bit less oxygen and frequent cold, dusty storms. Even on the attached pictures there was less green and more grey on the surface than the last time, the purple oceans also looked kinda bleak. However, all answers were to be found if only the conquest was to be successful.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/858007453517873152/siege1.PNG)
Human Space Fleet accelerated to catch up to Ravens and Starhunters and made short work of the two Umbara ships with the particle beams of Strikers. Soldiers were cleared to close in and descend to the surface. Everyone onboard braced themselves for laser impacts. But nothing like that happened. Ships were closer and closer, with the planet already visible with naked eyes as something more than bright dot indistinguishable from distant stars, but nothing opened fire on them. At first it was expected that Umbara is preparing to overcharge their guns and fire them all at once in the least expected moment, but past a certain distance such strategy stopped being even slightly justifiable. Eventually the entire fleet pushed as far as reaching lower orbit, but still nothing happened. The altitude was so low that no telescopes were needed to see the remnants of the Precursors down below. Their buildings formed hypnotising shapes from above, twisting and swirling in the eyes of observers. There was something in them that brought memories of a few genesian cities. And they all looked very similar to many circuits and patterns of the monolith. This complex was shining with not only reflected, but also its own light, but the rest of the planet wasn't so impressive. Many regions showed signs of rust and decay, with the amount of ruins being at least as high as the number of still functioning cities, with the latter usually being smaller. Some patches of the ground were irradiated. Sea in the horizon looked intoxicated according to surface scanners, although that information was meaningless without comparison with some kind of reference measurements, because obviously this planet had always been toxic for Groaxians. Whether it had always contained so much chlorine was a different question, though.
Finally the decisive moment came. A total of two independent operation units had been prepared for the battle. First wave of soldiers had just been sent to the world down below. First to land were Gliders, both the models used in direct assault and providing kinetic support. Bound By Dark Forest Shadows followed them soon, tasked with taking advantage of the emerging chaos to conceal themselves and prepare for "their moment". Gravitational Destabilisators and Barricade Breakers were to be dropped as a last batch into an already established perimeter. Ravens opened their hangars and a swarm of Avengers began atmospheric entry amidst the roar of dozens of engines fired at once, expecting to dominate the skies not much later after land units would start dominating the ground.
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/858013636474830878/army2.PNG)
First gliders landed on a dark green surface that looked as if someone took a mushy plant and froze it. It was surprisingly good for gliding, though, allowing the vehicles to drive efficiently without having to revert to their cryogenic systems. Sometimes they had to be used, though, because the whole ground was littered with purple patches of creeks and water sources still in liquid form. There must had been a geothermal water source just beneath the ground. There was no fauna in sight, but the vegetation was thick. Many plant lifeforms also looked like a mushy sponges which had been frozen. Some very small specimens seemed to be clinging to life and looked well-nourished, concentrating around sources of liquid water. They were pulsating with warmth. Quite some distance further a dense wall of grey plants began. They looked like a big balloons which were about to explode, floating in the air with only three strings attaching them to the ground. The sky was white and bright, but the two suns above were barely visible through the dense layer of clouds.
But this was not an exploration mission. First plasma missiles came out of nowhere. Gliders immediately scattered, but many of them were already hit. Some of them even suffered critical damage and while not destroyed, were immobilised. Surviving crewmembers rushed for emergency space suits and attempted to get out of the wrecks before another missile would destroy them. As soon as they stepped on the ground, laser beams started pulsating among them, taking their toll. But Avengers in the sky were able to quickly localise the positions of their defense lines and respond with their own laser beams. Due to the concealment techniques similar to planetary defence platforms encountered during Blutgang Expedition, they were hard targets and as if this wasn't enough their bunkers were made of reflective materials capable of lowering the severity of laser exposure. Kinetic Support Gliders joined Avengers shortly after, but they could only do so much from the ground level. Umbaras remained unmatched in their firepower.
Meanwhile Shadows and Qusmont Elide Guardians were landing among the grey balloons. From there they could take up nearby hills and try to walk around the defense platforms guarding access to the perimeter of the Precursor complex, but this plan failed before it even began. Upon movement detection, the plants started erupting with purple-red sticky goo, splashing the infantry and their landing pods. Cybersoul combat suits offered a decent protection both against the temperature of this substance and its corrosive properties as well, but there was another problem with it, namely radiation. The entire field occupied by these plant became irradiated very quickly. The ground itself began to dissolve under the amount of this organic glue, revealing organic remnants of many species that probably walked through these lands before. Further deployment of infantry was put on hold and the soldiers already on the ground had to evacuate from the dangerous fields before taking a lethal dose of radiation their armors could not protect them against well enough. The only way was to join the gliders in their desperate fight over the landing zone, but the plasma missiles flying all over the place left little chances for the infantry in the long term. As a temporary adaptive tactics, Gliders formed a few layers of barricades to help protect the vulnerable infantry. Many couldn't not resist commenting on the irony of going back to the good old barricade setup.
With Groaxians kept in a tight spot, extremely vulnerable for long-range fire, Avengers were to save the solar watch once again. They tried to fly deeper into the enemy territory, hoping to distract them and try to deal more threatening damage right where it hurts the most, but this plan failed miserably. Particle beams connected from the ground into the sky. Some fighters didn't even manage to crash down before exploding with very little left from them. An immediate withdraw of air forces was the only option. An emergency plan to let Gliders charge through the fields of grey balloons was made because they were sturdy enough to completely block external radiation, but Zu'Zhuchuziv overseeing the battle from above rejected it as it'd leave the infantry even more vulnerable than they already were. But then one of the officers leading Shadows to battle came up with something crazy, but effective if done right: since infantry leadership was given to the combat-trained Tempestsaurs, they could unite to create a Mental Synergy among all troops that'd serve as an early warning system: for every individual predicting the trajectory of a missile was impossible until too late, but if they could focus only on a two-three missiles each at most at one time and run their internal systems to calculate predicted impact spot and then use Transcendent Speech to tell this to the ones within explosion range, survivability would increase. Such system required a precise, fast-paced collective information processing, but a Mental Synergy entangling minds of all soldiers at once should be enough to maintain it. With that system in place, Gliders would be free to glide across the irradiated zone.
Tempestsaurs did their tasks well and soon an early warning system of a thousand voices was in place. Paired with joint boosters, increased leg muscle mass and internal stamina injectors contributing to their high mobility Shadows were able to rapidly adapt their location, dancing around the plasma fire. Still, with each volley more dropped dead, but even after Gliders departed they were able to dodge with an impressive success rate. In the meantime Gliders continued their offensive ride into the enemy territory. Eventually they were able to detect Umbara structures and start punching holes with particle beams and fusion missiles of theirs, evening out the situation on the battlefield. The labyrinth of fortifications on the one hand lacked a key defense line, allowing Groaxians for more mobility across the perimeter, but on the other hand with such structure it was a nightmare to locate next targets for elimination.
With initial landing zone cleared, more Gliders could land. However, the trouble with infantry remained. Dropping them down would only lead to more pointless deaths. Main work rested on the crews of Gliders. But at the same time there weren't many reasons not to drop a few Barricade Breakers. The complicated architecture of Umbara defenses harmed their effectiveness, but on the other hand it should be a straightforward and reliable way to deal damage, even if at a slow rate. The key goal related with pushing the battle in the right direction was to get first Gravitational Destabilisators ready to fire. It required a large safe zone, but in return could serve as a surefire way to wipe out any remaining Umbaras without worrying about their exact location. Razing the entire planet instead seemed to be a decent answer to their labyrinth. In the future the usage of this weapon would have to have limitations applied as to prevent any damage to whatever Precursor-made existed on the planet, but till the battle was unfolding far from the complex itself, there were no side effect from firing a gravitational pulse as long as every Groaxian was far away from both the weapon and the target.
To maximise efficiency and create multiple breakthroughs in a short time span, several squadrons of Breakers were launched in many different directions, targeting most concentrated patches of bunkers. Showing no fear, these behemoths accelerated towards their enemies. Anti-armor concentrated lasers enemy had at its disposal besides plasma missiles struggled to get through the thick armor, barely overloading kinetic shielding alone. Moreover, these lasers were registered by the targeting cybersoul mainframes to precisely locate targets for fusion missiles. Counter-laser fire marked them and sent dozens of warheads straight into the bunkers, barricades, trenches and all other kinds of holes in the ground. Dozens, and later hundreds of small suns illuminated the collapsed structures. Temperature in the area increased, first melting everything and later boiling or setting ablaze every living being. Once fast enough, some Barricade Breakers were no longer riding on the ground, but just smashing through everything in a small line, digging tunnels underground or jumping across the cliffs or, if the gap was too wide to cross it, hitting the cliff on the opposite side with a devastating effect to the rocks, drilling through the underground until they could resurface again. Umbaras scattered around, with batches of bunker occupants trying to run away. Shadows and Elite Qusmont Guards were right on top of them, gunning them down as they abandoned their first line of defense. Avengers circled in the skies above, contributing to the mayhem with their powerful lasers. Encouraged, commanders introduced more Breakers to the battle while Gliders took a more defensive role for a bit to help first Phased Gravitational Destabilisators establish themselves on the ground.
Soon after the first achievement of the new army mighty weapons of mass destruction were ready for their first encounter. Their targeting systems left a lot to be desired, but by design they did not need a precise aim, wiping out everything in the affected area instead. Optimised to deal with planet's gravity better, Curvature Drives roared across the battlefield. Antigravity was activated so that the crews handling these monsters were able to survive the pure destruction all around them. Space contracted and expanded around, shaking the ground and liquefying the stressed matter. If there had been any guerilla Umbara unit left within the perimeter, it no longer existed in a living form. Meanwhile accelerated Breakers speeded forward, across patches of irradiated balloons, bubbles of toxic air breathed out by the ground in some places, cemeteries of whatever lived there before and occasional forests of triangle-shaped, brown static organisms lurking around with their small, but numerous eyes. The victory seemed to come easy, except it was not a victory. As the army moved deeper into the enemy territory, hills became higher and steeper, with an occasional mountain or two in the horizon. Also the fields of balloons became more frequent, often forcing infantry to take a long way around, slowing down the march and giving Umbaras more time to regroup and better organise themselves before Groaxians strike again. A bunch of defense installations were sometimes encountered here or there, but they were rarely occupied and never threatening. Most of them lied in ruins. What was surprising, though, was that the bodies and gear left in the half-collapsed pipe-shaped buildings were extremely well-preserved, almost as if the battle had just finished. A lot of them were irradiated or half-flooded. Or both. Whatever preserved the corpses and weapons must had been linked to the specific microclimate of the underground layer of the planet, but the details were left to study for the scientists that shall come if the battle was to be won.
After quite some time of peaceful march, a few cities have been detected by radars, still far beyond the horizon. They were built similarly to the one encountered on Eckesachs III, except larger and with more complex tube and pipe intersections. According to the planetary maps, they were located on a cliff beyond which a large rift in the ground opened. On the other side the Precursor-built perimeter began, the one and only target, the reasons Groaxians were fighting over control of this half-wasted planet. Still, no Umbaras were detected. Instead soldiers took note of a first encounter with local fauna. A pack of leg-less, slim blobs with wide eyes on both ends was approaching Groaxians. They seemed to stick closer to the warmer ground, preferring to glide over the landmass close to the hot water sources. From what was observed, they moved by cyclically attaching themselves and pushing away from the green sponges covering the ground. They were rather small, but very fast.
While nobody could tell for sure whether they're aggressive or not, everybody was certain that a pack of animals won't threaten an army easily handling the intelligent occupants of this strange world. First Shadows which were jumped at by the biological gliders did not do much besides using their rifles as maces to throw the animals off themselves. But that quickly changed when these things were observed to spit acid and then bite right through it, penetrating the armors and killing the soldiers. Concentrated plasma fire burned through the rest of the pack, but it was only one of the first to appear. Suddenly new packs poured from the ground, right in between of moving units. Gravitational pulses were out of the question and particle beams or fusion missiles were ineffective at dealing with these targets. Small arms fire was the best solution, but best did not mean good. Kinetic support providers and Avengers tried to help with the larger packs of the unexpected enemies, but they literally rose from the ground everywhere at once, chewing through infantry units, obviously separated from each other because they expected to be shot at rather than to experience being swarmed by an angry mob of local fauna representatives.
In the meantime the weather began to worsen. Wind blew stronger with each moment and it started to rain. Interestingly, the water falling down was of intense blue colour rather than purple, but barely anyone had the time to notice, busy with repelling to sudden invasion. Since hostile animals were coming from the ground, Barricade Breakers received an order to dig down and try to ram through whatever they found there that spawned these deadly creatures. What was discovered below the surface was not something expected. Instead of natural caverns and hives producing more and more individuals and large colonies of theirs, a complex system of pipes was detected and mapped by underground scanners. Many of them stretched all the way to the surface. In each pipe a stream of the attackers was flowing. Their movements were precise. Too precise. These conclusions seemed to match the ones made by soldiers still fighting on the surface, because as more and more of the furious creatures were killed, it was observed that their internals were in fact purely mechanical. A robotic skeleton in a biological shell, that's what these "animals" really were. It was not local fauna, but another Umbara weapon. Non-threatening to vehicular units or artillery, but deadly for the infantry. While the Breakers were busy with trying to destroy and break as many connections as possible to cut out the influx of new killing machines, weather in the area was busy screwing everything that dared to exist on the surface. Wind was already extreme and dense fog had engulfed the surface. At least it stopped raining. In theory it was no problem for all kind of radars and sensors every soldier and machine were equipped with so the formation was maintained, but simply not being able to see each other impacted the morale negatively.
Soon it started to rain again, but that time it was not water, but missiles. Just as the swarm had almost been defeated, plasma explosions echoed across the ground once again. This time the missiles were equipped with armor-piercing core, because they made short work of Gliders' protective layers, penetrating them and then erupting with hot plasma boiling everyone inside. Groaxians had to scatter, but the logistical challenge of doing so in the extreme weather did not make it easy. Afraid of being left all alone despite their companions really being close to them, just invisible behind the fog, facing constant bombardment, seeing Gliders blow up one after another, some started panicking and terrifying thoughts began circulating through the Transcendent Speech network, spiralling out of control. However, thanks to the effort of Tempestsaurs, Shadows recovered first, reminding themselves about their training in isolation ops. Their true moment has finally came. They were supposed to infiltrate and, if possible, take control of the spotted cities. Gravitational Destabilisators were supposed to direct a few pulses roughly in that area before their arrival to soften up any Umbaras likely garrisoned there.
The storm and bombardment refused to cease, but not Shadows, not the ones Bound by Dark Forest. They closed in, covered under the stealth stasis, having distanced themselves from the main battle. Each city was to be attacked at the same time in one coordinated assault. After the infantry, next to come into action were Kinetic Support Gliders, trying to take key hills in between the urban areas and providing artillery support. The next leap of Groaxians had just begun. At one signalled moment, Shadows detonated breaching charges in many carefully selected places, gaining entrances to tubes of various sizes and height. After that, hell was let loose. Umbaras, stuck in different passages with their guns and barricades seemed to put a lot of effort in entrenching themselves in their labyrinths, but it was all for nothing. They were surprised by the sudden appearance of Groaxian infantry which had bypassed all their layers of defense put in front of the city. Chaotic firefights unfolded, with both sides armed with laser-guided plasma rifles, albeit of a different designs since Groaxian science and military engineering had matured a lot since the first time they reverse-engineered Umbara weapons. Both sides of these battles were extremely mobile, but this factor meant Groaxians were at a disadvantage. Umbaras knew their cities well and were adapted to navigating the mazes of pipes and corridors, meanwhile Groaxians struggled in this environment, something so unoptimised from their standpoint, just begging for harmful Mental Synergies to erupt among the inhabitants over and over again, with no end in sight. Moreover, these tubes from the inside appeared more like a one giant combined building than a set of separate buildings one might expect from a city.
Despite these limitations, Groaxians handled themselves (and their enemies) well. Suited for combat, efficiently commanded by the distributed high command overseeing various skirmishes at once, they operated as one single powerful mind crushing their foes. Umbaras were losing ground as plasma projectiles and beams fired by laser multicannons cut through their armors one by one. From what could be pieced together from their intercepted and deciphered communications, they did not expect Groaxians to develop so well in the military-related fields. Seeing no point in trying to stop the onslaught, they withdrawn from their cities, leaving them all in Groaxian hands. While in theory it was an astounding victory, the question was why they gave up so easily. Sure, Shadows had a surprise attack advantage and maybe better training and chain of command organisation, but Umbaras had the numbers and by the time they left their positions with haste didn't even take so many losses. Also losing a city, let alone a bunch of them, should be a big deal, meanwhile their defenses were stronger at the initial middle of nowhere land rather than right where they should fight the most. And most intriguing, their cities were deserted. Most buildings and rooms stood empty and there was no civilian population anywhere to be seen. It was practically impossible that somehow they all took shelter in the parts that were collapsed after gravitational phase shift preceding infantry attack or all perished in the kinetic bombardment later provided by Gliders.
Whatever the reason might be, Groaxians decided to rest and maybe wait till the end of the dust storm to continue with their attack. Only the wide abyss behind the cities separated them from gaining first foothold in the ruins of Precursors, the only hope for their civilisation left at that point.
-
OPERATION HELLSPAWN
Surviving Groaxians rested in the deserted and half-destroyed cities, cooling down after the heat of battle. Genetic modifications not sparing the brain tissue prevented them from succumbing to Dark Forest Disease just like predicted, but it was more of them being immune to symptoms rather than the disease itself since they were no longer the perfectly balanced beings who once upon a time lived on Genesis. Bits of their original nature prevailed, though, as the layout of the dark and at first sight chaotic tubes and pipes was suffocating, worse even than the towers of titanium and reinforced glass erected by Humanity on Yatune. Most of the corridors were never exposed to either of the Blutgang suns. There was once a xenobiology report about Umbara feeling most comfortable during cosmic watches or underground published and it was the time for Groaxians to see it themselves expressed in the form of urban architecture. Interestingly enough, the cities had no data centers, libraries or anything that could store information processed by the Umbara Commune. Instead, most of the walls were covered in their chaotic (but again, only at first sight) writing. While it might look primitive, a complex system had been found beneath these writings. They were all interactive, with a large network routing the messages to destinations provided by the senders. This raised further questions about the safety of their data as having learnt the language and walk around their constructions looked like the only prerequisites for collecting everything, but proper research obviously had to wait till the conflict resolution. Besides an obvious supply of Umbara combat gas there were also barrels with radioactive wastes found to be stored deep in the underground sections. Oddly enough, they were dropped disregarding any safety procedures. According to known research their bodies weren't resistant to radiation which would be the only reasonable explanation for such disinterest in proper handling of the dangerous materials. Again, another question left open for the scientists.
The storm had cleared out and the cosmic watch began. A very bright cosmic watch, because one of the suns, a weak L-class dwarf shined in the distance, giving not enough light to be worthy of describing as a watcher over this part of the planet but still enough for the cosmic watch to not be as dark as it should, as if that weak dwarf fought back against the overbearing power of millions of stars spread across the eternal darkness. There was something magical about this tiny star barely classifying as one. Some soldiers dreamed about it being the light of Conglomerate opposing the Dark Forest on its march to eat this civilisation just like it had done so with countless others in the past. And for as long as Bound by Dark Forest fought, others still got a chance.
The rift was too wide to even think about crossing it. Technically there was nothing wrong with building a bunch of bridges, but not with the presence of Umbara around, because that they had given up no Groaxian was naive enough to believe. To drill a way down there and then back up on the other hand was a bit safer than if Umbara suddenly blew up improvised bridges with some units in the middle of crossing, but time-consuming. Especially with how deep the abyss reached. Initial geological measurements confirmed that the suits would withstand the crushing pressure down below, but soon an issue spawned, burying the idea of going down and up. The probes sent down there all suffered a critical failure from overheating. Whatever lied at the end of this hellhole meant many soldiers would die while attempting to cross it as it is. Decades of space suits improvements and still some places could beat them with the sheer heat. There seemed to be no way but to find a way around it or call in Starhunters to transport the soldiers to the other side. However, despite radars not showing anything, the Masters were hesitant about the latter because of how vulnerable the army would remain during this lengthy operation.
There was no warning when first missiles hit the ground. That time Groaxians were surprised, because their detection systems had let them down. Moreover, they still couldn't detect the threat. Complex algorithms tracking missiles were only able to pinpoint general direction, but according to other systems it was clear. The missiles seemed to be specifically designed to be especially painful for whoever might find themselves among the tubes of Umbara. They were filled with conventional explosives that were survivable even upon direct hit, but each detonation released a cluster of small drones. They were ricochetting all over the walls, floors and ceilings, making the cities a deadly trap. Each drone carried a small plasma generator that must had been activated by the cybersoul-based autonomous guidance system of each member of the cluster. As Shadows and Guardians from Qusmont were evacuating from their death traps taking more casualties with every moment, Phased Surface Graviational Destabilisators were designated as the best weapon to handle the new threat. Gravity forces shifted roughly in the direction from where the fire came from and the ground roared once again, shaken by the violent forces of the universe.
Just when the gravitational counter-attack had been launched, a large army of Umbara emerged, first on the radars, eventually within eyesight as well. Their gliders, appearing sturdier than the ones who once besieged Yatune, swarmed from every direction. As if this wasn't enough, hell spoke and spitted many squadrons of Umbara fighters straight out of the rift. Avengers were told to focus on air combat as a priority. Laser beams illuminated the cosmic watch sky, at least for those who had the visible light extenders enabled to see the x-rays fired from both sides. Similarity of offensive weapons was the only similarity to be seen, though. Fighters of the Umbara were slower, but filled to the brim with rotational and auxillary thrusters literally on every side of their aircraft. This gave them extreme dodging ability. While the slow speed couldn't allow them to lose fire control tracking, they were very likely to dodge each shot but slightly rotating or making a tiny adjustment to their trajectory in the last possible moment, before hostile x-rays could get to them. Whatever their defensive systems were, it was very impressive for them to field something capable of dodging shots incoming at the speed of light. It was still possible to do with plasma or particle beams, for example, but to predict the shot will be fired and where will land without having any information on this particular shot being fired until whether it connects or not would already be resolved required a complex and fault-prone algorithms to be employed. Especially if they were able to learn the patterns of Groaxian air fighters so quickly.
Cases of humans coming on top of their enemies due to their sudden surges of unpredictable behaviours were known to Groaxians, but Groaxians themselves were not as unpredictable as humans. Even the army undergoing a strict training in the human ways of thinking struggled to mimic this unique trait of Humanity. Because of that, trying to fool whatever algorithms were responsible for Umbara fighters doding most laser beams was futile. At least for the time being Avengers kept them occupied, preventing from contributing to the mayhem happening on the ground. Kinetic Support Gliders, well entrenched on the hills, fired their slugs at incoming waves of enemies but it was only enough to stop some of them. Fearing of being flushed out of the cities which, while less than ideal for Groaxians to move around, at least provided the most solid cover in the vicinity and forced to stay in the open, Overseers of Bound by Dark Forest mounted a risky but powerful counterattack using Barricade Breakers. Biggest of vehicles brought to battle rammed through the lines of enemies, blowing up many of them with their mighty missiles beforehand. Umbaras driving even the upgraded version of their own gliders had no chance while directly impacted by something like this.
The only issue remaining was that the damage done was still limited. Breakers had quickly found themselves surrounded by Umbaras who still pushed forward while the artillery on the rear concentrated fire on the counterattackers. And in order to protect Gravitational Destabilisators, main bulk of Gliders had to be sent to meet their hostile counterparts in advance, leaving only infantry behind who'd end up decimated in the open fields between armored vehicles gliding around and firing powerful weapons. The main battle quickly turned into a bloody mess, with melted titanium-iridium armors, burning wrecks and fried bodies of the ones who didn't take enough heat to evaporate scattering the landscape. Avengers could help a lot with their precise laser strikes, but they could only do so much with Umbara picking them off one by one after dodging multple shots even though from the distance it looked like it was Groaxians who dominated the sky, staying behind their enemies much more often and longer than vice versa. The temporary status qo was given a very short life expectancy and thus another unconventional solution had been brought to the table. Avengers were to withdraw and let go of Umbaras in the air, giving a short window of oportunity for a few gravitational strikes. It was expected that a local space warp around them would simply force Umbaras to fall down and crash due to overwhelming gravity. With the weaker engines of theirs it should be easier to do. Many were expected to be directly destroyed by disorted space as well.
Umbaras instantly began to chase suddenly retreating Avengers, but their flight was short-lived when they found themselves on the outskirts of a local warp bubble, the ones in front of it contracted and crushed, the ones behind it expanded and teared apart. Some smashed against the solid creations of the Precursors, some fell right to where they came from, deep down into the rift. But a few squadrons were far away from the unleashed destruction to survive. And they flew straight above the crews operating destabilisators. It was too late to react before first lasers cut through their protective layers. They didn't go down easily, but once they did, horrible things happened. Before Avengers finished off hostile fighters and ensured air dominance once again, some of the fearsome weapons were damaged beyond field repairs. Most surviving crews managed to safely turn off every onboard device, preventing the catastrophe, but most were not all. Those with antigravity modules still intact after numerous airstrikes survived, but not much around them did. Destruction of the matter and energy unleashed blown out a huge chunk of the ground and another one followed in a massive landslide down to the rift. Groaxians watching this could only imagine the entire planet being ripped apart if a standard starship-sized Curvature Propulsion System was used instead of a carefully prepared, underpowered versions meant to destroy only a small area rather than smash the entire world with just one pulse.
While rest of the army remained far enough to not be directly affected, the space at which Gravitational destabilisators had to be placed, and thus their further usage, became limited. To make matter worse, similarly to the aircraft, Umbara gliders demonstrated higher mobility and thus dominated the open terrain. With them pushing Groaxians closer to the edge of the rift, Shadows had to intervene. Not well-suited for anti-armor combat, but iron-willed, these soldiers were required to move in small groups, trying to sneak in using the chaos of armored warfare and try to attack hostile gliders from a shorter range, hopefully throwing enough EMP grenades to overcome whatever anti-EMP defense systems they migth have installed or try to simply distract them untill particle beams or fusion missiles could deal the killing blow. Overall it turned out quite effective, but at a price of death surge among the infantry basically sacrificing itself for the success of the entire operation. Especially after the cluster missiles had been launched once again, straight into the gliding field, harmless for vehicles from either side, but deadly for Groaxian infantry.
Despite best efforts, two combined armies Bound by Dark Forest took a heavy beating. Trying to prevent exposing flanks, they stretched too thin alongside the rift and the danger of them simply being pushed away from it, right into the depths of boiling abyss was real. A tough decision had to be made: send Human Space Fleet for support. It was seen as an absolute last measure, because heavy bombardment coming from the starships meant likely some Groaxians getting killed themselves. But since the alternative was all Groaxians perishing within the hellish rift if not killed on the battlefield before, needed orders were given. Groaxians had to hold on only for as long as the atmospheric entry was supposed to last. Many gliders were already destroyed on both sides and Groaxians even took more significant losses among the ranks of Barricade Breakers, but eventually four Strikers (gravitational weapons of Pikes were obviously out of the question) arrived above the heads of Groaxians and Umbaras alike. What followed after looked similar to the tales of first desperate Qusmont defense. Particles accelerated to near light speed rained from above, piercing through everything they found on the surface. Umbara offensive had breaken down, though additional deaths on the Groaxian side occured as well. The ones serving on Strikers didn't feel too comfortable with what they were doing, but just like everything else that happened since Starhunters and Ravens descended into the low orbit of the planet, it was justified as a neccessary sacrifice so that others might use the knowledge of the Precursors to save themselves from the very nature of the universe so that the nature of Groaxians might prevail.
At first possible occasion to do so, Strikers ceased fire, leaving it to the survivors from Bound by Dark Forest to mop up remnants of the army of the Umbaras. No further attacks from their side came. The complex, silent and devoid of life, not bearing any marks of successful opening done by the inhabitants of this planet, was awaiting exploration, because Groaxians for sure knew how to access it thanks to the gift of Humanity. Uninterrupted by anyone else, they set up a defensive perimeter on the other side of the rift not bothering with Starhunters, but simply using already present Strikers to just get quickly dropped to the other side, but also leaving a bunch of units on the other side to serve as an early defense line dealing the moment Umbaras try to cross the abyss in whatever way they might attempt to do so. Multiple scouting missions were launched across all planet and all the best gear had been employed for survey tasks, but no large concentrations of hostile military forces were discovered, with only a small, easy to deal with squads protecting some small communities here and there. Shockingly, a total population of the planet was estimated to not even cross ten million. With their army basically non-existent, they were harmless.
Obviously it took a few hibernation cycles for the news to reach Qi and Mimung. The greatest scientific endeavour of Groaxian civilisation could finally begin. Besides the obvious task of exploring the complex of the Precursors, there were more questions sparking curiosity and being of potential importance in the incoming hibernation cycles. What exactly happened on Blutgang-A I, why was such a bustling world largely reduced to ruins and intoxicated with only a few million Umbaras left across the entire planet, how did they maintain such a decently-sized, geared and organised army despite being decimated, likely suffering from a complete societal breakdown, what lied at the bottom of the rift and, most importantly, what to do with the survivors from the Umbara Commune in spite of both Dark Forest being real and Groaxians trying to overcome it kept the brightest minds of the Groaxian society occupied long before they boarded the starships on which they were to leave towards this alien world.
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END OF A CYCLE
3451-3457 AM hibernation cycles
Pioneers arriving in Blutgang started their hard work with building a few solid bridges in key locations to ease the transport across the rift, followed by a small airtight settlement as a base of future operations. Conglomerate members still struggled to agree as to what to do with Umbara survivors, but to get to any conclusion their culture had to be studied in detail first. Best bet was to analyse what data survived in the ruins of their cities. When xenolinguists had a chance to study the markings on their walls, they were able to determine that they did not always combine to the same meaning, depending from the perspective of the reader. When looked from the upside, for example, their symbols could form a completely different expression, yet still existing in their language. This raised a thesis that more important matter is simply coded among these likely unimportant messages and the key to access it was likely to look from the right distance at a right angle and keep reading in the correct order. Possibilities were almost endless with each sign, not to mention some appeared to not carry any hidden messages besides what could be seen as a default meaning, and a large chunk of data was lost during battles, both Groaxian invasion and whatever had happened on this planet before.
Technicians attempt to compress the cryogenic systems from the gliders and fit them into exploration probes who would reach the bottom of the abyss safely, but it was easier said than done. A concept of using auxillary probes to provide the cooling was briefly discussed, but then these support drones would collapse under the heat themselves, making the exploration ones survive only a bit longer, not giving enough time to transmit anything meaningful to the surface. And yet somehow the Umbara fighters appeared from down below. Explanation widely supported across scientific community was that they did not rise from the bottom up, but merely dived into this canyon a bit outside of Groaxian detection range and then resurfaced again, coming nowhere near the bottom. However, the fact that they avoided detection until they flew above the surface during Operation Hellspawn, named precisely after this event, paired up with the phenomena that planetary scanners of Baernoloths sent Blutgang to provide their scientific apparatus struggled to get any sensible readings below certain depth. Possible connotations with the work of Precursors were also excluded, because unless there was a tunnel connecting both landmarks somewhere too deep for Groaxians to see, no Precursor-made structures even touched the cliff and the ones explored by humans never had that deep underground layer anyways.
In paralell to the rift and urban research, a team of soulseekers worked on interrogating whatever was left from the Umbara Commune. Not sure about their hierarchy and societal structure, interrogators had to go through every single one of them and get everything from their heads, no matter how unimportant it might appear to be. Things they talked about initially helped understand their perception of the universe, something xenobiologists struggled to determine when examining the eyes of both alive and dead specimens. The universe of Umbara was dark, primary from the feature of their eyes that could not determine colours. Instead they simply viewed objects as darker or brighter. To further add to this, their sight was described as, due to lack of better words, "mathematical". They perceived world around them in as a complex vector space. Where Groaxians saw a rock, Umbaras saw a cluster of different vectors pointing towars various points of this rock, somewhat similar to the methods used for graphic rendering in early designs of cybersoul mainframes. With that knowledge, suddenly the pipes and tubes as main building blocks of their worlds made sense - their eyesight operated better in a seemingly chaotic, but truthfully well-organised plumbing maze. They were also able to read their writings much more effectively that way, often processing more than one expression in paralell.
Surprisingly, they agreed to help with the translation and did not try to resist. They looked... bleak, just like their entire planet, devoid of the aggression and militarism. Perhaps they were all too well-aware what Dark Forest meant, no matter whether Groaxians attempted to remain a "civilisation of good will" or not. They shared what they knew about their own history. They stumbled across this world and settled down on it, ending their journey through space and time. The ecosystem was alien to them, but surprisingly atmosphere was very similar to the one on pre-apocalypse Zenn-La and many plants were edible. Maybe not that tasty, but good enough to survive and not get problems of digestive nature. Having established themselves in the new home, they planned further expansion. That's when they encountered Groaxians and Achernar for the first time. With the Dark Forest Theory well-known for them, coined by their sociologists even before they left their homeworld and propagated and reinforced through the generations, they had only one choice to make. They lost and were aware of their spectacular defeat, but while Groaxians expected the post-apocalyptic landscape of Blutgang-A I to be work of Archenar since the latter were already observed bombing anything Umbara-made they stumbled across, that was not the case.
Remnants of their civilisation had been betrayed by their own government. Zenn had returned to commit the final wipeout of La inhabiting this planet. What Groaxians had already figured out, surviving Umbaras learned the hard way when one solar watch their governmental fleet turned against them. They disintegrated many ships with orbital lasers, but since many was not all, suffered a crushing defeat. Missiles impacted across the ground, turning eveything they striked against into ashes, causing mass extinction of all fauna, leaving only small bacteria and a few plant species to survive, raised dust into the atmosphere blocking the sunlight and heat, freezing the surface and everything on it. Zenn had left the planet only for the most pathetic reason of running out of ammo. Those few who survived the direct bombardment died from the cold, hunger and intoxication. Surviving army was the only thing keeping them mostly united after the civil war that followed the initial resource scarcity. However, with the truth revealed from interrogated survivors from Zenn who crashed their evacuation pods into the planet, they no longer wanted to inhale the gas. Their biologists found a workaround to sustain their life functions with intaking regular doses of radiation instead. It was still killing them, but much slower than the addiction from the gas which effects on the body had been nullified by expousure to nuclear wastes or certain species of surviving flora. This also explained why in many cases they performed worse during the battle, not having the support of combat gas and on top of that mildly irradiated.
They had no idea what happened with their outposts they tried to set up across nearby stars, but if Achernar hadn't finished them off already, then Zenn for sure did. When asked both about Precursor complex and rift, they could not provide much explanation. Alien ruins had always intrigued them, but they never could figure out how to enter them other than with power so vast it was likely to destroy everything inside. The rift, on the other hand, was once considered as a primary destination for founding a new society. Deep below the ground, in the safety of layers of rocks, protected from the eternal frost by the geothermal sources deep down below the underground layer on this planet was full of... But a few expeditions that were sent to explore this canyon and prepare it for the arrival of Umbaras remaining on the surface never returned untill the military leaders refused to waste more supplies and workforce and focus on adapting to the surface instead.
Survivors provided Groaxians with one more crucial information: Zenn were not done with this world. Dark Forest left no place for leaving even the tiniest chances someone might rebuild and raise from the ashes. It might not be their highest priority since of course repating the bombardment a few hibernation cycles sooner or later made no difference, but from their perspective they had to be sure no intelligent life signatures remain on this forsaken world. As a last desperate measure, the last starship with a functioning Curvature Propulsion System of Umbara Commune had been sent to ideally find a new home or ideally prepare a new expedition lasting through generationsto the Maigh Eo and onwards from there, but it never returned, taking the last glimpse of hope away with it. As soon as the news spread across masters of the scientific operations in Blutgang, one Baernoloth immediately warped out of the system to report the news to the Conglomerate and receive new orders.
Through these hibernation cycles a lone Baernoloth spent cruising towards Genesis, in Qi soulseekers studying the history of Humanity kept staring at the monolith, browsing through countless events, reports, projects, laws passed, world explored and more, until they discovered one case that was very relevant to the presented situation and was groundbreaking in terms of perceiving the Dark Forest. Yagidrerc, once mighty race bringing communication via Transcendent Speech and unity to the next level that was beyond the imagination of every Groaxian, later corrupted by some kind of parasite Humanity struggled with and Invaders experimented with, had found a way to survive Dark Forest, even if they paid a horrible price for it. Having their mind enslaved by the parasite that had contaminated their worlds and brought them towards conquest of many more, they were left completely at mercy of humans who experimented with them. Once they worked around the parasites and started communicating directly with the freed minds of Yagidrerc who survived first battles with human space forces, they tried to help. All in all, NOVA bombs had been dropped on the parasite-covered planet from which Yagidrerc-not really Yagidrerc incursion into human territory had begun, but the few who survived were freed from the influence of the parasites and incorporated into human society. As soon as they were part of the same civilisation, Dark Forest rules no longer applied. Despite some small opposition from the ones Bound by Dark Forest, Conglomerate instantly agreed to start a unification project.
For the first time Groaxians felt they really made a meaningful progress and that Dark Forest was really beatable. Productivity across Qi increased and stability of the balance improved by a bit. Moreover, since Achernar fought with Umbara via direct, conventional warfare rather then leaving them to their own devices, it implied that coordinates of the Blutgang had not been broadcasted to the Dark Forest Lords, with Achernar taking a more straightforward approach, likely wanting to avoid exposing their own world if they could deal with the enemy via direct assault. Of course Blutgang was too close to Qi and Mimung as well, but it hadn't been directly revealed, which was already something. For the first time since dozens of hibernation cycles had passed, Groaxians felt luck of evading Dark Forest Strike might become reality.
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SYNERGY OF TWO NATURES
3458-3466 AM hibernation cycles
Things suddenly took a shift for the better. Groaxians marched onwards, growing more confident in overcoming whatever obstacles Dark Forest might throw at them. When Groaxians overseeing Sodara terraformation woke up from the hibernation in 3458 AM, they found a pleasant surprise - all major species from Genesis have adapted well to the life on the moon, temperature dropped significantly and ice sheets formed on most of the plains. Atmosphere composition and pressure was almost identical to the one on Genesis. Freed from the habitats at last, inhabitants of the moon breathed in fresh, native air for the first time. Best engineers among them instantly got to work and accelerated setup of automated industrial facilities focused mostly on smelting local rich deposits of iridium and aluminium with plastics, so needed in many parts of the starships. Steady flow of these resources was estimated to allow docks to comfortably support many more starships in the future, an essential part if explorers were to find a new home far enough from the possible range of Dark Forest Strike. Next step for industrial development of mimung was colonisation of Mimung III, mostly for its uranium- and platinium-rich underground deposits. The planet's toxic atmosphere and high temperatures excluded any terraforming happening within a reasonable timeframe, but once Sodara industry was up and running, there was nothing preventing the engineers to move to Mimung III next. With these two major centers in place, Mimung was expected to become fully independent and capable of supporting space industry and research in Qi.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/858822257807851560/terraforming.PNG)
Ghu'Shositigh who was relocated by the Conglomerate to oversee the development of Umbara world, since the invasion officially renamed to Scar'am and its moon designated as Phadithea, eagerly got to work as well. With the help of a few Noviers freighters temporairly serving as orbital construction hubs he decided to spend most of hauled alloys and microelectronic cybersoul mainframes on assmbling Qives in order to terraform the planet as fast as it was possible. He was aware much more of these would be needed, because the planet was simply larger and on top of that extremely hostile for any kind of genesian life. At least temperatures were just right, though after replacing oxygen with methane they were expected to rise and the dust was supposed to settle sooner or later, requiring a proper ever-lasting solution to be applied. To further boost the construction, he gave up on expanding Groaxian habitats on the surface, argumenting it with the fact that thanks to the heavy investments in the automation sector from the times of Dark Forest Disease pandemicthere worforce wasn't much of a problem if only enough of machines would be delievered. In his opinion, sending Groaxians to already terraformed Sodara was a better direction for the future expansion. Nevertheless Conglomerate had big hopes with Scar'am, because no matter how good things would seem to be, Dark Forest Strike could happen literally any moment and Scar'am, while not a safe place, was certainly a safer one to be in than Qi or Mimung.
With regards to how much time was still left, astronomers focused their observations on the black holes and supernovae, trying to build an algorithm which could provide some rough hints as to where the closest Dark Forest Lord was located. Main difficulty associated with this tremendous task was coming from the lack of correlation between the location of a black hole and the weapon platform that fired the generation. And taking into consideration the possibility of each black hole being of natural origin only added to the mess. The only hope for the project was estimating the age of black holes to find the very young ones, drastically reducing chance of getting a false positive Dark Forest Strike detection and try to measure the correlations between their exact positions, average distances separating the clusters and how much time had passed since one black hole creation till the next one. Even if all these predictions would turn out as a huge success by some miracle, the inevitable limitation was that they would tell the history of Dark Forest rather than present strategic situation. This also could be mitigated by filtering the results through some advanced movement-predicting algorithms inspired by the migration patterns of many animals, but again, that meant further error overhead to something already yielding very unstable results.
At the same time with Blutgang cleared from any hostile activity, a proper exploration mission could be sent to the second binary system classified under the same name due to proximity. Most of these planets were already well-researcher via telescopic observations and didn't require much attention, but one was unique. Blutgang-B II featured parameters bringing it very close to the homeworld of Humanity. Only slightly bigger diameter, slightly higher gravity and higher amount of nitrogen in the air generating more pressure and a tiny bit warmer climate were separating this world from a "second Earth" title. Despite these striking similarities, the planet did not look how Earth was described. It had only one contient surrounded by oceans, with most of its terrain being occupied by mountains. This led to a two distinct climate zones: more temperate shores and hostile mountains, deep in the mainland, with long, cold periods full of frost and snow (cold as for the planet's biosphere, because during these times the temperature was very comfortable, if only sometimes a bit too warm).
From what was known about earthlike planets, explorers that set feet on the ground expected the life to concentrate around the shores, but it was the exact opposite. Rich biopshere thrived in the icy mountains, meanwhile areas around the shores looked deserted, dominated mostly by one kind of a green, horizontal plant with several subvariants. They all looked like a crossover between the sponges from Scar'am and a typical tree from Yatune, growing tall and with lots of surface exposed to the outside. To much of a surprise, its green color came not from photosynthesis, but from bacteria which lived in symbiosis with it by preventing too much sand to clog their air intake apparatus. Meanwhile they were using oxygen in the atmosphere to produce carbon dioxide which was a perfect energy source for the bacteria covering them. In return microorganisms using them as a host interacted with their bodies on a cellular levels, triggering biochemical reactions that fueled the plants to grow further. Compared to the earthlike ecosystems it looked as if evolution made a mistake with them and created an overly complex system, but when scanners detected a large number of fossils underground, the true evolutionary plan could be pieced together. Lands relatively close to the shore were once rich in life, but bacteria supporting the dominant species was lethal to all of them, slowly eradicating other lifeforms out of which many were feeding from the plants. This forced the rest of the species to either migrate inland and adapt to the conditions there or die.
In the mountains almost every snow patch had grass growing underneath it. Interestingly, that grass behaved in a very genesian way, because it spent most of its life hibernated in the freezing temperatures, coming to blossom and multiply during short thaw periods. Most grazing animals were eating it together with the snow serving as a water source. At the same time massive flying beasts with plenty of horns strapped to their bodies were flying extremely fast and striking the rocks with full force. Their bones and internal organs resembled one big jelly preventing them from dying during each crash while the horns helped them dig a tiny bit into the rocks and extract small animals that tried to take shelter among them. To be capable to damage the rock, even if only so slightly, with the bare body while avoiding any internal damage was an excellent skill of theirs. Another remarkable example of an animal living in the mountains was a predator that after each successful hunting attached whatever meat it could not eat at a time to its sticky skin, taking it together as a food supply, with cold temperatures keeping it fresh all the time.
However, not everything went as well as expected. Initial optimism of Umbara assimilation had quickly withered away when numerous works indeed confirmed they were not representants of civilisation of a good will. They even were surprised by the fact Groaxians kept them alive so far and even shamed them for being weak, predicting the end was nigh for a species that cannot abide the rules of a Dark Forest. They told that during their nomadic time either unaware or weak races they had stumbled across, they ones that'd tried express curiosity rather than violence and tried to communicate had always been the easiest prey. And even if they lacked the power to defeat Groaxians, they were certain someone else would. Besides this fundamental gap, they simply did not appear as capable to integrate with Groaxian society, and lack of hibernation wasn't even much of a problem compared to other aspects. Their vision essentially rednered them incapable of perceiving any kind of visual beauty. This caused them to relax less and on average endure more work than a Groaxian ever could. While more productive worforce in theory sounded great, their work cycle could degrade the quality of balance if they were ever to grow into significant numbers at some point in the distant future. And even with just how many of them survived the apocalypse on Scar'am, the way they worked and regenerated was juts too disconnected from the model of an ideal Groaxian society. Another issue emerged from a pure biological standpoint. To terraform a habitable planet survivable for both species would mean Groaxians would just barely hold together in the extreme heat while Umbaras would freeze. And even if that was decided to be a price worth paying for the sake of overcoming Dark Forest, different breathing gas was a nail to the coffin in terms of coexisting in one environment.
Of course there was nothing preventing Conglomerate from preparing them an optimal planet to live, have them learn Groaxian technology and the differences between how it is operated compared to inventions of Umbara Commune or even design a special versions of many popular devices better suited for them and just have them work on the same things other Groaxians were occupied with, but such approach was quickly rejected due to chain of suspicion. Having an alien race be left on a different planet, especially a civilisation of a bad will, though according to Dark Forest Theory it made no difference, was a perfect setup for a future disaster and the history of Umbara war to repeat itself. Humanity was very clear on the matter: to avoid chain of suspicion and a competition for the resources, assimilated aliens had to be, well, assimilated and strictly integrated into the society by having them learn and adapt all its values, no exceptions.
Conglomerate considered assigning scientists to work on genetic engineering program carefully crafted for the Umbara. If the results were to be as promising as when fighting with Dark Forest Disease, the assimilation shall go smoothly. But this raised another question: all genetic modifications and brain transplants done on Groaxians were supposed to either cure the Dark Forest Disease or create Bound by Dark Forest fraction of a society, but with the latter being only a temporary solution, with everyone returning to the original balance once the dark solar watches would finally come to an end. With Umbara, however, it meant changing them on a fundamental level permanently, without them ever returning to their natural state. Whether it was a right thing to do was morally questionable at best. Their nature might be perceived by Groaxians as evil, but as soulseekers had already agreed on a long time ago that there was no fundamental evidence of Groaxian nature being superior. Forcing Umbara to adapt to Groaxian ways of thinking should in theory mean an act so sinister as attempting to tailor Groaxians to Umbara standards. For the time being, there was no harm in keeping leftovers from Umbara society alive, but soulseekers surely had a lot of work to do to prepare a satisfying resolution of this dilemma.
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MAIGH EO DISTURBANCE
3462 AM hibernation cycle
Leveraging on the sudden tactical advantage, Conglomerate did not want to wait. The first stop of a final interstellar journey of Umbara Commune was predictable if a tiny bit of time was spent thinking on it - it was one of the shortest paths to reach the Crack and a solid navigation point for whoever wanted to traverse it from that region of space. It was likely the only choice Umbaras had, even though this system being of previous importance to them left no wonders why Zenn were somewhere out there, most likely able to intercept that last desperate mission. Whatever happened out there, Groaxians didn't want to risk a battle in the vicinity of Scar'am. Human Space Fleet was sent to Maigh Eo to discover the fate of the damned expedition and stop whatever had sealed it.
Most of the crewmembers anticipated a "search, follow and destroy" type of mission, with some awaiting to see wrecks and emergency transponders, but most excepting pure nothingness besides the double suns of Maigh Eo, questioning the entire point of the mission and wondering how they were supposed to work from there. Trying to detect space disturbances left by Curvature Propulsion System was possible, but there was no guarantee they would suggest the correct path, with Umbaras likely warping out of the system suggesting a misleading destination as to lose Zenn hunting for them. Eventually all these doubts were resolved, and not in the most pleasant way, when the entire fleet suddenly came to a full stop, dropping out of warp bubble quite some distance before estimated warp point. Space unwarping at a speed well above any safety limits just couldn't end well. Two of the Strikers suffered from a Curvature Drive breakdown that caused a local temporary antigravity anomaly and briefly expanded space between squadrons of Strikers and Pikes. This disturbance pushed Pikes away from the fleet, breaking formation and putting unsafe levels of pressure onto their hulls. Luckily for them, their armors held and internal damage of any kind was avoided, but the antigravity interfered with the Curvature Drive of one of the Pikes, threatening to send an outburst of gravitational waves straight into the formation of Strikers. A team of navigators turned on the Curvature Drive in an emergency mode, almost blowing up the fusion reactor in the process, and managed to send the gravitational energy into the void, but obviously it pushed the starship quite some distance from the rest of the fleet.
Before officers had the time to process inputs about the fleet's situation, asess the damage and realise what had actually happened, First hihg-energy particles cracked against the armors. Damage reports by default had priority over sensor warnings, so it took an additional while for their brains to process the information about twenty one Umbara starships in between the scattered and damaged fleet.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/859214188164153354/battle1.PNG)
Admiral of the fleet occupied his position for a reason, because he was the first one to start acting and giving orders. Pikes fired their phased curvature disruption systems straight at the cluster of the enemy, trapping them in a temporary gravity well. Next step was to use the scattering of the ships to own advantage: Pikes and Strikers were in an almost perfect position to achieve a stable orbit around the created gravitational anomaly, conservinf fuel for more aggressive maneouvres and capable of blasting forces of the Umbara. This granted Strikers a few easy particle beam retaliation shots, but suspected forces of Zenn weren't just sitting and awaiting an execution. Particle beams of theirs flew across the void, most missing, but some scored hits on already damaged outer layers of Groaxian armors. A squadron of their ships fired excessive amounts of fuel to quickly overcome the gravitational obstacle and close in towards the lonely Pike far away from other members of the Human Space Fleet. The lonely ship had only so much power in its engines to evade only so much metallic slugs launched in the direction of its own trajectory and a solid rooster of possible alternatives it might choose during a dodging attempt. With such overwhelming firepower, the decision boiled down to selecting which batch of missiles shall do the dirty job.
The impact was brutal, but still no hull breach had been achieved by the enemy. The Pike tried to return fire and send some gravitational waves to disperse its pursuers, but it was in that moment when the onboard reactor, being overcharged in the process of avoiding a space relativistic collision shortly after arrival in the system, gave up and started increasing heat uncontrollably. To prevent a supernova from happening, technicians had to shut it down, which on top of lack of firepower meant disabled engines, too. At the same time rest of Groaxian starships ended stopped circling around the enemy and to build some tactical advantage accelerated in the opposite direction and merged along the way. At longer distance Umbara systems struggled with target locking, meanwhile Strikers and Pikes did just fine, especially with the latter not requiring too precise targeting due to nature of their weapon systems anyways. First two hostile starships disintegrated in the hail of high-energy particles and crushing gravity.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/859214369178517504/battle2.PNG)
Battle would be much easier if fought from the new position of main bulk of Groaxian forces, but nobody, from the admiral through the weapon monitoring staff all the way to the life support maintenance technicians, agreed on leaving the separated Pike to its sad fate. With all power temporairly shifted to the reactors, the fleet started a chaotic process of rapid speed vector inversion, painfully watching as the distance between them and the Pike in distress still increased and would continue to do so until full stop. In the meantime the kinetic squadron of enemy obviously lacked the courtesy to wait with their volleys till rest of the Human Space Fleet catches up to it. Many Groaxians sit tight, nervously watching the tiny dot, expecting it to disappear from the radars any time.
But before that happened, Enemy once again demonstrated whatever caused Groaxian forces to finish their superluminal journey earlier than scheduled. The sight was terrifying. Space in the direction at which the radar pointed indicating enemy's position suddenly got disorted and a gravitational lensing very similar to a black hole was visible with naked eye, following by a blinding light radiating from it. Scanners soon picked up a weird hum originating from whatever this terrifying weapon was. Suddenly an explosion flashed in front of the eyes of watching Groaxians. A moment after space expanded from its epicenter, sending the fighting fleets far away from each other. With the exception of two Strikers who had them damaged and in need of repair, Human Space Fleet engaged Curvature Drives to counter the push and come closer to the endangered Pike to relieve it. However, the anomaly quickly ceased to exist, making the ships overshoot their destination before Curvature Drives were turned off. Everyone was relieved when it turned out the damaged Pike was still drifting out there in the void.
The Umbara fleet, on the other hand... Some ships of their survived, but many were reduced into debris, and it was a very granular debris. Some were nowhere to be located. A lot of them survived, since they were in a quite loose and separated formation by the time the explosion took place, but all showed signs of heavy damage. At that time it was a formality for the Human Space Fleet to wipe out all of them.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/859214603916410890/battle3.PNG)
After brave Groaxians returned home, physicists instantly went down to analyse what exactly had happened during the battle of Maigh Eo. The dropout from warp bubble occuring sooner than expected and the anomaly that basically resolved the battle and accidentially saved the Pike crying out for help were linked to the same phenomena and device that likely caused it. Most straightforward explanation was some kind of gravitational weapon able to even intercept starships with active Curvature Propulsion Systems and force an engangment, but the second time Zenn tried to use it somethign went horribly wrong and it defeated their own fleet instead. Void Scavengers were sent to the debris field to investigate the wrecks, but unfortunately no pieces of the mysterious device responsible for the gravitational show could have been located. Everything recovered from across the wrecks was an already classified Umbara tech or at least some modified versions of it, no surprises. The visual recording of the event that shattered Zenn assault fleet brought associations with the distant lights sometimes observed by Groaxians travelling through the Crack ever since the first ones had ventured into it, but scientists were clueless about either of these phenomena and a theory at least partially reasonable had yet to be coined.
Mind-reading conducted on surviving Zenn picked after the battle was disappointing, to put it mildly. Besides them planning an assault on Scar'am to finish off La once and for all and close the cycle of their existence, they had little to zero knowledge about what interested Conglomerate the most. They told a tale about a derelict alien starship they had found, orbiting one of the stars in Maigh Eo so close it was about to melt down. But before the sun consumed it, Zenn were able to recover one artifact from it. They had no idea what exactly it was, but once their scientists figured out how to power it, they discovered its destructive potential. However, they all agreed that tinkering with unknown alien technology far beyond their understanding of science at a time was likely to end up exactly how it had ended, with the device backfiring on the inexperienced users. Conglomerate for sure wasn't happy that both the device and the alien wreck had already been gone, disappeared without a trace.
Soulseekers took note of an interesting sociological process occuring in every group of Groaxians, but most visible at examples of large populations of major cities on Genesis. Recent advances made in science as well as in the matter of societal stabilisation increased respect Bound by Dark Forest had towards the part of society that kept the original nature. At the same time citizens from the latter group expressed gratitude towards Bound by Dark Forest for not having to expose themselves to all these cosmic horrors themselves. This way of thinking got especially popular after Blutgang invasion and battle of Maigh Eo, with both of which having not spawned a single case of Dark Forest Disease. Whatever tensions there were between the two radically different groups, they were on a rapid decline. Soulseekers studying this shift came to a conclusion of it being nothing more than a next step in the evolution of balance. Nature of many might had been radically shifted via invasive and large-scale genetic engineering projects, but there was something in the soul of every Groaxian that remained unchanged. An essence that demanded a proper balance and entire society united, just like it had always been. While in theory this should be an optimistic sign, none of the soulseekers investigating the case had any reliable predictions as to where this would lead and how the two so radically different groups would look like when left on their own to merge. Some even worried than Groaxians from each of the group suddenly coming to agreement on certain things with each other was a dangerous thing, because that'd mean half of the society shifting towards Bound by Dark Forest philosophy despite being free from Dark Forest Disease and not put through genetic modifications. They feared to openly admit it, but were worried that the observed process could be a symptom of what Tempestsaurs Of Achernar had on mind when they said "Dark Forest is a force of balance".
-
THE MATRIX
3467-3471 AM hibernation cycles
Despite Umbara situation still awaiting a proper solution and the bottom of the abyss still not explored and many other things still unexplained, Conglomerate had thrown everything it could at Project Ascension. Just like Humanity had discovered before, Transcendent Speech was the only way to safely open and explore the complex. When first soulseekers gathered around the complex, they felt the same emotions as the ones who participated in Blutgang expedition. Precursors spoke directly to every Groaxian close enough to hear them. Before they were gone, they had encapsulated something far more valuable into complexes like the one on Scar'am: it was their own thoughts and feelings, available for anyone with mind open enough to access it. But while humans through their research were able to only uncover some vague concepts from these thoughts and were forced to rely on more traditional knowledge sharing in the long run, the power of Groaxian mind, exceeding human capabilities, was enough for soulseekers to filter concrete words and expressions out of the array of thoughts. They could directly talk to Precursors and enjoy their last gift they had left for this dark universe.
Precursors: We welcome you, travellers from a distant space and time, into our domain. We were the first ones to see, but not the first ones to fall. But now that you hear us speak, our time has come to an end, just like everyone's else time. We offer powerful weapons against Dark Forest to those that seek enlightenment.
Groaxians: We are the Groaxians. And just like Humanity before, we seek Ascension. We are in danger.
P: We sense a great understanding in you. Ancient energy is a part of you, it flows through your cold bodies. You look like someone who understands.
G: ...
P: We were the first ones to discover there are worlds beyond this one... An existence in so many formats the default universe feels claustrophobic. A land of peace where missiles of Dark Forest do not reach. In the archive in front of you we've placed our knowledge, everything we could understand about the topic before we were gone. Rise and shine, a civilisation of a good will, and take what you need to forge a better future among the stars.
G: ......
P: We hoped the universe was a beautiful place and ever since we found enough proof that we were the first ones, we wanted to share the light of millions of stars with everyone through eons to come... But Darkness rose, Darkness that soon devoured every planet, isolating countless civilisations through endless chains of suspicion.
G: Dark Forest Theory. We understand. But we struggle to overcome it. Please, help us. Our civilisation is in danger. Not only our lives, but also our values. Dark Forest consumes us.
P: You soak corruption with every action you take, but seek something more. Transition to a new plane is something only a civilisation of a good will could ever achieve, and we sense the light radiating from you. Use our artefacts wisely and they shall lead you to a higher plane where the rules of Dark Forest no longer apply.
It took a long time for the soulseekers to recover from a direct exposure to pure ancient wisdom of beings that walked down on the surface of Scar'am long before Groaxians or Umbara had seen it. Their voices were soothing. They must had made peace with their fate once they built those constructs and sealed their last will in them. Invaders from the Bootes Void spared none, but their legacy prevailed and spread across the stars, no matter how many photonic missiles and black holes were used to destroy them one by one. And the time has come for the Groaxians to uncover all the secrets they desperately needed. Initial survey of the databanks inside determined that the main focus of this complex was dedicated to researching the biology of higher dimensions, or rather impact of the higher dimensions on the three-dimensional biology and methods of upgrading the body to a fourth plane.
Humanity mentioned that many of these facilities had to be explored in order to understand more, but Groaxians could consider themselves lucky, because humans had already shared a lot of their own discoveries so Groaxians could combine the knowledge of the two civilisations into one. First fundamental theorem involving transition into the fourth dimension was that it was plain impossible to do "as a being attempting it is". There was no way to "add another dimension to one's body", as simple as that. Because of that, vessels for the soul in a three- and four-dimensional universe had to be separated. The obvious question as to how a particular race was supposed to abandon their bodies and not die in the process while still being able to enter a new one was bound to be asked, but that's where the device called "dimensional matrix" stepped in.
According to some basic understanding of a concept, dimensional matrix was just a specific case of a cybersoul mainframe built upon premises of an advanced soulgrain mechanics. It was a way to digitalise consciousness and enclose it within the matrix. While on a macro scale three-dimensional object could never just grow a fourth one, entities stored in the matrix no longer existed in a conventional sense. Such device was capable of scanning a full soulgrain state of an object, particularly a representative of a sentient being seeking a way to ascend, and then teleport it from the outside world into itself, storing everything, the soul included, in an internal registry. Once already reduced to a quantum state, the state could then be used to project everything into a higher dimension thanks to the arcane happening only at a microcosmic scale. The crucial part of the process was implementation of a soulgrain filter responsible for preserving the information about the soul, consciousness, memories and the like while letting a four-dimensional integrator encapsulate all these crucial parts into a new body existing in a four-dimensional realm. An optional functionality would be to make the new body somewhat similar to the old one, making it look similar for observers staying in 3D, but that was it, some changes were unavoidable.
Surprisingly, publishing the report turned some Groaxians negatively. To abandon their bodies sounded like a horrible idea, as if genetic modifications weren't enough. They questioned whether it was worth it to even try to survive if the final outcome would be something having nothing to do with the way Groaxians were intended to function. A soul without a compatible body well-adapted to the natural environment, work cycle, habits, culture and ways of thinking would suffer and degenerate quickly. However, others pointed out a specific event in the history of Humanity, namely when humans once tried to digitalise themselves and abandon any biological part of theirs altogether, but failed, with the patients who went through the transition experiencing an alarming discomfort and psychological distress, forcing humans to scrap the entire project and synthesise new bodies to free these patients from their cybersoul traps. This aligned with concerns expressed by sceptic Groaxians. However, despite facing same limitations past a certain point as well even if the line lied further than in case of Groaxians, they went through the Project Ascension and judging by the monolith of theirs, apparently achieved peace. Additionally, the smartest physicists who studied and understood soulgrain mechanics in detail claimed that a complete soulgrain state of a Groaxian in theory should safely preserve the nature without any ill effects. This was because while on a macro scale biology played its part, in a microcosmos everything was guided through soulgrains, thus the complete state would, in some way, preserve the influence of biology over the soul as well and a new, four-dimensional body couldn't ruin it if only the filter did its job right.
Another concern to explain was the matrix as defined through the history of Humanity. Bunch of Groaxians were afraid after learning about how badly it affected human society and that in many cases usage of matrix was an act against human nature, causing a huge crisis in their society until some modules were banned, but it remained the problem through the rest of their time in a 3D universe. Some similarities between the two existed, since both were a way of existing within a simulated reality, but taking aside the fact that existence within a dimensional matrix was only a temporary state, not a destination, one had to remember that matrix of the Humanity was all about illusion of existing in a different world, while physically still staying in the same place in the same universe in the same body. In the meantime dimensional matrix of the Precursors meant a full transition to the simulated realm, leaving the old body behind, and later emerging "on the other side", where Dark Forest no longer applied.
As scientists dug through the knowledge of the Precursors and knowledge of the Humanity based on the former, astronomers announced a breakthrough. The stream of knowledge from the monolith had no intention of running dry. Physical equations of the Precursors, if computed with a predefined set of values stored in a monolith, but mostly ignored, revealed a set of coordinates. They pointed at Solar System and Earth. The homeworld of Humanity. But that was not all. Coordinates of every world ever settled by Humanity were there, too, including Yatune. Astronomers rushed to aim their telescopes at the pointed locations, but what they discovered instantly increased their body temperature by a bit and made it difficult for them to breath. Later they all had to be quickly treated for a Dark Forest Disease. All of the revealed stars existed no more. They were all collapsed, with nothing left in that region of space but a nasty cluster of black holes. A few cases of some of them colliding in an interstellar (more of an inter-black hole, though...) space were detected, too. Possibly some generators missed their targets while Dark Forest Lords fired a bit more, just to be sure. There was nothing left from the legacy of Humanity. For the sake of maintaining balance, Conglomerate officially assumed that Humanity survived the Dark Forest Strike as an already ascended species. That was a logical conclusion to be had given their knowledge they gathered from the Precursors and expanded upon, but to be fair there wasn't a solid proof of it happening.
But if Humanity's territory had been destroyed by a Dark Forest Strike, question remained as to why Qi was spared. Yatune was inhabited by humans and as such should be destroyed, too. But since it wasn't, it might as well mean that Humanity somehow figured out how to prevent Dark Forest Lord from learning about this system. Maybe they had fled there to avoid destruction, just like Groaxians themselves searched for a new home, for example. Or maybe the last of them indeed fulfilled their promise of "keeping Groaxians safe".
Shortly after the grim discovery astronomers announced a second breakthrough: due to some small mistake, in case of one coordination pair they had looked at the wrong stellar object. Once they spotted and corrected the error, they saw a lone K-class star, still surviving and shining bright, moreover it was easily reachable because it was positioned within the Crack. Besides Qi, it was another system that survived the destruction. Was it because there was another alien race that Humanity watched over? Nobody really knew. And if there were aliens living there, would this mean a chain of suspicion and inevitable war?... But since Humanity guarded it, that might as well they would be a civilisation of a good will, with the stellar watch serving as a safety guarantee for peaceful contact to be established. Even though that's what many wanted to believe, Conglomerate wanted to to play it safe. Explorers immediately leaving for an emergency exploration mission into the system simply designated as "GJ 1279" according to human charts were ordered to not reach the destination in a straight way, but to cruise among different random points in interstellar space to avoid possibly hostile race to backtrack Groaxians all the way into Qi.
And so, at the end of a solar watch, Groaxians now had a proof that they had already avoided one Dark Forest Strike in the past, back when they were still primitive and couldn't even try to do anything about it. Everyone hoped to be able to do it for the second time as well.
-
First progress on the Project Ascension wasn't the only advancement of Groaxians through the following hibernation cycles. At last the wide rift separating Umbara and Precursor infrastructure could have been explored. Having given up on more probes, engineers took an Avenger and outfitted it with additional heatsinks and a cryogenic module similar to the ones mounted on gliders, except it was supposed to regularly wash ice over the hull of the fighter. To avoid endangering anyone, the aircraft relied completely on fully automated piloting system, which wasn't even that tough to program, because it wasn't supposed to do much besides descend, check the bottom and come back. Fifty two Groaxians working on this Heat Avenger gathered in the mastermind array building and pushed the final button, activating the piloting cybersoul and watched as the vessel disappeared in the depths of abyss, before switching to remote display observation.
Temperature increased steadily, but Heat Avenger descended deeper and deeper, easily crossing the record established during experiments with the probes. Dense, white-grey fog thickened around the cockpit, reducing visibility, but the cybersoul pilot comfortably navigated through the canyon with the help of all kinds of sensors and sonars. And at last the bottom of the abyss, pulsating in red, became visible as a faint glow between the clouds. To that moment lots of underground lava rivers had been detected deep below the surface and classified as a source of heated water supplies, resisting the freezing temperatures, so this finding was predictable and not surprising for the team working on a project. It was nothing but a cool-looking natural geological formation, reaching all the way to the molten rocks.
Except it really wasn't, because while it did emit impressive heat signatures, onboard radars on the Avenger showed it was of biological origin. Moreover, it sprawled across the caverns to which many entrances existed on the walls on the both sides of the canyon. As the Avenger came closer to collect some probes for lab analysis, the surface of the omnipresent organism erupted in the direction of the exposed grabbing arm of the fighter, clung to it and wouldn't let go, turning dark-green in the process. The fighter barely kept its balance and in order to set itself free, had to dispose of the grabber.
To better understand the living form down below, a crewed expedition had been prepared. It took a lot of time to prepare cryogenic space suits for the explorers, but eventually it was possible to integrate the cryogenic module without overburdening the wearers. As a method of transport through the caverns below, mission members had been issued a personal hovercraft to avoid touching the floor. Understanding the possible threat, they went in with the same fighter, but this time not stripped from its military-grade lasers. Once they reached what was considered maximum safe distance from the organism below, they hopped from the Heat Avenger straight onto the hovercraft and entered the underground structure. It was a fascinating sight, dark walls and ceilings illuminated only by red pulses from the living mass covering the floors. There were no other organisms present. The environment was so sterile even the smallest unicellular organisms refused to inhabit it. It was just rocks, floor of red mesh and its oozes filling the air. But as the explorers chose corridors leading to the upper levels, trying to find a way to the surface on their own, above certain depth the mesh was less of a red pulsating goo and more of a dark-green goo. Caverns became darker and darker, until no natural light source existed anymore, with these dark-green floors filling everything. Past that point it was safe to touch it, it no longer reacted to any stimuli.
After a lengthy trip, explorers found a way out of the underground system. Through the last corridors the floor seemed to be no different from the frozen greenery covering the surface of the planet. It was especially visible right at the entrance, with the cave floor looking like a natural and continuous extension of the surface. As soon as Heat Source, guided by cybesoul pilot again, picked the team up and brought back to Groaxian encampments, xenobiologists got to work. After over a hibernation cycle worth of research, they finally classified all the connotations between surface life and the underground mesh. The final conclusion was that the ecosystem of Scar'am was dying and it had nothing to do with Dark Forest Strikes and the like. Red mesh served as a biofuel for everything that lived on the surface, a giant, planet-scale generator of heat and nutrients. At some point in the past the whole surface was likely red, well-supported by the generator. But some part of the ecosystem, be it a single organism, a group of it or whatever else, must had died off and it was precisely the part that kept the mesh itself alive and healthy to provide balance and fuel the cycle of life. With that key part missing, mesh was running out of fuel, still feeding the remaining lifeforms, but getting no food itself. However, scientists agreed that sooner Dark Forest Strike would wipe out Scar'am from the face of the universe than it'd take for life to die out. Besides, Groaxians already had terraforming plans, only preserving the existing life in prepared habitats, just like it had been done on Sodara.
Process of Umbara assimilation went on, but as hibernation cycles passed, not only had Groaxians not achieved any progress, but it felt as if they'd moved backwards. An opposition to the project formed, and surprisingly it had nothing to do with Bound by Dark Fores. Never-ending questions about morality of changing nature never ended and this eventually created a very problematic dilemma. If overcoming Dark Forest and preventing genocide forced Groaxians to freely experiment on other species and destroy whatever society they tried to build, then some questioned whether it was worth to try it at all. This way of thinking had a simple implication that if overcoming Dark Forest was not worth it, but playing by its rules was still worse as a genocide also meant "destroying whatever society one tries to build" as one of the consequences, then the only option left was to simply not try to survive and sit on a perfectly balanced Genesis until Dark Forest Strike comes. This philosophy came dangerously close to the way Tempestsaurs Of Achernar viewed the universe. In a way it was all self-contradicting, though: by not caring about survival one would manage to deny a fundamental axiom on which the Dark Forest Theory was founded and as such from the technical point of view it was enough to overcome it despite previous assumption of this philosophical trend about not overcoming it at all, even if the success might be very short-lived. Though certainly long-lasting from the perspective of the ones far enough from event horizon to not be affected by time dilation...
Soulseekers estimated that the new philosophy does not in fact endanger balance, but Conglomerate still demanded them to resolve the problems as they were undermining all the effort put by the generation into finding a way to lead Groaxians to safety. At least for the time being the new philosophical movement did nothing but discourage a few Groaxians here and there from working on Umbara Commune, but Precursor knowledge excavation still progressed according to the schedule. Besides Project Ascension, physicists studied information of a powerful device Precursors used during their struggles with the Invaders. They were capable of closing the rifts leading from the Bootes Void, no matter their diameter. While the idea was already known from the history of Humanity, at last more detailed and technical descriptions became available. Since a rift between two points in space was nothing but a shortcut across a conventional, three-dimensional plane, established in hyperspace, the device seemed to do nothing more than collapse a local point in hyperspace to collapse the four-dimensional tunnelling. It did more than that, though: it was capable of monitoring hyperspace (according to the monolith the first case of complete piece of Precursor technology adapted for human usages were indeed HyperSensors which, for example, played a crucial role in anti-photonic missile defense) to instantly cut any new rifts out in a predefined area, preventing any new openings to last for long enough to have any alien starship reasonably traverse it without risking the tunnel collapsing on it as it flies.
Of course problem with Black Wall persisted, but with the Crack present at the very least Groaxians could move onto the experimental stage. Any explanation as to what had happened and why physics of higher dimensions refused to work everywhere else were still missing. Some scientists hoped that once the experiments on dimensional matrix or rift collapsing would begin, it'd shed some light to the topic and finally provide answers by, for example, making it possible to "peek to the other side" and check what was going on there and how the problem presented from a four-dimensional perspective.
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TRANSDIMENSIONAL ERA
3472-3479 AM hibernation cycles
Mimung III, officially renamed to Vuloth after successful setup of automated industry, boosted the factories of Sodara. A small engineering team was overseeing mining gliders as they were digging through the planet's crust and bringing the ore back to factories. An experimental antigravity transport tunnels were used to automate the flow of resources in every chain of production and it performed quite well. Phased Surface Gravitational Destabilisators, or rather their antigrav crew security systems to be precise, were surprisingly useful in civilian sector. Flow of resources by far was the toughest bottleneck of industry to solve and for hibernation cycles struggled to catch up to the throughput of new generations of machines. Using gravitational waves to push objects to their next destination resolved these issues, but not without a price. To generate force strong enough to be worthy of any meaningful application, extra time and resources to build industrial complexes had to be paid to make them sturdy enough to withstand extreme gravity on a solar watch basis. But the investment paid off quickly and Mimung was ready to ship whatever products were needed elsewhere in no time.
Qi certainly could use more iridium and thorium, but Conglomerate agreed that the top priority was taming of Blutgang. This system was crucial for obvious reasons, gave a bit of hope for surviving Dark Forest Strike aimed specifically at Qi and Mimung and geologists discovered large deposits of iridium on many moons around the second pair of stars making for this two binary systems under common name, so investing there was expected to rapidly increase iridium alloys production which were a key part of every modern starships and Conglomerate had plans of modernising a good chunk of space fleets, both civilian and military, in the nearest future. The main challenge in the latter stemmed from the reports of various scientists claiming fusion reactors were reaching their limits and new thrusters and powering systems based on this technology wouldn't make much of a difference anymore. Because of that a construction of space particle accelerator around the first two suns of Blutgang was approved. It was supposed to be used mainly for antimatter production. According to the blueprints, it should amass enough of it through the next few hibernation cycles following turning it on that a possibility of building a prototype antimatter reactor could become a part of reality. Out of conventional propulsion systems, nothing was capable of supplying more energy than a chain of matter-antimatter collisions.
Several mineral extraction sites were deployed on Ov'o and Cruz'un (third and fourth moons of Blutgang-B III), Graegnak and Scruumneas (fifth and tenth moons of Blutgang-B V), Virie (eighth moon of Blutgang-C I), Krut'oids and Dhenors (sixth and fourteenth moons of Blutgang-C II). All of them were supposed to deliver to mine resources, smelt them into alloys whenever possible and deliver the products to Scar'am. However, using freighters to move all these resources around was a costly and lenghty operation. Once again, taming of gravity came in handy. Products were packaged in slim iridium tubes that were later propelled into space by a strong orbital gravitational pulse. Of course, similar system (except configured to work "in reverse", negating any velocity incoming delivery might have) was needed on the receiving end. To prevent a cataclysm shall something go wrong, Groaxians built a small hub in orbit of Scar'am's moon, Phadithea, responsible for catching the packages which were to reach Scar'am via conventional freighters.
As the influx of resources allowed for assembly of many additional Qives, terraformation was progressing steadily. For example, as space mirrors regulated surface temperature, some methane producers from Genesis were able to find a niche deep inside the caverns and produce enough breathing gas for the whole world. In return, this allowed to cut time and effort in building habitats for the growing Groaxian population since they could simply siphon methane directly from the atmosphere and no longer required their own enclosed methane processing systems. With more habitats built, colonists from Qi arrived in larger numbers, further accelerating the pace of Scar'am development. More Groaxians arriving in particular meant "more physicists, artificial soul mainframe designers and soulseekers" arriving. With enough mental force thrown at the problem, research on the Project Ascension could finally progress at a satisfying rate. The most pending issue shifted from lack of infrastructure and resources towards lack of testing grounds. Groaxians might have maintained a couple interstellar space stations at random places within the Crack, some of them even with apparatus for creating rifts between points in three-dimensional space, but that all meant nothing compared to the grand and ambitious scale of the project. As a first step forward, engineers back on Genesis built a mighty starship of scientific purpose, equipped with latest laboratory accessories, capable of bending and puncturing space around it to create and link rifts solely on its own and allowing for a wide array of hyperspace-related experiments. Another notable feature was the inclusion of HyperSensors, capable of monitoring the fourth dimension.
Shizae class Science Vessel 80 000 tons 273 Crew 2 100,3 BP TCS 1 600 TH 2 400 EM 0
1500 km/s JR 2-25(C) Armour 1-165 Shields 0-0 HTK 63 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 16 Max Repair 1000 MSP
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months
Rift Stabilisation And Connecting: 180 days
Rift Stabilisator Rift Destination Predictor Artificial Gravity Field Astronomical Observatory AS Advisor Autnomous Piloting System Canteen Curvature Stabiliser Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Gravitational Signal Filter Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Onboard Telescope Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module Rift Survey Probe Launcher HyperSensors
JC80K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 80500 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 2
Commercial Internal Fusion Drive EP600,0 (4) Power 2400 Fuel Use 3,61% Signature 600 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 5 293 000 Litres Range 330 billion km (2546 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Stabilisation Ship for auto-assignment purposes
In parallel to the first experimental platforms for Project Ascension, Conglomerate also assigned engineers to work on a new design of an exploration starship, specifically thinking about mission to the system known by humans as GJ 1279, hesitant to send Baernoloths there, especially after the encounter with Umbara fleet in Hauteclere, out of which only half the fleet had come back and that was only because ships of the enemy were damaging and could not generate enough thrust for an effective pursuit. An alternative thing that would've saved Baernoloths was an effective Curvature Propulsion System, capable of warping the ship out of the danger zone faster and under bigger gravitational influence. And so conventional speed, Curvature Propulsion System efficiency and cooldown became the three main pillars of the new design, while improvements to the sensor systems and deep space scanners were welcome as always, even if not the main focus. The result of the hard work was a Ninqred-class explorer:
Ninqred class Science Vessel 10 000 tons 263 Crew 3 128,1 BP TCS 200 TH 1 000 EM 0
5000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 4-41 Shields 0-0 HTK 62 Sensors 16/0/15/15 DCR 12 PPV 0
Maint Life 6,45 Years MSP 2 346 AFR 67% IFR 0,9% 1YR 97 5YR 1 457 Max Repair 400 MSP
Captain Control Rating 3 BRG ENG SCI
Intended Deployment Time: 72 months Morale Check Required
Native Biosphere Containment HyperSensors Artificial Gravity Field Astronomical Observatory AS Advisor Autnomous Piloting System Canteen Containment Chamber Curvature Stabiliser Emergency Repair Module Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Extragenesian Material Containment Flight Navigation System Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Gravitational Signal Filter Ground Composition Analysis Lab Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Onboard Telescope Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module Xenopathogen Research Lab Cybersoul Evolutionary Emulator Rift Curvature Detector Rift Survey Probe Launcher Rift Destination Predictor
J10200(3-50) Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 10200 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Magnetic Fusion Drive EP1000,00 (1) Power 1000 Fuel Use 7,68% Signature 1000 Explosion 8%
Fuel Capacity 1 205 000 Litres Range 282,4 billion km (653 days at full power)
Thermal Sensor TH2-16 (1) Sensitivity 16 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 31,6m km
Advanced Geological Sensors (5) 15 Survey Points Per Hour
Advanced Gravitational Sensors (5) 15 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Survey Ship for auto-assignment purposes
While the exploration apparatus was indeed improved, changes applied weren't revolutionary. Physicists did their best to squeeze as much power out of the overused fusion technology as possible to give this starship a powerful engine without crippling its fuel efficiency as seen in military designs even when it came to only small course corrections not requiring drastic velocity changes. Ninqreds could reach same speed as Baernoloths almost three times faster and carried a lot more fuel a surplus of which was meant to serve during emergency situations (such us classical sudden Umbara assault) for extra dodging manoeuvres or reaching speeds allowing it to compete even with weaker military designs. The new starships were to have four armor layers, just like Baernoloths, but lighter, more ductile alloys used meant each layer was more protective than its counterpart from its predecessor. Same alloys handled heat dissipation more effectively, thanks to which a more powerful Curvature Propulsion System had been mounted without risking the starship melting down as its crew tries to make an emergency escape, all while keeping the hull relatively small for the sake of better manoeuvrability in tight encounters. For whatever was lurking in GJ 1279, be it a representative of a Dark Forest Lords or Humanity behaving according to the Dark Forest Theory, Ninqreds and the Human Seekers, as the ones selected for what probably was the most important exploration mission in history were called, on their boards had to cut it.
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ECHOES OF A DIFFERENT TIME
3474-3484 AM hibernation cycles
Just because Human Seekers had to wait with their mission did not mean Conglomerate was going to wait, too, and surviving Baernoloths had been prepared to fly away once again into the void. First interstellar flight was supposed to take them to Joyeuse from which they were supposed to recalibrate navigation systems and continue onward, towards unexplored systems. After warping into the first system on their path, explorers decided to take a break and land on Joyeuse-B II and enjoy the breathtaking sight of a perfectly balanced ecosystem, free from predator-prey relationships. There was something so soothing and inspiring about this alien yet in a way very familiar world that to not land there while passing through Joyeuse would be a pity. Chosen landing spot was a flat shoreline beneath a cliff with a few depressions here and there breaking the monotonous landscape. However, the choice as to where to land had nothing to do with the aesthetic value of a landing zone. While still in a deep space, scanners detected an anomalous signal originating from the surface. It was very weak, almost non-existent, but its source was down there on that planet. Cybersoul mainframes struggled to fit the signal to anything encountered before. It looked kinda as if the planet was speaking to Groaxians, letting out expressions with every pulse, which brought associations with Achernar way of communicating, but practically the patterns registered varied too much from the Achernar language. And there was nothing Achernar-made to be seen anywhere around.
Orbital analysis calibrated the signal source and pointed towards one of the depressions in the rocky plains. Something was there, and it was something that was of artificial origin and something that hadn't been there back when Joyeuse had been explored for the first time. Once first probes reached the edge of depression, their operators saw something unusual, but familiar at the same time. What laid down below were remnants of a habitat complex. It was similar to the ones from Yatune, but of lower height, wider open space per section and with more circular shapes from which various buildings were composed. Interestingly, the signal appeared to be radiating from every intact wall rather than point towards one or a few sources. These readings did not change as the probes came closer to the structure, but the signal became cleaner and more regular. Explorers sent their probes further, entering the complex and surveying whatever survived from the infrastructure. Soon there was no doubt left. Rooms that looked too much like hibernation chambers or meditating spaces. Boards with purple-pink symbols and patterns. Distances between habitable sections and capacity of each matching recommendations for optimal performance regarding Transcendent Speech intersections. Optimal layout and span of the complex. And the outpost being located on a cluster of methane pockets, oozing the precious gas from the underground, with remnants of piping system surrounding some of them. Explorers reminded the lone crashed Vrilxel from Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. Previously it had been just a single starship, now there was an entire outpost. Sure, Conglomerate wanted to colonise this world for its beauty and calming effects it held on whoever visited it and possibly serving as a future home preserving Groaxians from the Dark Forest Strike, but Joyeuse lied outside of most popular routes adding to the logistical challenge and all the resources were pumped into Blutgang and Project Ascension, leaving nothing to spare for Joyeuse conquest for the time being.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/864992698767507466/720_319886536.png)
Contrary to the wreck from Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, the outpost held information encrypted in Groaxian language, giving hope for understanding what was going on with Groaxian-but-not-really artefacts suddenly appearing in already explored worlds. The data recovered contained a good chunk of historical knowledge. The fragments that weren't corrupted or missing told mostly the events from Endpoint War, but not in a way that was expected. In fact they weren't about Endpoint War at all, it had just been the first thought after realising they talked a lot about Achernar. But the war they described had nothing to do with Groaxian history. Desperate defense of Blutgang, Mass Mimung Invasion, Tizona siege were only a few out of many events mentioned. None of which occurred. Including the Dark Forest Strike that followed shortly after the war that ended up as a more or less draw, with both sides having enough starships left for defense, but not enough for a successful invasion of the enemy territory. Or rather two Dark Forest Strikes, it seemed - according to the preserved story, Qi and Mimung collapsed into black holes, but all stars in Blutgang exploded in a supernova fire after photonic missile attack. Whoever had been writing this all down had believed that the inhabitants of this complex were the last survivors from Groaxian civilisation - Project Ascension was not finished in time and what had been spared were leftovers from the first stage of Joyeuse colonisation plus a fleet of starships carrying the ones who engaged Curvature Propulsion Systems in time before Dark Forest consumed everything else and heading towards the last bastion of Groaxians. There was also a brief mention of what happened to the Tizona, also affected by Dark Forest Strike. However, it talked about neither black hole generators nor photonic missiles. It was a vague description of a weapon unknown to the explorers, but somewhat already encountered by the ones who lived in the outpost: space around Tizona had begun to contract rapidly as if nearby matter was being swallowed by a growing black hole, except there hadn't been a black hole. Tizona and a couple of stars in the vicinity collapsed into one bright point, but even that point also disappeared shortly after. Then nothing else happened. That region of space remained permanently dark. Some further space disturbances of unknown properties had been observed, but no explanation of any kind existed for them.
After finishing reading "Horror From Joyeuse", explorers' brains boiled. Terrifying visions of the end of their civilisation ricocheted from their minds, forming a dangerous Mental Synergy. They imagined the last survivors running out of supplies and perishing on this planet and that their mission was the true last remnant from once mighty race. There was no point in going back, Genesis, Mimung and Blutgang were no more. Onboard Tempestsaurs eventually resolved the Synergy and reestablished order so that the crewmembers were at least capable of returning to their post and to calm everyone down further some time was spent on detailed observations of inhabited planets to show that the horrors mentioned had no place in reality. The unexplored stars being an original goal of the mission had to wait for a different occasion, though. Conglomerate had to learn about the discovery ASAP.
During the hibernation cycles spent by explorers in relativistic flight in between Joyeuse and Qi, first fleet of Shizaes performed its first task in Maigh Eo. According to the relations of survivors from the recent battle the alien wreck had already melted in a heliosphere, but what was certain (at least before the scientists who had boarded the Shizaes heard about the Horror From Joyeuse) was that since it had existed in an empty binary system, it must had come from somewhere else. And the entire task was about finding any traces that could point towards this "somewhere else". Some gravitational traces indeed existed, but with both Groaxians and Umbara already flying in and out of the system, the search was pointless. There was no way to determine which traces belonged to whom. However, just because the search was pointless, didn't have to mean the results were. An interesting anomaly had been observed in place where the artefact was used during the battle. While it wasn't visible to the naked eye from the outside, space around the detonation of this mysterious device expanded rapidly. Moreover, probes sent there transmitted a weird image: it was one of Maigh Eo stars clearly visible despite the probes facing the opposite direction. As if this wasn't already enough, the inside of the star could be observed in detail. The second probe that followed closer to the anomaly could also display the interiors of the probe that crossed the invisible barrier first. The view was surreal. Surreal for the eyes, but not surreal for the physics. Scientists instantly recognised they had been staring right into the hyperspace as perceived by three-dimensional entities.
Soon the entire fleet was cruising through hyperspace, skipping light hibernation cycles faster than anyone could take a breath. Direction had been chosen in a way that guaranteed reaching the closest known edge of the Crack. But even long before the journey was finished, Groaxians took notice of all kinds of strange visions happening around them, similar to what they could sometimes see during "normal", three-dimensional presence in the Crack. Strange lights, gravitational pulses detected for no reasons and all kinds of traces displayed by HyperSensors. Scientists tried to follow them for a while, but in every case they led to nothing, ending as abruptly as they began. Still lacking the means to understand the origin of these phenomena, crews focused on the initial goal of reaching the edge of the Crack again. But when they finally did, nothing spectacular happened. In fact, nothing changed at all. From what could be told, all ships were still in hyperspace. And there wasn't anything odd about the hyperspace beyond the Crack, at least nothing more odd than what had already been observed about a four-dimensional plane. Nothing that would shed some light as to why from the standard 3D space's perspective things worked they way they worked, not allowing for crossing the speed of light for example.
According to the duration of the journey, everyone expected to reach Qi itself soon. The problem was, it didn't happen. Long after the the supposed arrival time, Groaxians cruising through the hyperspace still could not reach their homeworld. But eventually technicians controlling the flight took a note that while the real speed had remained the same through the whole time, the effective speed at which the starships were moving from point A to point B in the universe was dwindling and the slowdown was more and more severe as time passed by. Recalculating the position with taking this into account revealed that the entire fleet was still within the Crack and struggled to reach its border. Soon a brief hypothesis was formed that it was impossible to reach the edge, because the ships kept slowing down, increasing the time required for reaching destination to infinity. Eventually Groaxians taking part in the expedition turned around and navigated back to Maigh Eo, leaving hyperspace through the same point they had entered it. Some physicists instantly thought about building hyperdrives which would make it possible to pierce through space at any point one might want, entering and leaving hyperspace at a whim. They wanted to use them to enter the hyperspace very close to, possibly even right on top of the edge of the Crack and see what could be discovered there.
After reading through the reports of both expeditions, Conglomerate briefly noted how they both brought more questions than answers and planned the next steps for Groaxian race to follow. With the theoretical knowledge gathered on the topic, building first hyperdrives shouldn't be much of a problem and Conglomerate accepted the project proposed by the researchers who had been the first ones to enter hyperspace. It was nothing more than a "Curvature Propulsion on steroids", because the design was supposed to simply warp space so hard to the point of tearing it apart, creating a rift allowing the ship to take a shortcut between two points in the universe. Unfortunately, the case of Horror From Joyeuse wasn't that simple to decide about. Not even the brightest minds had any idea as to where the research should even begin, let alone how it was supposed to look like. One thing to notice was that the signal radiating from the walls, which were like an array of small broadcasting devices resembling in some way the operational principle of a Groaxian brain, was finally translated. It was a mixture of Groaxian and Achernar language, Groaxian expressions encoded with Achernar alphabet and protected by a sophisticated encrypting algorithm. The message was simple: "Humanity is no more, but we, last surviving Groaxians, will take its place."
In an optimistic version, taking place of Humanity could mean continuing their legacy, just like it happened with Precursors. But in the context of a Dark Forest, this one simple sentence carried eerie, sinister meaning. And there was no way for Groaxians to tell which version was true. If anything brought from that outpost was true, that is. However, no matter how many Groaxians tried to not think about the creepy discovery too much, it all came back when astronomers noticed a star not further than one hundred thirty two light hibernation cycles away suddenly collapse into one shining point together with the ones that were nearby. Shortly afterwards the point stopped emitting light and ceased to exist. That region of space ceased to exist and a few gravitational anomalies were all that was left from it.
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3480-3485 AM hibernation cycles
Blutgang-B II was an obvious, perfect candidate for further expansion because it was the closest one Groaxians could reach from within their territory and the frozen mountains were a decent starting climate for the terraformers, even though the average temperatures on the planet were still too hot and oxygen had to be replaced with methane. But it had its status changed rapidly from "for colonisation in the nearest future" to "for colonisation in the past hibernation cycle" when a set of coordinates from the complex in Scar'am had been retrieved, pointing somewhere deep underground in the crust of Blutgang-B II. The ground at the destination was completely frozen and temperature was too low for Groaxians to handle and after terraforming it was expected to get even lower, so an extensive heating infrastructure was required for research team to investigate the outfinding. And there was lot to investigate indeed - the complex was smaller than the one on Scar'am, but the additional knowledge and datasets were not.
Most noticeable artefact was a database with entries describing hundreds of thousands of biological species. Some of them were marked as sentient. Countless experiments on the matrix and the filter had been logged, with mixing results. The planet on which all these experiments happened hadn't been chosen by accident, too - back in the Precursor solar watches it was much, much colder, colder than Genesis itself. The location of that research outpost served as an excellent hibernation chamber so that Precursors could keep their test subjects nicely stored without requiring any care until needed. These deeds of the Precursors worried Groaxians who witnessed them. It was natural for Groaxians to assume that Precursors had built a beautiful civilisation representing a good will they wanted to share across the universe, so to see them ruthlessly experimenting on sentient beings of various kinds was a bizarre sight. The matrix prototype they had engineered was far from reaching usable stage and was unstable. According to the reports it was actually capable of adding the fourth dimension to some simple objects, but living beings were far too much of a complexity for it to handle, well, anything beyond simple metallic cubes or the like were. And each wrong transition to a higher plane meant the organism tested was shredded into pieces and disintegrated on a soulgrain level, completely deleting it as a conscious being, leaving only irregular four-dimensional particles as if it had been put through a hypergrinder of some sort. And even if one of the experiments had worked, it would still have resulted in the organism dying, having nothing but itself in the hyperspace, floating in the void.
The half-finished matrix was an orbital construction and obviously did not survive, but its underground command center had a storage with spare parts. Precursor engineering was marvellous as they succeeded at preserving even the most delicate components through eons in an excellent state. Apart from the scientific value and alien devices there was also a third discovery to be made: the passage from history of this ancient civilisation. According to it, by the time they started experimenting on biological forms, Invaders had extracted all matter from several galaxies controlled by them and despite tough defense grid set in hyperspace around the core galaxy cluster were losing space with every battle. Invaders had unleashed their most powerful starships and weapons at a time and no simulation desperately restarted time after time showed any chances for Precursors to prevail. It was a dark period when all ethics had been thrown out of the window for the sake of completing the most important undertaking in the entire universe. They cleared countless planets from every single living organism leaving only barren landscapes with no life signs present just to feed their scientific machine. While this desperation could serve as an explanation, in the eyes of Groaxians it was not a justification. These experiments were largely pointless and lacked a long-term plan, meanwhile countless civilisations had suffered. Precursors themselves had claimed they desired to escape from Dark Forest, but in the process of doing so did not differentiate from Invaders.
But Groaxians couldn't just despise Precursors for what they did without reminding themselves about Blutgang invasion. What Precursors had done had only one difference: scale of devastation. But the idea behind the action remained exactly the same. Whether it would be possible for anyone to ascend without doing things Dark Forest Theory mentioned remained an interesting question for soulseekers, but none of the cases studied by Groaxians had achieved that, with both Precursors and Humanity having to resolve to warfare and brutal, morally questionable methods to push the project further. Other philosophical questions could be asked on this premise, namely whether the failure came from resolving to violence, but firstly for Humanity there was no proof they had actually failed, meanwhile with the Invaders all around Precursors, past some tipping point, were doomed regardless of their further choices. Some claimed that no ascension without cosmic fires was possible, because everything came at a price in the universe full of natural and obvious hostility.
And so Blutgang-B II, after the discovery renamed to Scrar'ix, received first significant transit of materials followed by landing of highly specialised mobile engineering units preparing life-support infrastructure and setting up orbital platforms for the assembly of Qives. At first setup was much slower because Conglomerate disapproved usage of antigrav tech because the planet was too precious, but just like in case of Scar'am, nearest body was selected as a destination in case something would go wrong: Blutgang-B I. It didn't take long for the first colonists to arrive, because engineers building habitats across mountain ranges could afford to skip cooling systems as the temperatures could get quite hot, but still remain within tolerable ranges. As a result, living was not always comfortable, but a small population meant to kickstart the colony could survive and prepare terraforming of this world.
But as Groaxians were getting more and more comfortable in Blutgang, case of Umbara still awaited resolution. Even the most persistent soulseekers and tempestsaurs began to lose hope, realising the task of Umbara assimilation was futile because their biology was incompatible with Groaxian ways of thinking and behavioural patterns. For example, Groaxians could work from birth to death without issues because of the schedule carefully catered to the needs of their bodies and regular hibernation replenishing strength and regenerating all tissues, but Umbara could not hibernate and their spawn certainly was too fragile to even survive on its own, let alone go to work. Despite this, most members of the Conglomerate insisted on finding a niche for them and still hesitated to give a permission for genetic engineering. But for many this contradicted the idea of full integration to prevent Dark Forest Theory from applying. Finding a niche for them was easy, they could do whatever really, it was guaranteeing that the few millions of Zenn survivors would truly become part of one civilisation.
After lots of thinking and consideration, a new idea was born: if Umbara were unfit for Groaxian culture and no refitting was allowed, then the only possibility left was to have them work in areas that had already defied Groaxian nature for countless hibernation cycles in the past. In short, they were supposed to join Bound by Dark Forest. But of course it would be very strange if this revolutionary idea hadn't met any opposition. To become Bound by Dark Forest essentially translated to having Umbara serve in the army, and while Conglomerate indeed approved the concept as Umbaras seemed to thrive under strict discipline and extreme conditions and meanwhile Groaxians needed an army whether they wanted it or not, a case of La simply had to be brought up as a foremost counterargument. La had learnt all there was to learn about Umbara before they attacked and even when they did, they hid among the society scattered across starships, waiting for the right moment. And when that moment had come, a few millions of scattered survivors on a dying world was all there was left from Umbara Commune. Adaptation was a crucial theme of surviving Dark Forest and if Zenn were to understand Groaxian culture and act in a certain way before preparing their strike, Groaxians would be doomed, betrayed by a large chunk of their own military force. Letting Umbaras anywhere near anything capable of shooting stuff at another stuff looked like a recipe for a total disaster and being backstabbed was the last thing Groaxians needed while racing against time without knowing whether Dark Forest Strike was a matter of half a solar watch or a thousand hibernation cycles.
And yet Conglomerate focused its attention on this idea regardless of whatever trouble it might cause, because during discussions on the matter something fascinating had been observed. The idea of putting what was left from Umbara Commune in the army was self-contradicting in its nature. It was born from the constraints of trying to both have them fit right into Groaxian society and preserve their own values at the same time, regardless of what they were, but at the same time modern military doctrine had been founded on the idea of freely experimenting with changing the nature of soldiers, thus contradicting the idea of the ban on genetic engineering. Paradoxically, this raised hope among many once again: if the original plan was full of inconsistency, then it was an undeniable proof that it had to be abandoned, opening up other possibilities, which paired extremely well with the concept of whatever happening in a three-dimensional universe being only a temporary state before finishing Project Ascension. It could be assumed that just like Bound by Dark Forest, Umbara would see their nature restored once inhabiting hyperspace. All in all, Conglomerate ended up publishing a decree according to which Umbara survivors were to be incorporated into the army and tied to the Groaxian soldiers by a common theme circulating among units and crews: war culture and language of Humanity. Many soulseekers were truly happy with the final solution: the approach of Humanity to warfare was a perfect balance between what Groaxians and Umbara Commune had achieved in that regard.
One of the sociological consequence of adapted solution to the assimilation dilemma disturbed the inner peace of soulseekers guiding these changes. The merging process of the two halves of Groaxian society picked up pace shortly afterwards. Main reasoning from the ones who stayed true to their original colours was that it was Bound by Dark Forest that eventually allowed to overcome it for the first time, letting Groaxians spare Umbaras and defy the brutal logic and maths of Dark Forest Theory. In the meantime Bound by Dark Forest were more divided, some unhappy about letting Umbaras exist further, but some pointing out they would make some decent cannon fodder in the incoming battles, whatever they might look like, sparing Groaxian lives in the process. And they were all aware a new war was about to start, because La were still out there and still hostile. Nobody was even sure as to whether they had one or more planets to reside on or still existed as a fully nomadic society, but some experts leaned towards the latter. A confrontation with the fleet of La seemed unavoidable and Conglomerate had already started preparations for the battles to come. New starship prototypes were still nowhere near anything resembling combat readiness, but tests of a new generation of gravitational weapons, military particle accelerators and kinetic launchers looked promising, as well as initial checkout of a new generation of defensive devices - gravity-based disturbers preventing enemy targeting systems to lock onto Groaxian starships because of detection apparatus malfunctions caused by target's gravitational signature fluctuations. This new equipment was not only promising, but easy to be mounted in whatever designs military engineers might come up with as well, because given the size of ships and average engagement distances during space battles it shouldn't take much to render enemy targeting systems useless, allowing for small power and thus small size of the devices.
Spare parts found on Scrar'ix allowed to save a lot of time and resources on the matrix construction and scientists were able to finally progress with the assembly of a stub based on which each component of the mighty machine shall be built, but countless of failed attempts still separated this stage from the ultimate success. And whatever optimism might emerge from relatively rapid progress was overshadowed by increasing reports from astronomers taking notice of larger and larger chunks of space collapsing and fading away according to the description brought by explorers from Joyeuse. A solid estimation of the time left was still missing, but judging by the fact that the brightness of the cosmic watch sky had lowered so much that the difference was already visible by a naked eye if one was to gaze at the stars and compare the view with pictures from two hundred hibernation cycles earlier, there was certainly less of it than more.
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LAST GENERATION OF ZENN-LA
3486 AM hibernation cycle
New generation of Human Space Fleet components still struggled to leave prototyping stage, because physicists claimed the new type of gravitational weapons felt underwhelming during lab tests. In theory the latest soulgrain gravity theory held immense power ready to be weaponized, but energy requirements were still too high for any reasonable starship onboard reactor design and the guiding system propagating gravitational pulses through a set of entangled soulgrains left a lot to be desired in terms of accuracy. Or rather the system itself was quite good, but the need to initially deploy the soulgrains was what caused most trouble, because it severely limited the usage of a new weapon. It took the precious time, tactically-wise introducing warmup period before the weapon could be fired for the first time. That alone maybe could still pass, with other armanents taking the responsibility of pushing the fleet through first volleys, but with next shots the situation became even worse due to the risk of next pulses affecting each soulgrain already deployed at the same time, excluding more and more spots across the battlespace for Groaxian ships, making navigating a cosmic watchmare. For example, in the most simple case of firing at the enemy in front, destroying it and not being able to change course before crossing through the space it had occupied, firing the weapon once again when next to its wreck could as well mean the same spot would be affected once again besides the new target, crushing the ship which dared to attack as well as whatever else would have been targeted. Of course that could be easily avoided by using a new soulgrain set each time, independent and not entangled with the ones already deployed, but slowly building a network of nodes through which destructive force could be propagated while only harming whatever existed at the targeted ones was a key advantage naval officers refused to give up on. The main idea behind deployment of this monstrosity was to have the battlespace littered with "killing nodes" past a certain point, almost guaranteeing enemy ships in between them would have no realistic way to not cross through at least one, facing certain doom once that happens.
These issues postponed the deployment of next-gen starship weapons, and thus the entire fleet itself, but despite missing these crucial deadlines, Conglomerate still wanted to push the idea of another preemptive strike against Zenn to delay their Blutgang assault before the new warships would finally enter the service. And so, having no other clues as where to start besides Hauteclere encounter during which the two Baernoloths had been destroyed, Human Space Fleet was sent to Hauteclere to find any traces of the damaged Umbara fleet and avenge the fallen explorers if possible. But if for strategic goals alone, Conglomerate might as well withdraw from sending any fleet anywhere before new ships would replace outdated Strikers and Pikes, but the mission was supposed to be a breakthrough based on the fact that Umbara soldiers were to be used for the first time in history. Conglomerate started small, with sending only small teams to support only a few crews, still leaving half the ships Umbara-free, confident in Groaxians handling any mutiny the assimilated race might try and the possible battle likely not happening at all, and even if so, not getting out of hand due to the damaged state of Hauteclere fleet, generally making the mission the safest possible proof of concept regarding Umbara assimilation in practice.
At 3486 AM hibernation cycle four Strikers and four Pikes making for Human Space Fleet straightened space while entering the gravity well of the three stellar bodies making Hauteclere system and headed towards Hauteclere-A II, the planet near which Baernoloths had been attacked, preparing curvature disturbance scanners to determine possible routes enemies might had taken since the last encounter. But what was found was not just traces of Umbara presence, it was their entire fleet still floating in deep space slightly beyond the planet. They had stayed in the same system through all the hibernation cycles that had passed since surviving Baernoloths had left it. Maybe it was Curvature Drives damaged beyond repair, maybe some strategic goals, maybe pure accident of them warping to the system once again at the exact moment when Human Space Fleet had arrived. Whatever the case, a space battle lied ahead, with not only Groaxians fighting against Umbara, but with La fighting against Zenn at the same time, being just another battle in the great conflict that lasted for generations ever since the two civilisations encountering each other on their homeworld.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/866429216244367378/a1.PNG)
Human Space Fleet accelerated forward, aiming at crossing in between the two groups of Umbara ships and firing away during the short window of opportunity, hoping the high velocity would prevent enemies from locking onto them and retaliating, but it would not be a space battle if something hadn't progressed not according to the plan. A very small mistake in calculating slingshot maneouvre around Hauteclere-A II was all it had to occur for the fleet to land not in between, but behind the two squadrons and not gain enough speed in the process. The one Groaxians had passed closer to was more than capable of opening kinetic fire. First metal slugs impacted on hulls, not piercing through them yet, but leaving a few significant weak spots on the outer armor layers. Not wanting them to give a chance at firing once again, fleet admiral decided to use Pikes and their phased curvature disruption systems to create a gravitational well which Groaxians could use to rapidly reverse direction while maintaining decent velocity for the entire maneouvre. The outcome was satisfying, with the next two kinetic volleys missing the target after slowing down too much due to the presence of strong gravity nearby, meanwhile Groaxians, already flying away from the enemies, rotated in place and opened particle beam fire, further contributing to the state of decay of enemy fleet. First target was taken down, as the concentrated stream of near-lightspeed heavy particles had proven too much for one of the hulls.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/866433099348443177/a3.PNG)
Groaxians maintained velocity, preparing to fire away before crossing the maximum range at which targeting systems worked in a reliable way and then use the planet to help them rapidly turn around once again and get back to battle. A simple plan with solid outcome predicted by the simulations, but before it could be executed, the Umbara serving on the ships spoke. They pointed out that they recongnised many of the signatures found on radars and claimed that many of the bigger ones were harmless terraforming ships. Brief Transcendent Speech scan was used to prove they spoke the truth. It was a fair information, allowing Groaxians to focus on the ships that were armed and posed a meaningful threat instead. But Umbara insisted on something more - they wanted to send surrender message receivable by terraformes and only terraformers. When asked why would anyone surrender in a Dark Forest, La pointed out that Zenn for sure should have learnt that Groaxians were a weak Dark Forest player and besides the plan wasn't neccessairly to convince them to surrender, but rather to spread confusion among enemy ranks: they declared they had a way of identifying themselves and to see Umbaras serving on Groaxian fleet would be the last thing the every expected to happen.
Not having anything to loose, fleet admiral authorised Umbaras to send a message to the terraformers. Apparently each class from Umbara fleet had its own unique message encoding system, so it was possible to communicate with only certain types of ships from a fleet. There was nothing preventing other ships to decipher the message of course, but according to the Umbara they should have them filtered out by default. This questionable setup that was about to be abused originally served to limit the communication to the bare minimum as given Umbara biology, focusing too much on talking disturbed their vision which was of invaluable help during space battles, almost as if it had been evolved to serve for this exact purpose.
No answer for the surrender broadcast came, but before next particle beams and gravitational pulses were sent across the void, several terraformers were observed to fire their engines in reverse and slow down. Interestingly, one of the kinetic warships had done the same. Before Groaxians could fire, though, several ships from the second squadron flying further from Human Space Fleet opened fire at their own ships, the ones that slowed down:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/866441139384614932/a4.PNG)
Seeing this unexpected turn of events, Groaxians withdrew from firing once again and continued their cruise towards the planet itself. Some enemy ships decided to pursuit them, but most stayed behind, with some firing at the terraformers and the lone warship that slowed down, but struggled to get through their armor. Or rather not struggled with penetration itself, but terraformers were simply massive enough to make hitting that one particular crucial spot much harder, often dealing damage to non-essential terraforming equipment. Meanwhile Human Space Fleet turned around and overdrove the engines, rapidly accelerating as it chose to fly above enemies. Gravitational pulses kept them mostly in one spot while particle beams precisely picked weakened targets and finished them off. Speeding starships passed the first squadron, destroying every single starship from it, then continued past the supposedly surrendered terraformers and caught up to the second squadron, however they closed in too much, making clear targets for the enemy. Many projectiles were dodged because the speed alone made it possible to fly past them before they could connect, but some landed, dealing further damage. At first it wasn't very dangerous, but after a brief firefight one of the Pikes had its armor basically shredded into pieces. One slug even narrowly missed the fusion reactor, but killed most of the crew responsible for keeping it safe during demanding battle power requirements and frequent overdrive usage.
With its reactor exposed and not enough crew to monitor and fix it, the ship came dangerously close to full destruction and each new volley could prove fatal for everyone on board. The captain did not hesitate with the evacuation order. First shuttles flew ouf of the endangered vessel soon enough, trying to safely navigate in between accelerated particles and kinetic projectiles. But as one of the starships opened fire in the general direction of that one Pike, destroying some of the shuttles and damaging the command bridge, several kinetic shots echoed across its hull. It was that one armed warship that had stayed behind with terraformers that attacked it. One particle beam later there was barely anything left to be gathered from its wreck. With the chaos that followed, the ship that flew in one formation right next to the last victim of the battle sent a surrender message. There was no time or way to check whether it was sincere, but with more targets than guns still present Groaxians could allow not to target that particular one in the next volley. To be absolutely sure, evacuated Pike fired one last time befote the captain and last survivors flew out of it, sending a gravitational pulse to trap it almost motionless as it struggled to overcome the mighty gravity force.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/866446963649150996/a6.PNG)
At that point the battle turned into a cleanup operation. Space warp disturbances had proven that at least some of the vessels from Umbara fleet had been capable of interstellar flight, but they were all blown out of the void before their Curvature Drives would charge. The battle with Hauteclere fleet finally came to an end and space was calm again.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/866448019729285150/a7.PNG)
After the battle Umbaras were able to confirm the remaining starships indeed had surrendered, confused about the whole situation. Several Groaxian squads wore their space suits for underwater survival and boarded them in order to carry some improvised repairs to bring the ships back home and keep tight watch over the subjugated species. Surviving Zenn were all brought to Blutgang and placed in water habitats on Scar'am. According to their thoughts, they were a part of the last surviving Zenn fleet out there. Suffering several crushing defeats from Tempestsaurs Of Achernar, these two damaged squadrons were all there had been left. Their fleet had fled to Hauteclere and tried to end the nomadic lifestyle to rebuild their strength and even started settling down on Hauteclere-A III, but then Achernar found them, bombarded their habitats on the surface and engaged in space combat. Most terraformers had been lost in that battle, crashing against the surface of Hauteclere-A III and most other ships were badly damaged, but managed to engage Curvature Drives in time and escaped into interstellar space. After some time they made a return to this system, because they believed Achernar were unlikely to think they dared to hide there once again and so far it proved true, but Groaxians found them instead. And so the generations-lasting Umbara Odyssey had oficially came to an end in Hauteclere.
Captured ships were of invaluable support for terraforming efforts in Blutgang and undoubtedly a perfect workplace for assimilated species. Also because of the events occuring during and after the battle, Bound by Dark Forest grew more respect for the other hald of the society and their dream of Umbara assimilation. Meanwhile the other side of the barricade kept noticing how some battles were unavoidable in order to bring Groaxians, Zenn and La all united under the banner of one civilisation, even if very few from the last two survived and their civilisations were collapsed on a large scale. But it was a great achivement of all the actions taken against Dark Forest regardless and countless efforts to overcome it. And with each solar watch the undergoing merge of all Groaxians into one balanced community once again was growing more visible. And with it more visible became questions about the true nature of Dark Forest itself - if it was possible to move beyond it in some limited ways, but at the same time not avoid its applications along the way, then it might as well be a force of balance, as hard as it was for the soulseekers to say. It forced to bring extermination upon each other, but also allowed backdoors for assmilating last survivors to exist as figured out by Humanity long before. And according to Achernar forced the civilisations to destroy each other, but allowed life to continue in some distant future, preventing the universe from eternal lifeless hibernation. As if on a higher level of abstraction it was meant to be something more than existential fear of individuals, a powerful force tying the universe together and keeping it alive through infinity by an endlessly repeated cycle of death and rebirth.
The Odyssey of Zenn-La had came to an end, Dark Forest consumed its yet another victim. But Zenn and La survived in some form and those lucky enough to see one more solar watch joined the Groaxian Odyssey across dimensions.
-
3487-3494 AM hibernation cycles
As if Blutgang hadn't been a bustling hub of automated industry and testing system for many latest technologies already, for example antigravity propulsion system for ground vehicles or Mental Synergy Collider, the latter being an elaborate technique developed by a group of Tempestsaurs to scale their capabilities up by nullifying negative mental effects by mixing a group who created a negative synergy with a group creating positive synergy and having the two ideas collide to wear both of them out and thus achieve the goal of dealing with the former, Conglomerate just kept pumping more resources into the system. To squeeze every last bit of efficiency and production output into the ongoing processes, a new class of space salvagers has seen the solar watch light:
Kreced class Salvager 60 000 tons 251 Crew 1 503,2 BP TCS 1 200 TH 1 200 EM 0
1000 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 1-136 Shields 0-0 HTK 45 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 15 Max Repair 400 MSP
Cargo 26 500 Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 5
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months
Salvager: 2 module(s) capable of salvaging 3600 tons per day
Short Range Debris Detection Net Artificial Gravity Field Autnomous Piloting System Canteen Containment Chamber Curvature Stabiliser Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Extragenesian Material Containment Flight Navigation System Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Gravitational Signal Filter Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Methane Recycling System Meditation Space Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module Speed Sync Correctional Thrusters
JC61K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 61000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Commercial Inertial Fusion Drive EP400,00 (3) Power 1200 Fuel Use 3,35% Signature 400 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 1 146 000 Litres Range 102,5 billion km (1186 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
After countless battles, several rings of wrecks orbiting stars in Blutgang alone were estimated to last the industry of both Scar'am and Scrar'ix for several hibernation cycles. But more importantly, salvaging missions opened an opportunity to study those of the wrecks which remained a mystery. Besides a fleet of Vrilxels who had once met its end during first arrival in Blutgang and well-classified Umbara ships, wrecks of Achernar and Precursor vessels also drifted across the void. The latter didn't differ much from what had already been known thanks to the monolith and weren't very useful anymore because of all the knowledge there was to be learn already learned, but the remaining pieces from Achernar fleet with which Umbaras had fought in Blutgang quickly picked interest.
An interesting symbol appeared in many parts of intact hull structures, oddly fitting with the philosophy of Achernar. It was cyclical, just like the universe and all history was, according to them at least, but there was more beyond this simple observation. The center of the picture looked like a symbol of a star, but the lines expanding outwards carried had creepy vibes attached to them. They could represent the shock wave after the star had been struck by a photonic missile or the extreme gravity warping space around as the star is in the process of collapsing into a black hole. Some soulseekers also came up with a third interpretation: the outward lines were the gravitational waves carrying the stellar coordinates of the doomed system to be heard by those who hear and those who hesitate not.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/869336622628491284/unknown.png)
This seemingly simple picture carried a compact, but deep presentation of the fundamental Achernar philosophy. But just as it was a symbol of the path to follow according to the Achernar, it became another symbol for soulseekers who noted how quickly Groaxians grasped the multi-layered meaning behind it. Identity of Umbara Commune took a good chunk of research to figure out, similarily to Humanity even though the latter contained it all in a monolith, but with Achernar it was quick and smooth. The easiness at which Groaxians could read Achernar philosophy was simply disturbing.
Time and combat destruction were ruthless for the wrecks. By the time Groaxians arrived, there wasn't much left to be examined. Out of notable findings the one that stood out was the gravitational broadcast array with which every single Achernar starship came outfitted with, or at least every single of the ones that had been blown out in Blutgang. It had a simple consequence of every starship of theirs being a doomsday device ready to be used and execute countless worlds it came across. Another unique find was some sort of mist, space dust, a kind of fog surrounding every wreck, mostly consisting of silicon, but there was a handful of coal, iron and traces of oxygen and chlorine to be found in this mixture as well. The properties and applications of whatever this thing was before being reduced into ashes remained unknown.
At last, the command of space forces announced a huge success in prototyping a new generation of military starships. The most straightforward design out of the ones proposed was a kinetic striker which was a spiritual successor of Syzygy, except everything about it was "bigger and better":
Blade class Kinetic Frigate 10 000 tons 401 Crew 4 541,2 BP TCS 200 TH 2 000 EM 0
10000 km/s JR 5-250 Armour 5-41 Shields 0-0 HTK 71 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 31 PPV 55
Maint Life 5,29 Years MSP 3 122 AFR 73% IFR 1,0% 1YR 186 5YR 2 795 Max Repair 1000 MSP
Captain Control Rating 3 BRG ENG CIC
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months Morale Check Required
Artificial Gravity Field AS Advisor Autnomous Piloting System Canteen Combat Simulation System Combat Trance Chamber Curvature Stabiliser Emergency Repair Module Emergency Treatment Section Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module
J10200(5-250) Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 10200 tons Distance 250k km Squadron Size 5
Inertial Fusion Drive EP2000,00 (1) Power 2000 Fuel Use 187,50% Signature 2000 Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 1 538 000 Litres Range 14,8 billion km (17 days at full power)
40cm Railgun V80/C9 (5x4) Range 600 000km TS: 10 000 km/s Power 36-9 RM 80 000 km ROF 20
Beam Fire Control R600-TS10000 (1) Max Range: 600 000 km TS: 10 000 km/s 98 97 95 93 92 90 88 87 85 83
Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor R51 (1) Total Power Output 50,6 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS4-R1 (1) GPS 4 Range 4,5m km MCR 408,7k km Resolution 1
ECCM-5 (1) ECM 50
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Blades originally produced by humans used a sophisticated particle launchers firing particles capable of, at least in theory, phase through ship's armor mostly unaffected, but "mostly" was the keyword, because many of those particles were ineffective and preemptively stopped, so Groaxians simply went with trusty kinetic weapons punching holes and crushing the target under enormous kinetic energy until there was no armor, no hull and nothing at all left to destroy. But while this was hardly a revolutionary design, when the next two were presented, it was obvious where most of the development time had been sunk.
Dragonbreath class Assault Ship 20 000 tons 738 Crew 7 598,7 BP TCS 400 TH 4 000 EM 0
10000 km/s JR 5-250 Armour 10-65 Shields 0-0 HTK 135 Sensors 140/180/0/0 DCR 90 PPV 80
Maint Life 6,70 Years MSP 7 123 AFR 107% IFR 1,5% 1YR 275 5YR 4 126 Max Repair 1000 MSP
Captain Control Rating 3 BRG ENG CIC
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months Morale Check Required
Artificial Gravity Field AS Advisor Autnomous Piloting System Canteen Combat Simulation System Combat Trance Chamber Curvature Stabiliser Emergency Repair Module Emergency Treatment Section Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Gravitational Signal Filter Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Methane Recycling System Meditation Space Onboard Armory Onboard Hospital Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module
J20100(5-250) Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 20100 tons Distance 250k km Squadron Size 5
Inertial Fusion Drive EP2000,00 (2) Power 4000 Fuel Use 187,50% Signature 2000 Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 3 155 000 Litres Range 15,1 billion km (17 days at full power)
Antiparticle Beam-12 ( 8 ) Range 400 000km TS: 10 000 km/s Power 30-10 ROF 15
Beam Fire Control R600-TS10000 (1) Max Range: 600 000 km TS: 10 000 km/s 98 97 95 93 92 90 88 87 85 83
Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor R80 (1) Total Power Output 80,3 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS4-R1 (1) GPS 4 Range 4,5m km MCR 408,7k km Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH10-140 (1) Sensitivity 140 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 93,5m km
EM Sensor EM10-180 (1) Sensitivity 180 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 106,1m km
ECCM-5 (1) ECM 50
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Antimatter experiments picked up pace and Dragonbreath was the first applied result of theirs. While antimatter production was still too low to construct reactors based on it, Blutgang reactor, together with similar ones built around Qi and Mimung, was able to produce enough antiparticles to fuel next-gen starship weapons. Antiparticle beam might have been "fully antiparticle" only in theory, with only one out of thousands fired particles being a representative of antimatter, but even then it was more than enough to meet military needs - with millions of particles leaving the barrel of the weaponized accelerator each shot, thousands of antiprotons were more than enough to release a massive energy upon contact with the matter of enemy ship, and the "conventional particles" still remained a respectable tool of destruction on their own.
Vaccine class Strike Cruiser 20 000 tons 756 Crew 9 621,6 BP TCS 400 TH 4 000 EM 0
10000 km/s JR 5-250 Armour 10-65 Shields 0-0 HTK 144 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 90 PPV 100
Maint Life 5,61 Years MSP 9 020 AFR 107% IFR 1,5% 1YR 483 5YR 7 244 Max Repair 1039,2 MSP
Captain Control Rating 3 BRG ENG CIC
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months Morale Check Required
Artificial Gravity Field AS Advisor Autnomous Piloting System Canteen Combat Simulation System Combat Trance Chamber Curvature Stabiliser Emergency Repair Module Emergency Treatment Section Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Gravitational Signal Filter Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Methane Recycling System Meditation Space Onboard Armory Onboard Hospital Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module
J20100(5-250) Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 20100 tons Distance 250k km Squadron Size 5
Inertial Fusion Drive EP2000,00 (2) Power 4000 Fuel Use 187,50% Signature 2000 Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 3 170 000 Litres Range 15,2 billion km (17 days at full power)
Soulgrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuator-24 (5) Range 400 000km TS: 10 000 km/s Power 75-10 ROF 40
Beam Fire Control R600-TS10000 (1) Max Range: 600 000 km TS: 10 000 km/s 98 97 95 93 92 90 88 87 85 83
Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor R51 (1) Total Power Output 50,6 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS4-R1 (1) GPS 4 Range 4,5m km MCR 408,7k km Resolution 1
ECCM-5 (1) ECM 50
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
But even a full antiparticle beam meant nothing compared to the armanent of the starships meant to be used as fleet command centers despite theoretically not being designed with that purpose in mind. Having worked out or around every single issue of weaponizing the fruits of theory of soulgrain gravity, physicists helped deliver a weapon platform like never before. At first sight it was again a particle accelerator, but that impression couldn't land further from the truth as particle accelerator was just one component of the platform. It was used for creating microscopic, unstable black holes that were to be launched at the enemy. Through their short lifespan they caused local space fluctuations on a micro scale which were later targeted by the main payload of the weapon, concentrating high-powered gravitational outbursts capable, depending on the chosen setting, of either rapidly pulling objects closer to it and destroying them, or sending them away, rapidly increasing the distance from the enemy and also damaging it in the process. Because of the way it was supposed to work, the weapon was often casually referenced as "gravity guided missile" because of its unique targeting system that could be metaphorically described as laser guiding system of a conventional fusion missile. Soulgrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuators were expected to essentially let Groaxians, if not outright destroy, then take control of any enemy fleet by heavily influencing the direction it could or could not go. Just like original Vaccines were developed to nullify the threat of Invaders, at least temporarily, Groaxian version was supposed to quickly eradicate any oppositon that might be faced. In addition, gravity-based jamming devices disrupting enemy targeting attempts were mounted on all warships just like it had been planned.
Squadrons of Vaccines and Dragonbreaths were to form a next-gen Human Space Fleet, meanwhile out of Blades Conglomerate expected to be organised into a defensive grid around the three systems inhabited by Groaxians in case Human Space Fleet was to operate beyond Groaxian space for whatever reason. A specialised freighters were supposed to assist Blades and quickly deliver spare parts or kinetic slugs in between the defended systems:
Scak class Maintenance Vessel 20 000 tons 185 Crew 1 445,9 BP TCS 400 TH 1 600 EM 0
4000 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 1-65 Shields 0-0 HTK 73 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 95 045 Max Repair 200 MSP
Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 20
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months
Artificial Gravity Field Canteen Curvature Stabiliser Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module
JC20K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 20000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Commercial Inertial Fusion Drive EP800,00 (2) Power 1600 Fuel Use 2,37% Signature 800 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 321 000 Litres Range 121,8 billion km (352 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Umbara Commune was no longer a threat and Tempestsaurs Of Achernar had not attacked after their broadcast, firmly standing to their philosophy, meanwhile Groaxians remained defenseless against any Dark Forest Strike that was to come. But the exponentially rising fear of the weapons new starships were equipped with each military breakthrough left an impression among many that Groaxians were well on their way to reach the level of Dark Forest Lords, given the eaziness at which physicists were capable fo manipulating space around them in a way that was deadly for whatever predator and prey in one might find and attack Groaxians next. The simplest conclusion was to find comfort in the advancements of science and hope the level required for repelling Dark Forest Strikes would be reached soon enough as a backup for if the Project Ascension was to take too long to get completed in time, but there were certainly many who did not look optimistically into the consequences of Groaxians being capable of causing destruction on such a scale.
-
WAR OF A DIFFERENT TIME
3495 AM hibernation cycle
It was a solar watch like any other when Yatune picked up a mysterious signal originating from deep below the ground. A quick sonar scan revealed a complex cavern system at the source of the emission in a region still unscratched by the mining operations. Sensing a possible leftover from the Humanity, laying dormant for countless hibernation cycles, and deciding to turn itself on at the moment good as any other, Conglomerate approved a special expedition, but as always, what hid in the darkness surpassed the expectations of everyone.
The floor of the caverns was covered in a white goo of organic matter. It could glue itself to whatever else dared to disturb its peace and two explorers had to have emergency methane pack supplied after it chewed a bunch of holes in their space suits before they could free themselves after taking one step too many. It was somewhat similar to the substance discovered at the bottom of the rift on Scar'am, but nothing like other lifeforms ever encountered on Yatune. Strange devices hanging from walls seemed to monitor the parameters of whatever that thing was. Next hypothesis explorers came up with talked about the Substance which had devoured Yagidrerc and was later tamed by Humanity and used to defend against photonic missiles, but a bunch of rudimentary checkouts was enough to displace it due to the radically different composition of the biomass. For the time being, members of the mission restrained themselves from attempting to tinker with the unknown devices and went further through the tunnels, wondering whether they would find something else. And eventually they did, but not something they wanted to find at all.
In one of the underground halls small, slim bipedal figures with two hands. Their skin was blue and they looked at each other in confusion. They walked among the goo, firmly sticked to it. Apart from different skin colour and different facial proportions, they looked almost like tiny humans. Further experiments were required to confirm whether indeed Groaxians had been dealing with genetically modified human beings of some sort. Their heads were much thicker, though, with the skull being surrouned in a half-liquid and half-transparent halo or something. But if they really were representing the Humanity, that might be the historical breakthrough Groaxians had been looking forward to since the surface of Genesis had been bearing the monolith on it. Through the exploration of the caverns many similar halls were discovered, some empty, some with even smaller figures and eventually the mission reached what looked like a vault exit. It was very ductile and resilient, but just like the wall through which Groaxians had made an entrance for themselves, it fell apart under concentrated, plasma-supported laser mining drills. But as soon as the gate stood open, or rather laid destroyed, a significant force of what looked like an adult version of the creatures encountered before appeared on the other side, carrying weird-looking artifacts in their hands, all dressed in black, tight suits.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/870009463497699378/unknown.png)
No questions were asked. A scene of horror and agony unfolded. A horrific, nightmarish sounds echoed across the cave, disrupting everyone. But some looked more affected than others. They screamed in agony as their bodies slowly imploded, still being alive and conscious to some degree as parts of their brains left the skin cut open, tearing apart from each other and falling to the ground. A squad of Dark Forest Shadows and Elite Guardians from Qusmont escorting the expeditions took positions across the rubble from the doors, even they struggled to grasp what was going on. They returned plasma and particle fire in desperate attempt to overcome whatever was attacking them, but more shrieks and mind-tearing noises followed at their directions. But while they were confused, reactive cybersoul combat suits of theirs identified the threat as a sonic weapon fire and autonomously took actions to filter out the harmful sonic waves coming at them. Tempestsaurs leading the Shadows and Guardians assesed the situation only to find the enemies well-covered among rapidly-constructed metallic barricades that for sure did not exist shortly after the doors had been blown out. Plasma heat barely did any damage to it. Particle beams were better suited for the task, but each Guardian had to fire for a good while for their weapons to drill through the alloy.
As the unexpected battle was raging, civilian personnel retreated deeper into the complex, leaving a trail of mashed brains and fractured bodies behind. But the sound triggered something in those brains that were still in one piece. That trail came as a decent help for the fighting soldiers, though. The brains might appear shattered beyond the ability to keep their owners alive, but their rgaments, still pulsating in agony, still showed signs of being able to receive and transmit Transcendent Speech signal. Bound by Dark Forest had used this to their advantage, creating Synergy of the Fallen. With extra brainpower they were able to rapidly shift their attention and their reflexes, already reinforced by cybersoul-based implants, became so sharp surviving scientists and miners weren't fast enough to take notice of everything they'd been doing. This was the reason as to why the flanking team that must had entered the complex through some type of a backdoor was greeted by a hail of plasma and particle fire before they could do as much as level their sonic guns. Light blue substance poured from their shattered bodies, rapidly shifting towards black palette under extreme plasma heat.
Since taking cover didn't provide too much protection against concentrated sound of death as it could do in case of other types of weapons, Shadows and Guardians had little risk in attempting to directly storm the enemy and flush them out of their comfortable spots. With Tempestsaurs preparing everyone to enter Combat Trance, they ran across the corridor, taking more casualties, but not that many as one could expect. Enemy started waivering, eventually breaking down when the civilians, forming Mental Synergy with the encouraged soldiers redirected their mining equipment at them, drilling throught their black suits and blue bodies directly or mining rocks above them, causing cave-ins right on top of them. Morale of every Groaxian increased significantly also because of the symbolic value of using mining equipment in battle, a tradition as old as battles fought in the defense of Yatune. However, no prisoners were taken - last survivors who Groaxians intended to capture fired their weapons at the last moment at each other, annihilating their bodies into blue-white mashup of organic matter.
Entire Yatune was put on high alert, but no further instances of enemy activity had been detected, be it underground, on land, in the seas and rivers or in the skies and even low orbit. But the information that the ones who attacked had nothing to do with Humanity didn't require detailed biological study to confirm. On some of the uniforms of the fallen enemies a symbol of Tempestsaurs of Achernar remained clearly visible. Further xenobiology expertise only confirmed samples of the organic matter recovered from the underground site matched the genetic material recovered from Achernar wrecks in Blutgang and the communication protocols of salvaged devices were very similar to the language of Achernar space broadcasts.
But if Achernar were on Yatune first, why a few of cavern dwellings were all they had managed to build through all these hibernation cycles when Groaxians roamed the planetary surface remained an open question to tackle. Especially that settling this world made little sense for them, unless they did it to watch by then primitive Groaxians to be ready to inform Dark Forest Lords about their presence should the perceived existential threat outweight the risk of Tizona destruction. Which would be similar to what humans had done, except with a different intent. Even if so, they failed to do what they had planned given the events of Endpoint War. Obviously no Achernar starship had ever landed on Yatune and nobody believed they could land and unload their cargo and citizens without any Groaxian noticing throu hibernation cycles to come. Moreover, there was nobody left for these questions to be asked. The children of Achernar were, well, children and compared to Groaxian spawn lacked the ability to understand much, let alone be of any practical use, being nothing but a resource drain until adulthood. They spawned among discovered infrastructure and had no idea how they appeared on Yatune besides knowledge about Tizona as the star from which their ancestors originated.
Eyes of many Groaxians turned towards the new iteration of Human Space Fleet as something that would need to be put into use much earlier than anyone wanted to shall the Tempestsaurs Of Achernar go on with whatever they were attempting to do that time. Meanwhile scientific community grew more and more confused and divided on the matter of the nature of stuff appearing (or disappearing) out of nowhere. Vrilxel wreck on a desolate moon, missing Umbara outpost on Eckesachs III and no trace left, early Groaxian colony on Joyeuse-B II and Achernar suddenly appearing on Yatune to complete the list for the time being. Aside from making no sense whatsoever, the vision of Achernar suddenly appearing whenever and wherever they pleased in Groaxian territory sounded frightening and undermined any future efforts of fleeing the endangered systems, possibly opening up ways for disrupting Project Ascension as well. Conglomerate immediately issued orders to garrison more soldiers on every colonised planet and tighten space patrols as the new war had begun. Temperature across all Groaxian populations increased as many associated the echoes of a different time discovered in Joyeuse with previous events and feared them being not an alternative history, but a prophecy that was about to be fulfilled.
-
DESPERATE DEFENSE OF BLUTGANG
3496 AM hibernation cycle
After all the effort, by the beginning of a 3496 AM hibernation cycle terraformers could announce that, according to all parameters, Scar'am reached full habitability and no life support for Groaxians living on the surface was needed anymore. Dying and devastated wasteland had been turned around into the masterpiece of blue, purple and pink colours under the yellow-orange sky. Umbara living on the planet still required heating infrastructure, but to cut costs on their habitats a Rebreathing Programme came into realisation stage, aiming at replacing La lungs to accept methane instead of oxygen. Zenn were omitted, because their liquid water requirement still prevented having them live on the surface of a frozen Groaxian world.
Technology flourished and so did the balanced society of Blutgang. All in all, with the niches for Umbara Commune already found, Conglomerate put an emphasis to have them carefully integrated without crossing the boundaries of their civilisation beyond absolute necessity of preventing Dark Forest Theory application. As a result, despite all previous struggles surrounding the issue, Umbaras were left to maintain a satisfying degree of independent identity. The desire to build their own civilisation was strong in them, though. The cross-species interactions still posed many challenges, namely Umbara having to participate in the Conglomerate's plan. While something obvious for every Groaxian, it was much less so for a species of a different biology and culture. There was no other conditions under which extermination could be avoided, sadly.
As time went on, Umbaras developed ambiguous feelings about their situation. On the one hand they considered it a miracle they hadn't gone extinct by Achernar or Zenn bombardments and weren't eradicated by Groaxians who came to mop up their mess afterwards, on the other they expressed concerns over their civilisation no longer being theirs and the fear of extermination was still present among them, be it because Groaxians change their mind or someone else with bigger guns arrives. Eventually this led to Groaxians again taking less optimistic approach, realising once again there was no escape and the fundamental principle of developing own civilisation as one pleases had been abolished for the sake of maintaining a cross-species one. And with that conclusion the Umbara situation had come to a full circle - fundamental boundaries had to be crossed and the price for maintaining them would have to be paid in lives of every remaining Zenn and La representative. Project Ascension still remained at the only hope for resolving trouble with Dark Forest without having to result to suboptimal means.
Hopes of Blutgang somehow being spared from the fires of cosmic attack despite being close to Qi and Mimung were an important, even if not really viable, part of Dark Forest survival strategy, well-fitting into the "better something than nothing" category - not something to be seriously considered as main part of the plan, but highly beneficial if Groaxians were to be fortunate enough to see it happening. So when first space disturbances appeared and first Achernar starships warped out of them, terror and disappointment rose among Groaxians observing this. There was no time to inform Conglomerate, let alone receive its orders back. Admiral of the Human Space Fleet, which happened to be on patrol across the system by chance, briefly considered sending forces under his command to destroy every enemy starship before any of them could send a broadcast, giving precious time before Tempestsaurs Of Achernar would send another fleet to investigate, but it was utterly pointless - sending a broadcast couldn't take nowhere long enough for the Groaxians to engage and destroy every ship beforehand, not to mention the possibility of some of them escaping anyways. Or, to make matters far worse, losing the battle as no Groaxian had any idea as to with what exactly these ships were armed. They could carry anything from simple particle beams all the way to photonic missiles and black hole generators (at least in theory) and nobody would be able to tell the difference.
But there was something else Groaxians could do, and that was to pretend there weren't any Groaxians in the system and have Achernar believe it was still occupied by Umbara Commune. As a first obvious step, Pikes and Strikers landed on Scar'am and shut down all their systems, effectively ceasing to exist for Achernar. It was a very risky move, because even if Achernar could be tricked for some time, they were very likely to simply open conventional fire and having all the military force capable of resisting them grounded and shut down was not an ideal situation. On the other hand, upon discovering Groaxian population, they were expected to simply send a broadcast and don't risk combat, happily escaping taking opportunity from grounded Human Space Fleet, at least if they still estimated Groaxian forces to be superior. Even if they didn't, given the original message had already been sent, engaging in conventional warfare still made little sense for them at that point.
Qives in orbits of Scar'am and Scrar'ix were more problematic to hide, though. Not only were they all space stations without any landing module of some sort, but Achernar had already seen them during Endpoint War orbiting Sodara. And the more Groaxians thought about their plan, the more they realised how pointless it was. Completely revamped biosphere of Scar'am since last Achernar incursion, "completely accidentally" matching parameters of Genesis, left no doubts. However, Groaxians still had their most important asset intact and ready for use: terraforming-capable support fleet of Umbara design. Human Space Fleet admiral briefly approved the tactics of having them approach enemies and transmit the Umbara surrender signal, just like they did during battle of Hauteclere.
Groaxians breathed heavily in the heat of their minds, watching dots representing both sides closing in across the tactical map. Meanwhile scientific staff worked hard to deliver a viable solution of stopping the broadcast from happening when Achernar, sooner or later, would discover the current inhabitants of Scar'am. After a while of Achernar not answering to the calls in any way, terraforming fleets had been turned away from the enemy, more to give their crews some comfort before being inevitably destroyed by Achernar beams. Even if so, it was hoped that this incident bought some time by having Achernar not focusing on Scar'am itself for a while and thus not bothering with updating Dark Forest Lords on the strategic situation of Groaxians. Oddly enough, despite enemies closing the gap while terraformers had barely started gaining velocity in the opposite direction, no shots had been fired. Achernar simply didn't bother with the terraforming vessels. This wasn't a good sign for the civilisation as a whole, even if Umbaras and Groaxians boarding the fleet in question likely had a different opinion. That outcome simply wasn't expected given Achernar waging conventional war on Umbara.
Soon radars registered an unusual gravitational wave pulsating across the system. Nobody had to wait for a cybersoul advisor to finish its analysis to know what information it carried. All hope was lost. Lost and regained when out of a sudden antigravity beam pierced through the compromising piece of information, partially destroying its content. A few stellar configurations could still be recovered, but far too little to undoubtedly determine the system or even rough area from which it had been sent. It turned out a group of scientists on board of a lone Shizae, maintaining the ship's laboratories while rest of the crew had been taking a break on Scar'am before heading into the Crack once again, had fired an antigrav pulse to counter Achernar broadcast after turning essential systems on despite being grounded just like Human Space Fleet. Moreover, because of the broadcast travelling at the speed of light, they had to fire it long before the information about it would have reached them, otherwise their counter-broadcast would have never been able to catch up to the original communicate and neutralise it in time, correctly predicting the improvised concealment couldn't last long.
Sensing a battle ahead, Human Space Fleet hastily powered engines of its starships as Achernar began spreading out. As it was reconstructed by cybersoul mainframes, the antigravity pulse and gravitational broadcast must had collided right at the moment the starship which had initially sent it did so, because otherwise all there had been achieved would be to have the message stopped propagating only in one direction, meanwhile in the others the broadcast would be left to travel freely, never caught by this bold counterattack. And Achernar spreading could only mean that a single Shizae wouldn't be able to stop them all when they all started broadcasting, likely each one of them doing so at different time intervals.
Something had to be done before Human Space Fleet could engage the enemy to preserve Blutgang. Groaxians turned their thoughts into Phadithea and its antigravity-based array for catching cargo sent from numerous mined moons from the second Blutgang binary system. Fortune smiled upon them, because no transport was in the vicinity of the moon, meaning the entire array could have been easily redirected to counter the enemy broadcasting attempts. Achernars were pulling off complex manoeuvres, but the constant antigrav spam was rendering their broadcast attempts useless as this strange battle was going on. But just as Pikes and Strikers left the ground below them, already charging weapons while still during atmospheric flight, Achernar arrived closer to the planet and started to bombard it with particle beams, focusing primarily on Human Space Fleet rising above Scar'am skies. Still slow and still in the air, the ships couldn't do much to avoid hits, but their armors were sufficient to survive first beams with no internal damage. Civilian deaths coming from those beams that missed the ships were piling up, though. While the makeshift ground command center which coordinated Blutgang defense efforts was spared in the orbital strike, one of the beams hit the Shizae's reactors. Some scientists were lucky to make it to the escape pods, but most perished as the artificial supernova burned the wreck down.
Eventually Human Space Fleet rose above the sky and was clear to fire its gravitational and particle weapons, but before any significant amount of damage could have been dealt to the enemy warships, they all powered Curvature Propulsion Systems and disappeared from the system. With them free to go and possessing the knowledge about Groaxian presence within the system, the outcome of the battle was a clear defeat. All hope for Blutgang survival was gone, and so were a few scientists working on Project Ascension, one Shizae and thousands from civilian Groaxian population. Tactical analysis of the battle mentioned the questionable decision of grounding the military forces, but after more detailed simulations it could be proven that the enemy hadn't sent its death sentence into the stars for quite a while initially, giving the valiant crew of Shizae precious time to come up and execute their plan, meanwhile chances of Achernar not recognising a signature of Human Space Fleet instantly and sending the information much sooner as a result were described as minimal.
The battle didn't resemble the descriptions from Joyeuse-B II, but the outcome was similar - Blutgang was effectively gone. This alone shattered the morale more than the defeat itself, because while Project Ascension had real chances of saving every Groaxian regardless of whether Blutgang was exposed or not and the chances of it surviving the Dark Forest Strike were very low anyways, the intrusive thought of War of a Different Time coming into reality stated the project was not completed in time, something far more threatening than the war itself.
-
REMEMBRANCE OF GJ 1279
3488-3498 AM hibernation cycles
After its crew undergoing countless training sessions, tests and preparations spanning across many hibernation cycles, a fleet of Ninqreds with Human Seekers on board had finally arrived at the outer layers of GJ 1279 at last. The star, by then already oficially referred to by the name humans had given it long before, was still there, and toghether with it floated a gas giant with its plethora of moons, a scorched, airless rock and the two planets that interested Groaxians the most: one was a world similar to Yatune, only larger and more massive, being closer to the actual Earth in those parameters, the other was a hot and humid planet. According to first scans, it had a tropical climate spanning across most of the land surface, mostly composed of specimens encountered on Yatune, but with a good mix of alien ecosystems as well that easily survived terraformation as this world already had oxygen-based life before humans conquered it. Unfortunately, it seemed nobody was living on these planets anymore as electromagnetic readings remained poor even as the starships closed in to investigate their final destination. Either that or Humanity had mastered hiding in a Dark Forest...
Out of the poor signals emitted, eventually one could be classified and have its source pinpointed. It came roughly from the high orbit of GJ 1279 II, the tropical planet. Hoping for the best and preparing for the worst, Ninqreds performed a slingshot around the gas giant that sent them towards the unknown. As they got closer and closer to the investigated planet, they started detecting various points of interest across the surfaces of GJ 1279 II and III, which the onboard emulation programs classified as long-lasting dormant machinery and components of human technology still partially functional even after millenia of hibernation cycles without any maintenance, but the most curiosity-triggering source in the orbit remained marked as an "unknown alien structure". Past a certain point it was obvious there was no other explanation but the fact Human Seekers were the first ones among Groaxians to witness and study something new, an alien object of an unknown history, structure and purpose.
Telescopes showed the structure orbiting the planet appeared as a perfectly-balanced cube with many rings surrounding it. Periodic power surges were running across it, as if the device was breathing. Upon closer inspection it turned out the space around the structure was slightly warped, making the rings appear as a very similar concept to the ones used in Curvature Propulsion Systems. Suddenly soulgrain anomaly detection sensors activated themselves, informing about a weird disturbance happening all around. The device increased heat signature, too. Countless checks were run against the newly detected mystery. Even though there wasn't any consesus established as to what it all represented, scientists were able to determine the phenomena happening on a soulgrain level around explorers could only be a product of intelligent beings.
At last Ninqreds approached the alien structure at such a short range they could hypothetically start docking procedure, if only whatever that thing was would provide such functionality. Pulses of light periodically illuminated the smooth "lanes" that stood out from otherwise monolithic structure. Space around looked as if Groaxians had approached maybe not a black hole, but at least a white dwarf. A few probes were sent to take a closer look at the artifact. At first they tried to identify the composition of the cube. Surprisingly, it was made from a material looking like out of this universe - it was a tight structure, glued together by strong interactions of whatever particles formed it. Cracking it open via brute force was impossible. Not that anyone on board was brave enough to try, anyways. And so the efforts switched to communication or possibly hacking attempts. Assuming it was a human-made structure, Groaxians tried to read any type of messages it might have sent or have it receive Groaxian-made communicates using either pure formulae of mathematics and physics or human language.
And it was with the latter that another surprising and kinda creepy discovery was made. The fluctuations of microcosmos on a soulgrain scale were in fact all forming a simple code which was nothing but direct human words. It was a simple warning that stated: "Staying in the system is not safe for you. Engage your interstellar propulsion and leave. Now." This simple yet radical warning, on top of that lacking any reasonable explanation, shocked and terrified explorers. Why Humanity that promised to "keep them safe" would place an odd device in a system they once colonised, telling the ones they pledged to protect to just "leave" without any explanation. But as soon as the device started "waming up" or something, leader of the expedition ordered to immediately pull out, full speed ahead. Fusion reactors burned and velocity increased, but so did the heat and power surges of the cube.
When Curvature Propulsion Systems were ready to be engaged, a blinding light flared from the cube. Over half the sensors were fried from extreme elctromagnetic radiation it caused, barely leaving the ships functional enough to establish warp bubble and flee the system, further into the Crack. Once the evacuation was complete, Groaxians stopped for a short while in interstellar space to take one final look at the system, but when the light caught up to them, they could see there was none. GJ 1279 had ceased to exist.
Back in Qi explorers got updated on the tense situation with Achernar and shared all their findings with Conglomerate and later scientific community as well as public opinion. Light from GJ 1279 was still supposed to take many hibernation cycles to reach Qi, allowing astronomers to look at the system as if nothing had ever happened, but various astronomical and mathematical models done on the cosmic phenomena observed indicated the possible strong similarity between what Human Seekers had witnessed and what had happened to many other systems already when the new type of Dark Forest Strike started to be registered across the galaxy. But if this was a Dark Forest Strike, then who was responsible for it? Humanity? Or someone else? And wouldn't it be a rather weak one if it left Groaxians with relatively plenty of time to safely leave the system before annihilation, meaning if the attacked civilisation was space-faring, saving themselves could be trivial? These were the questions very often asked, but never answered, not to mention there was no reason to attack GJ 1279 in particular as it looked uninhabited, unless someone sent a false broadcast to Dark Forest Lords. Which actually was a plausible scenario, a random civilisation testing Dark Forest Theory or something. All in all, if anything, data brought by Human Seekers could provide more insight into the Dark Forest Strikes, or at least that particular type of them, like never before. While no Groaxian could pull much from it yet, it was believed to be of great scientific value once the frontier of development in corresponding fields would be pushed far enough. And to defend from something was a much easier task if that "something" could be understood.
Apart from GJ 1279 investigation, Conglomerate rushed preparations for inevitable Achernar confrontation. It seemed that the enemy still feared conventional warfare, hiding behind the relative safety of telling Dark Forest Lords to take care of Groaxians, but at the same time its actions were highly disturbing, both with the Yatune encounter and the Blutgang assault, possibly even disturbing the progress on Project Ascension in the future. To minimise risks and maximise the advantage Groaxians could get in this war, Conglomerate agreed on a Tizona counterattack, aiming to destroy whatever fleets and infrastructure required to build and maintain them existed there, preventing Achernar from wrecking havoc in Groaxian territory, with the secondary objective of gathering as much data on the enemy and the world it originated from as possible.
Fleets of fuel harvesters had already embarked towards Eckesachs, tasked with establishing a refuelling outpost in orbit of a hydrogen-rich Eckesachs VII, to allow the next-gen Human Fleet to refill hydrogen supply and briefly rest before venturing into hostile space or to refuel after the operation on their return journey to Qi if the manoeuvres would consume too much fuel for the Groaxians to safely get back home. Next-gen Human Space Fleet composed of two squadrons of Vaccines and Dragonbreaths was already prepared for the mission, meanwhile numerous squadrons of blades were being consecutively built to establish space barricades around inhabited worlds and guard them from any possible future Achernar invasions. At the same time first prototypes of working antimatter engines were successfully presented, opening a way for first antimatter-propelled starships to be deployed in the future to further reinforce chances of surviving in the Dark Forest. Despite what happened to GJ 1279, many still believed that Humanity was on the "good side" of all this and hoped recordings from the last moments of this system would serve to prepare Groaxians for what was coming at them, too.
-
DARKEST COSMIC WATCH OF BLUTGANG
3501 AM hibernation cycle
Next iteration of Human Space Fleet was being briefly updated on the status of Achernar understanding before departing towards Tizona and Thuan Thien, but a few light hibernation cycles away from Qi, in Scar'am high orbit, something wasn't right. A lone squadron of Void Scavengers was calmly sweeping artificial planetary rings made out of derelict ships and wrecks away, instantly smelting leftovers on board, preparing to deliver alloy ingots ready to be used by the industry. Their calm solar watch had been suddenly interrupted when several Achernar starships popped in the system. Nobody expected this, believing they simply sent a broadcast only to never return again. But that alone could be blamed on not fully understanding their motives and intentions yet, unlike their warp into the system itself. Because there was no warp. Space around them remained straight (except the gravity well of the planet and its moon) and wasn't affected by their arrival at all. No physicist could answer how had Tempestsaurs of Achernar crossed the interstellar distance without using any technology manipulating with the fabric of space, but if the weapons they brought were to be as advanced as their interstellar propulsion systems, doom of Blutgang was unavoidable and imminent.
Blutgang Space Barricade, hovering in orbit, fired its engines to gain distance from the enemy fleet to hopefully avoid whatever the enemy might have brought for this unexpected battle. The commander of the barricade hoped to provoke Achernar into chase to lure them away from the planet, but it was all futile. Enemy fired its engines in the opposite direction to the Groaxian fleet, but did not hesitate to open fire, targeting vulnerable Kreceds from Void Scavengers. Particle beams punctured several of them, sending their spinning wrecks to join the planetary ring, only to later supposedly be picked clean by the surviving ones together with countless of others who did not survive brutal fights over Blutgang.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/880893448989855754/a2.PNG)
Blades supposed to guard Blutgang turned around, still having enough thrust in their engines to easily catch up to the escaping Achernar, trying to pick them off before they would be able to engage whatever devices they used to arrive at the system. It didn't even take that many kinetic slugs for the historical moment of first Achernar military vessel (and first Achernar vessel in general) to be destroyed, its wreck splitted into several irregular chunks with scrap and electronics speeding away in random directions, swiftly avoided by the smart navigation systems of Blades.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/880893627054825472/a3.PNG)
Having engaged the gravity-based jammers, Groaxians were relatively safe from particle beam retaliation fire. Achernar fired several times as Groaxians kept getting closer, but the error margin of these volleys was gigantic. Dynamic micro corrections applied to gravitational signature of Groaxian ships must had indeed mess with targetting systems of the enemy, preventing them to accurately predict where each Blade would be the moment near-lightspeed particles were to reach it. With such an enormous advantage, Groaxians quickly dominated the enemy fleet, erasing all enemies from existence before they had a chance at running away. Apparently their armament was indeed lacking in many key aspects and they made a good call to not engage Groaxians before in a conventional war, leaving the conflict to be resolved by a higher instance.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/880893760072994847/a4.PNG)
Soon after the skirmish scientists eagerly got to work onto figuring out how the enemy arrived in the first place. The most obvious starting point was to analyse the internal structure of fresh Achernar wrecks. But while everyone expected an unexpected, surviving Void Scavengers working on site reported the ships seemed to bear a Curvature Propulsion System backed by same principle and physics as Groaxian vessels. In other words, it was just plain impossible for the enemy to appear in the style it had appeared. Moreover, countless reports, sometimes focusing on the most ridiculous and unimportant things (or at least that was they impression they gave), revealed more riddles for the scientists to solve. During intense observations of Achernar warp point and the space over which the short battle happened, it had been noted that the dust particles surrounding enemy ships were of radically different composition than the ones found in the vicinity of Scar'am. It was to be expected in normal case as they simply might have been brought along within warp bubble, but there had been no warp bubble in the first place.
Dust particles were really just an unimportant and forgettable detail compared to what was discovered next, though. After studying onboard recordings from surviving Kreceds and filtering out all the elements from the wrecks spawned by the recent fight, there were still a few dozens metallic elements floating around that weren't there and given the short time span it was impossible for them to had drifted from other Blutgang space graveyards. All of them were located very close to the "warp" point and them being carried over as an "extra passenger" during regular interstellar voyage was impossible as anything more massive than a bit of dust would have prevented warp bubble from even being created in the first place. Loose associations with the battle of Yatune caverns were brought up, but no satisfying conclusion was reached in the following discussion.
Despite lack of expertise on the "warp point riddle", Groaxians had something at least equally valuable at their disposal: surviving Tempestsaurs Of Achernar, all captured and ready for mind reading. Or at least that's what was commonly believed before it turned out they weren't any less confused than Groaxians themselves. They were all eager to talk and Transcendent Speech had to only be used as a rudimentary verification process for their communicates, but that didn't translate into much of useful data. They mentioned how they were just flying from their colony in Mimung to visit Tizona and how their navigation must had gone completely haywire, leading them in a completely different direction, suddenly dropping them at Blutgang for no apparent reason.
Mentions of "colony in Mimung" made all Blutgang population quickly forget about missing space curvatures around the supposed "warp point". Depending on the situation, it might take up to a few hibernation cycles before official news from the Conglomerate reach the system, but if Mimung had already fallen, then Dark Forest Strike might as well not be a problem anymore, with Groaxians falling to Achernar themselves before the ultimate destruction would arrive. Why would Achernar suddenly result to conventional conquest was another question, but if it was to progress then the answer might as well never be required, or, more precisely, nobody would be left to figure it out anymore. Among Groaxian communities stretched across Scar'am and Scrar'ix, Tempestsaurs already struggled to control negative Mental Synergies and Dark Forest Disease cases that erupted like cosmic fires and soulseekers monitoring the situaation all agreed it was to become worse over time as fear of imminent annihilation was spreading. Blutgang has entered its darkest period since Groaxians occupied this system.
-
MASS MIMUNG INVASION
3498-3504 AM hibernation cycles
Preparations for anti-Achernar preemptive strike were finishing for quite longer than they initially should, mostly because Conglomerate wanted to be absolutely sure to not miss anything, but a team of engineers from Qusmont leveraged this latency for the benefit of everyone involved in the War of a Different Time, so the benefit of every Groaxian, to put it simply, since the very existence of the race was at stake. They were thinking about supplementing the newest Human Space Fleet with fuel carriers to make them independent and able to operate over longer distances and minimise risk of getting stranded, drifting away in space unable to change velocity, but the existing industrial solution in the form of Kronqrad-class ships was made for everything except warfare in mind. However, their previous attempts of preparing an armored design with enough thrust to match rapidly accelerating or direction changing military fleet ended up with all the surplus fuel being consumed by the tankers themselves rather than being provided to the ships in need.
However, dawn of antimatter engines changed it all. The new source of energy was able to propel starships to absurd speeds and meant all the hydrogen stored in such a fuel carrier would had to be reserved for the still fusion-dependent Vaccines and Dragonbreaths. Also antimatter itself obviously was the last thing to occupy much space or add anything meaningful to ship's mass, so the extra tonnage saved on tanker's own fuel supply just begged to be used for additional armor layers. Finally the team proudly announced their revolution in interstellar flight logistics:
Gragzeans class Tanker 30 000 tons 205 Crew 1 948,3 BP TCS 600 TH 4 800 EM 0
8000 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 5-86 Shields 0-0 HTK 53 Sensors 14/18/0/0 DCR 8 PPV 0
MSP 1 324 Max Repair 300 MSP
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months
Artificial Gravity Field Canteen Curvature Stabiliser Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Gravitational Signal Filter Hets Autonomous Farm Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module Short Range Debris Detection Net Speed Sync Correctional Thrusters
JC32K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 31500 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Commercial Solid Core AM Drive EP1200,00 (4) Power 4800 Fuel Use 1,80% Signature 1200 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 11 003 000 Litres Range 3 659,1 billion km (5293 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 60 000 litres per hour Complete Refuel 183 hours
Thermal Sensor TH1,0-14,0 (1) Sensitivity 14 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 29,6m km
EM Sensor EM1,0-18,0 (1) Sensitivity 18 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 33,5m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Accelerating almost as fast as Human Space Fleet itself and certainly faster than the old one, they would be able to stay close to military ships without significantly slowing them down, at the same time capable of parting ways and independently escaping in their own direction in crisis, with long-range sensors and military-grade Curvature Propulsion Systems of their own, the latter laughably easy powered from matter-antimatter collisions despite coming at a high power cost back in the fusion reactor solar watches. Assembly of first Gragzeans solved many logistical issues and as such Conglomerate was finally ready to send the fleet on its first mission. It was supposed to fly through Mimung, briefly checking the status of local Space Barricade, towards Thuan Thien, since Achernar presence had already been detected in this system a long time ago, destroying any enemies it might find and finally flying towards the main destination - Tizona, though return to Qi for resupply and repairs beforehand was not only encouraged, but also advised, even if it meant several hibernation cycles wasted.
According to the tactical map made specifically for the incoming war, optimal route towards Mimung led close to Nagelring as it was a good trade-off between distance and increased chances of running into some smaller squadrons of the Achernar that could be destroyed along the way before they would grow too threatening.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/880933209263726662/unknown.png)
Already past Nagelring and close to the first stop, when Curvature Propulsion Systems had already been in the process of straightening space before arrival in Mimung, suddenly a gravitational anomaly occured. A strong interference disturbed warp bubble, throwing the fleet off course and slightly damaging it. Navigators and engineers tried to stabilise the situation, but to no avail. Suddenly the waro bubble itself contracted, in each ship reduced to the diameters that barely allowed it to not get warped and disintegrated itself, and then straightened rapidly in all directions, disappearing. Vision shifted from blue-red to standard colour palette and somewhere in deep space Next-Gen Human Space Fleet dropped from interstellar speeds only to find itself behind an enemy fleet. With no time for wondering in awe about the ridiculously low probability of two fleets randomly bumping at each other somewhere in the vastness of the universe, Groaxians prepared their weapons.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/880933432673308672/nagelring1.PNG)
Suddenly enemies decelerated rapidly, in one moment bringing Groaxians right on top of it, where no amount of gravity-based jamming would help. Tough armor held against some kinetic fire, but a particle beam cut right through one of the Vaccines, leaving a hole in both sides of the ship. Rapidly leaking air progressively torn more and more hull chunks out. Before the affected interiors had been sealed off, dozens of Groaxians were sucked outside, with the ones directly killed by the shot considered lucky compared to those slowly suffocating in space as their space suits stored only so much methane, dying in eternal cosmic watch between the stars, in complete darkness. The ship remained functional, but the power of the shot wasn't necessarily something Groaxians had anticipated.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/880933625997185024/nagelring-mimung2.PNG)
Intending to end the battle as soon as possible to prevent further casualties, new Human Space Fleet finally unleashed its potential. Soulgrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuators created and then fired its microscopic black holes followed by a stream of rapid gravitational pulses. Together with evaporating black hole it caused a huge distress among the enemies. The ship that has been closest to the anomaly quickly ended its existence, with the scale of destruction unparalleled to previous gravitational weapons. The force was so strong it melted down and fallen apart, ending up reduced to nothing more but dust particles that rapidly dispersed into various directions, leaving no trace of the ship every existing. The artificial gravity was used to push the enemy away, too. Fluctuations of space curvature easily overcame Achernar engines, even though they appeared as slightly more powerful than the ones mounted on Groaxian ships, sending them drifting into space with no way of countering it. Another volley of kinetic fire made its way towards Vaccines and Dragonbreaths, but the armor held, meanwhile antiparticle beams of the latter completely shredded the remaining vessels from the hostile squadron. Impacts of the antimatter particles were easily distinguishable by much higher energy outbursts radiating from Achernar hulls compared to regular particle hits. The enemy fleet was so crippled it fell apart shortly after the last Groaxian volley on its own. Next-Gen Human Space Fleet had its first victory on its account and was free to recalibrate Curvature Propulsion Systems and push onward. Its destructive power scared even its own crews.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/880933831383867432/mimung3.PNG)
Seeing Mimung light from up close wasn't a moment of relief the soldiers expected, unfortunately. Once in the system and on their way to Sodara, Groaxian sensors detected another Achernar fleet travelling through its outskirts. A brief observation of its velocity, bearing and speed changes was enough to be sure they were heading towards Sodara as well. It seemed strange for them to suddenly result into conventional warfare, but that was the simple and obvious truth: Achernar invasion force was cruising towards Sodara, with no hope of Human Space Fleet getting there first to protect the planet. The burden of defense had been placed on a small fleet of Blades forming Mimung Space Barricade. Given the particle beams of the enemy, every defender knew the risk as well as the consequences of failure. Human Space Fleet should be able to destroy or at least scare the enemy fleet away, but not before a significant, long-lasting bombardment could have been conducted. Or whatever Tempestsaurs Of Achernar had prepared for Sodara, Vuloth and Iether. And so, uncertain about the future, forces of Mimung Space Barricade plotted an interception course. When they were detected, enemy did the same.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/880933979493109820/mimung_II_1.PNG)
Groaxians opened fire from the distance at which their targeting systems were barely able to lock onto enemy, let alone predict where they would be by the time kinetic slugs would have reached their position, but still skilled expertise of Umbara gunners and their precision allowed to configure firing patterns in a way that allowed a small, but consistent number of projectiles to hit their targets each volley. As such, fleet admiral decided to keep the battle this way and just slowly but surely chew away through enemy forces without risking too much.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/880934077052645467/mimung_II_2.PNG)
In the meantime Achernar fired its particle beams several times, but to no avail. Dodging a near-lightspeed fire was nearly impossible, but "near" was the key both in case of speed and dodging chance. With the help of gravitational targeting disruption systems, enemy was bound to have too wide error margin on its shots, giving Groaxians just enough time to fire manoeuvring engines in the last possible moment, narrowly avoiding yet another particle blast. Also the ships that attacked Mimung Space Barricade were slightly less powerful and manoeuvrable than the ones encountered in deep space by Next-Gen Human Space Fleet, making Groaxian strategy much easier to execute. However, after a while it became clear enemies weren't going to try to turn towards Groaxians and close in, neither did they want to flee, but instead they constantly changed their velocity slightly, maintaining a circular path relative to Groaxians, "orbiting" them from a distance. This way they had managed to end up a bit closer towards Groaxians, and that bit was precisely what they required for the first particle beams to hit. Death and terror filled several blades as these nasty weapons punctured through the armor, meanwhile kinetic fire still remained rather ineffective in the short run.
Not being able to sustain this any moment longer, admiral ordered to maintain the previous strategy for a few moments more to delay Achernar noticing true intentions of the defenders and then fire all engines with full force, attempting to close in as much distance as quickly as possible to not give Achernar too many occasions to damage the ships further. It was all very risky approach and dozens of Groaxians died punctured by high-energy particles or leaked from the ships together with air and metal chunks, but the retaliation fire laid down by the fleet afterwards was worth the sacrifice. From much closer range the accuracy of metallic slugs was devastating, instantly destroying several targets over a few volleys. Achernar fire kept weakening and dealing less and less damage until it eventually stopped, with the last starship of theirs meeting its end.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/880934336554205224/mimung_II_3.PNG)
Mimung was secured for the time being, but by the moment desperate calls from Blutgang had reached it everyone was aware the unrest there was only going to escalate for the next few hibernation cycles, until the reply of relief was going to reach them. Though it took some time for Mimung population to be relieved, too, as every celestial body within the system had to be thoroughly scanned to confirm there were no Achernar structures on any of them. But with Achernar Mimung colony not being a thing and invasion repelled, question as to why the ones that appeared over Scar'am firmly believed they came from Mimung colony of theirs got that much more complicated to answer. Survivors of the two battles fought over Mimung control also did not understand what the hell their brothers in arms had on their minds a few light hibernation cycles away. And apparently their mission wasn't even really an invasion, more of a raid aimed at hindering Groaxian space programs of all sort to prevent them escaping to other systems just like they did with Blutgang, to make sure Dark Forest Lords would wipe out every single one of them. There was nothing mysterious or incomprehensible about their intentions, after the first encounter in Blutgang they just wanted to be sure no Groaxian survives Dark Forest Strike which is exactly how it should be according to Dark Forest Theory for Achernar to feel safe, provided the strike doesn't wipe them out together.
At the very least first more meaningful batch of data about Achernar biology could be assembled from intense research on the enemy. Observations from the battles allowed xenobiologists to conclude that the "biological dust" floating around Achernar wrecks recovered by Void Scavengers in Blutgang was essentially how Achernar body looked after death. It decomposed quickly and each organ and tissue was rapidly loosing its distinct looks and properties to form one biomass. In that form it was able to prevail for a ridiculously long time without losing its properties and even in the most extreme environments, for example in the void. In large quantities this biomass was recovered from the caverns of Yatune. Achernar spawn glued to it and walking in it gave a radically different impression after this discovery. It was disturbing for every Groaxian to think about a spawn essentially living on a giant pile of corpses. Scientists still lacked full understanding of this mechanism, but they agreed that Achernar offspring was likely feeding from it, even though the full expertise on Achernar digestive system was yet to appear. It was all even more gross when samples from half-liquid halo-like layer surrounding alien heads was proven to be the same substance, only in a slightly different form. In a way, every Achernar was carrying a dead body of another member (or members) of its own race on its head through its entire lifetime. Their way of breeding was also yet to be discovered, though so far it became obvious Achernar had no genders and the mechanism must have been tied to something entirely different.
After resupply and two solar watches worth of rest, Vaccines, Dragonbreaths and their crews were well prepared to face whatever awaited them in the two Achernar-controlled systems. War of a Different Time had already picked up pace and heat and there was no turning back. "Dark Forest never hibernates" - said Next-Gen Human Space Fleet admiral when all ships started bending space around them.
-
THUAN THIEN TRANSMISSIONS
3505-3512 AM hibernation cycles
Flight towards Thuan Thien lasted for several hibernation cycles and yet it was instant from the perspective of space forces, just like every other interstellar travel. Groaxians emerging into the system briefly looked at the old exploration data dating back to the first discovery of the planetary system and the description of Umbara complex on Thuan Thien B-I, by the time Achernar counterattack was being executed a thing of the past, something bound to be long gone and lost to Achernar bombardment. Or the war between two species originating from Zenn-La, but given the latter Achernar presence confirmed in the system likely the former.
Sensors flashed with warnings about incoming signal sources, travelling significantly faster than what Dragonbreaths or Vaccines could reach unless burning ridiculous amount of fuel just to get a tiny bit faster over a lenghty acceleration time. There were a few times more of them than ships in Human Space Fleet. As such, Groaxians started accelerating perpendicular to the predicted flight path while pointing their guns towards incoming threat, preparing to fire at them while cruising right in front to gain safer distance before enemies would be able to change their course to follow them. Tensions and brain temperature rose, but when first antiparticle beams struck first targets, everyone noted how easily the targets had been destroyed:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/881279796351488010/thuan_thien_1.PNG)
Achernar seemed to have no intention to intercept Groaxian fleet and just continued onward without changing their velocity or formation. Due to their higher speed and the need to turn around, by the time Groaxians got their movement vectors aligned, Achernar ships managed to significantly increase the range while still not firing a single shot. Unstable black holes from Soulgrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuators followed them alongside more antipaarticles. Overwhelmed by the sheer power of matter-antimatter annihilation and struggling to find a way out of the artificial gravity influence zones, more enemy spacecraft turned into wrecks or just ashes and space dust, but the dispersed formation over theirs rendered many ships outside of spheres of influence of Groaxian attacks.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/881279952060837888/thuan_thien_2.PNG)
Being aware some of them would get away should events continue to unfold in the same way, fleet admiral ordered a massive, concentrated volley from fluctuators to cut the fleet in half by a cluster of micro black holes right in the middle of it and then utilise gravitational blast to further concentrate enemies in one tight spot, ready to be destroyed, or, much better, captured. However, just as Vaccines opened fire, Achernar engines brightened and their fleet picked more speed. With unstable black holes already forming in the targeted spot, it was too late to apply the sudden change of velocity into targeting algorithm and so most of the fleet was free to go, countering the sudden gravitational pull with its engines. The attack wasn't completely unsuccessful, though, because two rear ships got caught in the gravitational trap, ending separated from the rest of their squadrons. One of them got torn apart shortly after when it got too close to black holes before they evaporated and was influenced by several gravity sources trying to pull it in the opposite direction until its hull couldn't take it anymore, but the other one just suffered some minor damage and got into a situation when its remaining engines generated just enough thrust to stay immobilised, ripe for the taking by Groaxians.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/881280077176918026/thuan_thien_3.PNG)
Surviving Achernar ships tried to flee into interstellar space and the warping of space around them could already be noticed with naked eyes as they exponentially gained effective speed, but that time it happened just in time for the cybersoul onboard assistants to take that into account, sending mighty force of gravity right on top of them to completely mess their warp bubbles and destabilise the point in space they had been sitting at. Fabric of spac waived and teared and with it every grain of matter unfortunate enough to get caught inside. Nothing made it out of the cosmic grinder in one piece, not even in million pieces, all reduced to dust, dust reduced to plasma to eventually disperse in the form of pure energy radiating from the destruction site.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/881280202985078844/thuan_thien_4.PNG)
There was no time to lose. Two starships remained intact and immobilised and Groaxians wanted to get them intact and uncover whatever mystery this particular fleet had to offer, even if it might as well just be a routine cargo transit. Groaxian ships aligned with their targets and Umbara squads armed with sonic weapons scavenged from the fallen Achernar after the battle in Yatune caverns were the first ones to enter the interiors of enemy spacecraft. They would be best described as "same as their complex in Yatune caverns, but different." Large display panels covered the walls and ceilings, all displaying black background rarely interrupted by small groups of stripes of various colours.
Groaxians were pretty sure they must had some sound protection on their own ships that should make their small arms fire ineffective, but on the other hand if they were to use it themselves then it wasn't that great idea to hinder their own firepower. Unless they weren't using sonic weapons, and the latter turned out to indeed be the case. Ironically, first things Umbaras faced as they poured inside were beams of high radiation, designed to instantly fry all biological beings. Some casualties were taken, but it only took a few sonic grenades pulled by the surviving soldiers for Achernar to instantly drop their weapons. It was so bizarre sight that Umbaras and Groaxians behind them alike froze in surprise. Tempestsaurs Of Achernar started to communicate frantically explaining sonic grenade usage in tight encounters was a recpie for everyone involved to just die. Groaxian soldiers did not hesitate to point out how it was them who started it all and how the possibility of everyone involved dying had not scared them off from sending a broadcast informing Dark Forest about Qi, Mimung and later Blutgang location. They even tried to get whatever explanation they might came up with out of their heads directly, but all they could find in their heads was a simple, almost intrusive, thought: "then so be it". Before everyone realised what has happening, one Achernar in the corner pulled out a sonic grenade on its own and pressed the activation button.
When news about massacre on board of one of the two captrued ships reached the commander of the second boarding party that in the meantime got into similar deadlock, he gave a simple order to gun all Achernar down using Groaxian plasma weapons before the defenders would get any chance of retaliating in the same way. And so, while out of the first ship there was not much to recover besides fried electronic and massacred bodies, the second ship got captured intact (not counting the space battle damage). Already well infomred about intricates of Achernar language and specific encoding on their messages to be visible on full spectrum space scanners, Groaxians didn't need much time to realise what the omnipresent panels represented and what had been the role of the intercepted fleet.
There wasn't a bigger mistake to be made than to assume the fleet was unarmed. It carried what was believed to be the most powerful weapon of any primitive civilisation: a sophisticated broadcast array for informing Dark Forest about everything Tempestsaurs Of Achernar wanted to see removed from the reality. While obviously it was no big deal to just send some random stellar coordinates to be propagated through light hibernation cycles in all directions, to have a dedicated fleet aiming at maximising the effective broadcast range and maintaining high transmission quality for as long as possible was a whole next level of ominous dedication. What was even more unsettling was a large database full of records about former broadcasts. Countless worlds had been exposed before. Some of them long destroyed, information about destruction of others having just reached Groaxian planets recently, all which Groaxians never got a chance to explore and never would.
After a lengthy check of all celestial bodies within the system, it turned out only a few small Achernar mining outposts existed on some moons orbiting system's gas giants and besides long-destroyed and barely detectable Umbara ruins buried beneath Thuan Thien B-I's desert or many space graveyards full of long-forgotten wrecks there wasn't anything interesting to be seen in the system at a time.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/881280495055409162/thuan_thien_7.PNG)
With the first mission complete, Next-Gen Human Space Fleet embarked towards Qi, escorting prisoners and a captured ships and deciding to make use of the offer to resupply before heading to the center of enemy activity and Achernar homeworld. The goal of preventing Achernar from adding yet another entry to their database was what motivated Groaxian soldiers to keep on fighting.
-
COSMIC FATE OF DARK FOREST
3513-3520 AM hibernation cycles
Detailed logs on Dark Forest broadcasts were a missing key to answer the crucial, ever-circulating question of how much time was left. The program aiming at trying to predict it based on astronomical observations focused on spotting Dark Forest Strikes and estimating when had the light carrying information about them reached Qi gave little to no result, but augmented with Achernar data on the subject quickly rose to claim a place among the most crucial undertakings. Not every strike could have been the result of a fairly low-spread civilisation revealing positions of aliens it stumbled across, in fact likely most of them weren't, but those which were provided a data sample of a respectful size. After tremendous effort and complex algorithms it was possible to pair many broadcasts with the corresponding detected attacks and their registration date in monitoring systems. The lowest amount of time that had passed between broadcast and target annihilation was just a bit over 32 hibernation cycles, though that happened for the star well over two hundreds light hibernation cycles away from Qi.
Having simulated the worst case scenario and a plethora of other alternate ones, including a sudden rise of a new Dark Forest Lord among hypothetical civilisations spanning not further than a few dozens light hibernation cycles away from Qi, Groaxians working on the project were finally able to determine a solid estimate. It was absolutely impossible for a Dark Forest Strike to happen before 3548 AM hibernation cycle and unless all Dark Forest Lords operating in the region would have left the galaxy or get annihilated themselves before getting a chance to fire it seemed there was no way for Qi, Mimung and Blutgang (and very likely Tizona and Thuan Thien as well) to last beyond 3607 AM hibernation cycle as there was a particular destroyed star (according to Achernar database, because on Genesian cosmic watch sky it was still shining) 84 light hibernation cycles away from Qi from the planetary system of which Achernar had sent its doomssolarwatch message in 3503 AM hibernation cycle (so exactly 84 hibernation cycles after Qi broadcast at the end of Endpoint War and just like in case of Qi the target for evaporation and point of transmission's origin were the same) and it ended its existence after only 20 hibernation cycles from that on. This meant that, assuming the best possible scenario of the Dark Forest Lord that wiped it out not coming anywhere closer to Qi during the considered period of time, but staying at the maximum possible distance for the attack to still be executed within given timeframe (so only 10 light hibernation cycles away from the star in question), assuming optimistically entity responsible for destruction was at the point which lied furthest from Qi for the entire time (giving a total distance of 94 light hibernation cycles away from Qi), it meant the Qi broadcast only needed to travel for 10 hibernation cycles more to reach it counting from the moment Achernar doomed that star (meaning they must had already received it before there was a chance they could move away from Groaxians given the data) and another 94 hibernation cycles were required for their deadly response to reach Qi, giving a total time limit of 104 hibernation cycles since the Achernar sentence dooming the referenced star, which meant best case scenario of 3607 AM hibernation cycle apocalypse.
The above prediction was in fact pretty flawed, because it had been built on assumption that the broadcast and destruction of the star 84 light hibernation cycles away from Qi were tied together, meanwhile it was entirely possible for the hypothetical Dark Forest Lord who was the first one to hear and answer the call to not exist at all and the destruction being a coincidence, caused by a weapon fired at the star by someone else more than 20 hibernation cycles earlier, even before Achernar communicate. And yet 20 hibernation cycles was such a short time span that the probability of such coincidence was low enough to assume 3607 AM hibernation cycle as the absolute deadline just to play it safe and if Genesis would still orbit Qi afterwards, then it would only mean additional gain. Such accurate predictions made Groaxians feel uneasy. All the things they knew, all the monuments of their civilisation, all to be eradicated by the 3607 AM hibernation cycle, possibly earlier, maybe later if luck was to be on Groaxian side. Time suddenly felt much shorter than before.
War of a Different Time progressed differently than Joyeuse descriptions had suggested, but the general outline was oddly similar. Achernar had indeed assaulted Blutgang and Mimung and after these two battles Next-Gen Human Space Fleet was indeed supposed to lay siege to Tizona. Also the encounter with Achernar believing Mimung was a system they had a colony in remained unresolved. At the same time Conglomerate needed a plan to evacuate all inhabited celestial bodies into somewhere at least temporary safe. Joyeuse B-II was an obvious candidate. An inspiring, beautiful and easily terraformable planet, far enough to avoid incoming Dark Forest Strike, but close enough to be reasonably prepared and secured within next few decades. Another obvious reason for this choice was the mysterious Groaxian outpost and trying to come up with anything that would push the research on these mysterious phenomena further, so actively taking a step to ensure correct flow of events from said outpost's records (at least on a higher abstraction level), one of which was Groaxians fleeing extinction exactly to that planet was a call as good as any others. No Groaxian would consider this a proper scientific method, but so far nothing from these had worked anyways and there were enough reasons to choose Joyeuse B-II regardless of this enigma.
While all freighters Conglomerate could assign (and many other ships temporarily repurposed as ones, even if it meant a very low cargo space in practice anyways) left alongside colonisation fleet to begin assembly of Qives and setup of basic life support infrastructure for more workers to populate that calm and bautiful world, physicists experimenting with four dimensions were proud to announce several key advances in the frontiers of science. First of all, with antimatter reactors easily giving them all the power they could dream of, they had built Curvature Propulsion Systems so strong that they were capable of bending space with so much force that it would be torn apart into two pieces, leaving a rift in between the fabric of three-dimensional space leading straight to hyperspace, while there was no problem at all to reverse the effect, closing the rift and straightening space to what it had looked like before. All Shizaes were to quickly receive Hyperdrives as an additional interstellar propulsion system and hyperspace research tool.
But Hyperdrives themselves weren't even that important in themselves giving their uselessness outside of Crack and overall low difficulty of the project thanks to human designs from the monolith, meaning everyone treated it as something bound to happen sooner rather than later anyways. What mattered was all the discoveries made thanks to them. With hyperspace within the Crack being easily accessible without the need for anomalous rift left in Maigh Eo, scientists had much easier task of determining the nature of this mysterious region of space. After numerous jumps in and out of hyperspace over the edges of the Crack and comparsions between effective speeds reached at various points in three-dimensional space while maintaining a fixed conventional speed as well as measurements of space curvature both in three and four dimensions, physicists were finally able to figure out the way to extend the theory of general relativity onto higher planes as well, theoretically into infinite number of them. According to these ground-breaking findings, Crack was nothing but a four-dimensional version of a black hole. An extremely large and massive one, spanning across dozens of light hibernation cycles, too.
That instantly explained why it had been impossible to leave Crack while in hyperspace no matter what. A powerful Curvature Propulsion System, according to theoretical knowledge already figured out by Humanity and later confirmed by Groaxians as well, was enough to escape a black hole in a three-dimensional space even if the ship had already crossed event horizon, because no conventional velocity gain was required, counter-warping disorted space around the black hole to gain effective speed carrying the ship away from event horizon was all there was needed. Given all kinds of interstellar means of travel operated on the premise of manipulating space itself in a direct way, they could only grant superluminal effective speeds (and effects defying the fate of crossing event horizon) in conventional space only if there was a hyperspace hidden from the eyes of beings with three-dimensional perception above it. So in order to escape a hyperblack hole, a four-dimensional Curvature Propulsion System was required, so a four-dimensional object in itself, allowing superluminal effective speeds within hyperspace utilising the fifth dimension. Obviously that meant no Groaxian starship was capable of cruising through hyperspace beyond the Crack, yet three-dimensional universe could exist undisturbed beneath hyperblack hole and still see Groaxians flying effectively faster than light through it.
Precursor artefacts were determined to provide a way to close massive rifts connecting points via hyperspace by simply generating a small hyperblack hole inside, collapsing the four-dimensional tunnels onto themselves. And based on the unability to cross the speed of light or enter hyperspace anywhere Groaxians had been except for the Crack, a new theory was formed: black hole generators were nowhere near the most terrifying weapons Dark Forest had to offer. Hyperblack holes might had been weaponised as well, isolating countless civilisations, not allowing them to spread among the stars faster than light, with hyperspace collapsed onto itself, forming Cracks (very likely far more existed within the universe than just the one relatively close to Groaxian sphere of influence) dotted across the HyperBlack Wall.
Consequences of HyperBlack Wall Theory were horrifying. With hyperspace regularly destroyed, fate of Humanity remained grim even if they were quick enough to ascend. And so looked fate of Groaxians, regardless of the progress made in Blutgang, with so little hyperspace to inhabit left. And the limited living space wasn't even the main concern. If a three-dimensional Dark Forest Lord was capable of wreaking havoc to the fabric of universe even on higher planes, it meant it could be treated as existential threat for whoever lived in hyperspace. And in return it meant whoever lived in hyperspace was an existential threat to the rest of the universe, lashing out to prevent its domain from being destabilised and further damaged.
"Humanity is no more, but we, last surviving Groaxians, will take its place." The one message summarising logs from Joyeuse sounded far worse than before physicists announced their breakthroughs. Humanity might have been exterminated indeed. Even if it had found a niche among the Cracks, there was no guarantee someone wouldn't have destroyed it already, someone stronger, better developed, more determined. And yet Humanity still surviving somewhere out there did not sound any better. The safety guarantee had been broken beyond repair. Differences in number of dimensions promised nothing in terms of preventing Dark Forest Strikes anymore. And without safety guarantee, Groaxians and Humanity were mortal enemies by default, hopelessly unable to figure out a peaceful solution. No Groaxian had even been more terrified than the entire society through the second decade of 3500s AM hibernation cycles. The dire situation was perfectly summarised by one soulseeker who said: "Two possibilities exist: either Humanity has been wiped out from the Universe or it has been not. Both are equally terrifying."
Despair grew even more severe when through the same decade Groaxians were able to finally see major progress on Project Ascension. First iteration of the Matrix had already been assembled within the Crack, capable of converting single grains at first, but soon a first particle of methane was successfully transferred into hyperspace as a four-dimensional object. From there more complex structures were able to be delivered what had been perceived as the safe haven through all these hibernation cycles Groaxians had been aware of Dark Forest theory, including even some microorganisms from Genesis and Yatune. The project still went on, but if anything only to give Groaxians an additional option because more options and more scientific discoveries were always better than less.
Humanity during its pre-Ascension solar watches would have been shattered and feel lost according to Groaxian understanding of their nature under such circumstances, but yet Groaxians themselves prevailed. With the concept of Bound by Dark Forest quickly becoming obsolete Groaxians tightened their Mental Synergies and the sky above each major city turned into a bright, almost glowing purple from all the inhabitants expressing a strong sense of unity, at the same time revealing technical and scientific problems with methods of genetic engineering of the past. Solar watches of Project Ascension as a safety guarantee might have be gone, but only two hibernation cycles after the HyperBlack Wall theory publishing Conglomerate proclaimed a search for a new safety guarantee no matter what. After all, incorporating leftovers from other civilisations to at least prevent complete extinction had already been achieved both by Humanity and Groaxians and this achievement hadn't been undermined by new discoveries in any way. Determined to guarantee safety for themselves and all who seek it, Groaxians still pushed forward.
-
Despite the dreams of Ascension shattered as civilisations fighting over survival had disturbed the higher planes even though their enemies were still in 3D, Groaxians stayed strong, determined to discover yet another safety guarantee for all who seek enlightment across the swallowed planets, dying stars, and shattered galaxies. Just before hibernating at the end of 3520 AM hibernation cycle, millions of transcendent voices merged together in the largest Mental Synergy ever recorded through the entire history, expressing the united will to prevail and preserve all they valued.
Cosmic Existence
We have explored space,
We wield antimatter,
But the destruction happens at an overwhelming pace,
We all see as the galaxies shatter.
The universe is unstable,
Cosmic firefights rage across cosmic membrane,
No race is unbeatable,
No Ascension to a higher plane.
We have seen alien civilisations,
Seen them rise and fall,
Seen them raze cosmic foundations,
Seen them ready to exterminate us all.
Dark Forest Lords cruise around the dying universe,
Searching for their next prey,
We try to hide but a deadly broadcast no one can reverse,
Tempestsaurs Of Achernar have done their deeds without delay.
Dark Forest Disease corruption was running deep,
Our society divided and modified,
But now again in hibernation we can all peacefully sleep,
Lost Generation by the new Groaxian Conglomerate wisdom guided.
Hyperspace already into hyperblack holes disintegrated,
Riddled with Cracks, but strong stays the Wall,
Precursor technology used to see it evaporated,
Meanwhile yet another star explodes into lightining ball.
We understand gravity and antigravity,
We can pierce fabric of space,
But despite all our scientific activity,
There are phenomena no one can understand from our race.
War of a Different Time,
Ancient Vrilxel crashed on an alien moon,
Achernar spotted and their weapons prime,
Confused as we crews from their squadron.
As we know more,
The more we know we know nothing yet,
So much yet to explore,
What will we see no one can bet.
In search of a new Safety Guarantee we strive,
Dark Forest Theory applies but so does our determination,
We still want to finish the matrix and in hyperspace thrive,
We keep wondering about those lights, wondering whether they will bring doom or salvation.
We were gifted a perfectly balanced Monolith,
We have discovered a perfectly balanced Cube,
One serving for the civilisation birth,
The other serving as a destruction tube.
Both built by Humanity,
Both in the same Dark Forest,
As we resist destruction and insanity,
A friend or foe dilemma does not let us rest.
Now we all joined the mental stream,
We express fear and hope in one,
Just like the two sides divided and merged via a mental beam,
We are the one or else our civilisation would be long gone.
Preparing for the final stand,
Keeping Singularity Soulgrain Curvature Fluctuators at hand,
Together under one symbol we band,
Doing everything our journey might demand.
But as thoughts still flow through us,
Transparent to all who beyond matter can see,
We all know existence is beautiful, if you let it be.
Life is not a question.
There does not need to be an answer.
-
TIZONA SIEGE
3514-3528 AM hibernation cycles
While physicists kept themselves occupied with cracking the mysteries of higher dimensions and uncovered more about the soulgrain layer of the universe, Groaxians and Umbaras on board of Vaccines and Dragonbreaths skipped through hibernation cycles and light hibernation cycles alike, experiencing a brief moment of relativistic flight till Curvature Propulsion Systems left them on the verge of Tizona system, ready to cripple space programs, especially military space programs, of the enemy. But first things noticed were neither enemy ships or signals coming from planetary surfaces, but faint pulses of half-dead electronic scrap floating around countless wrecks in the system. They were both of Achernar and Umbara origin, easily matched with registered classes, a silent reminder of fierce battles that once raged between the two civilisations, a lot of Umbara leftovers likely being of the same fleet explorers had a close encounter with back in the solar watch when first Groaxians appeared in the system with a scientific mission.
As Human Space Fleet plotted a course towards Tizona III, supposed homeworld of Tempestsaurs Of Achernar, admiral decided to stop for a moment and analyze an interesting pile of debris that emitted stronger signals than other scrap floating around. But when Groaxians got so close they could already spot the wrecks as faint glowing points with naked eyes, first particle lances struck through Groaxian hulls. First ones to die never even registered in their last dying breath what killed with them and that the "wrecks" were of a much better condition than anticipated.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/884919587215384576/tizona1.PNG)
The ambush might have been a brilliant move, but it only got Achernar so far. Antiparticle retaliation alone was enough to destroy half of the small squadron within a blink of an eye. Achernar fired one more, that time much weaker already, volley, only for the Soulgrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuators to finish them off as they were fired sequentially, one after the other. First unstable black holes pulled Achernars straight at each other to smash aganist their hulls. As if that wasn't enough, frags from the ones destroyed by antiparticles, spreading out with a respectable velocity, had their trajectories easily influenced by the gravitational anomaly and turned into missiles that riddled enemy hulls with many holes. One battered vessel tried to flee the slaughter, but a few moments later intinsifying gravitational pulses got it, too.
With no survivors left after Groaxians demonstrated their immense power and technological advantage once again, the fleet stopped for a while to undergo field repairs, reassign crewmembers to make the most out of understaffed posts and block more methane from escaping into space as well as reinforcing critical areas of each ship. Not long after resumption of the journey, another Achernar fleet flashed on the radars, coming from two sides at once.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/884919717696000040/tizona2.PNG)
Sensing difficulty in outmanoeuvring two squadrons at once, fleet admiral decided to take a smaller risk out of the two and charge full speed ahead towards the closer one, overcharging weapons as well in an attempt to smash all ships from the formation at once. The plan worked out reasonably well. Once again Groaxians were shocked to witness their own destructive power as extreme gravity crushed their enemies with unforgiving force and antimatter explosions flashed before their eyes, clearly visible despite vast distances separating two fleets. On gravitational scanners it was possible to observe space itself shaking, rumbling and falling apart like a piece of paper until the destruction was over and it straightened itself once again. Not all ships were destroyed at once, though, but the two lone survivors were showing signs of heavy internal damage and critical life support system failure. Biological scans reealed only dead biomass splattered across them.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/884919824013213766/tizona3.PNG)
Encouraged by the success, crewmembers prepared for repeating of the same decastating strike on the second part of the fleet, but with it being much larger it refused to work out so flawlessly again. Moreover, a small calculation error caused a big engine output error and the fleet was flying way too fast to decelerate and dodge the incoming enemies. With nothing that could be done, everyone onboard braced themselves for an impact as two fleets closed in way too fast.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/884919933815881728/tizona4.PNG)
Explosions lightened up the eternal darkness in two points at once, though one was much, much brighter than the other. Still, a significant Achernar force remained a threat and on top of that, while most shots ended up miscalculated, two streams of particles punctured a single Vaccine at mostly same location. This helped reduce direct damage, but put the ship in a strong rotational motion. That alone maybe wouldn't be that problematic, but both beams struck the fusion fuel injector, making engines underpowered and releasing lots of precious hydrogen out into space.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/884920032168116294/tizona5.PNG)
Crew of the hapless Vaccine desperately tried to put it back under control as it spinned while maintaining former velocity and the rest of the ships recharged their weapons. But at the same time Achernar made an u-turn and fired its engines in the opposite direction to their movement vector, countering their speed and slowing down rapidly. Having detected the sudden manoeuvre way too late to intervene, Groaxians could only watch for a very brief moment as whatever distance separating the fighting fleets that had existed before stopped doing so. To make the entire situation more problematic, Tempestsaurs Of Achernar carefully positioned their ships right at the predicted flight path of Human Space Fleet, likely setting up for a suicidal showdown, accepting their own death for as long as Groaxians would ram into them with high speed, dying themselves.
Groaxian engines were powerful enough to slightly adjust the trajectory when there was still time for this, but when the distance eventually dropped to almost zero, Achernar opened accurate kinetic fire from up close. Ironically, this is what saved the unlucky Vaccine which still struggled to stop spinning, let alone slow down or apply corrections to their velocity to avoid crashing into hostile vessels. A few projectiles hitting its armor at key spots was all it needed to have its movement vector changed just enough to avoid mutual annihilation.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/884920165622509568/tizona6.PNG)
The distance was still way too close for Soulgrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuators, but was perfect for accurate antiparticle fire that finished the Achernar ships left behind as Groaxians kept flying forward at ridiculous speed. But as the planets of the system kept getting closer, sensors warned about yet another Achernar force likely ready to engage just ahead of the current position of the assault fleet.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/884920263886639124/tizona8.PNG)
Human Space Fleet tried to circle around the enemy and fire, but Achernar ended up attempting exactly the same at exactly the same moment. Before anyone could react, two fleets closed in way beyond the safe distance for Soulgrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuators usage and Achernar were the first ones to blast with kinetic fire.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/884920345776234506/tizona9.PNG)
Groaxians started dealing damage with antiparticle beams, but it was obvious such a close range firefight was not sustainable if Achernar were to bring their own particle beams, unavoidable at distances involved. Separating from the enemies became number one priority, but that one unfortunate Vaccine still struggled with fuel injectors repairing and admiral categorically refused leaving it separated, predicting quick and certain death for everyone on board if it was to happen. As a consequence Achernar, despite weaker engines, had no trouble staying right on top of Groaxian time, at least before fuel consumption to keep accelerating would overwhelm the enemy while still being manageable by more efficient Dragonbreaths and Vaccines.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/884920438935941170/tizona10.PNG)
More Groaxians and Umbaras were slain as the brutal close-ranged firefight kept on going and ships faced at a time proved to be protected by more advanced armor designs withstanding even antimatter particles to some extent. With no better chances, a risky operation was performed: Groaxians roated their ships, fired engines with all the force they possibly could, preparing gravitational fire to send them in the opposite direction than enemy quicker. But as the ships kept slowing down, while distance increased as Achernar commands must have been lagging behind, more of their shots kept on landing because a slow target is an easy target. The armor of one Vaccine was already barely holding together. With no time to waste, a new order was given: to briefly engage Curvature Propulsion Systems. The distance from both fleets was too small to allow safe usage of them, but there was no choice. However, at the last possible moments one of physics consultants ran a brief simulation and suggested firing Soulgrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuators at the same time since space fluctuations of both of these devices used simultaneously should shape its curvature just right for the Achernar to get separated and their parts not ending up caught in warp bubbles which would lead to catastrophic results (for both sides, though). All in all, the maneouvre was very complex, but nothing latest soulgrain cybersoul mainframes would struggle with, and with a brief flash of red-blue light Human Space Fleet ended up a significant distance behind enemy forces.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/884920541444714517/tizona11.PNG)
From there all weapons could be fired freely, laying annihilation wherever they had been aimed. Achernar tried to split and circle around Groaxian vessels, but just couldn't gain enough speed fast enough. Meanwhile Groaxian forces calmly turned around again and flew past remaining enemies, wiping out whatever was left still flying and shooting.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/884920616187215912/tizona12.PNG)
With no more resistance in sight, at last the deep space journey was over and sensors could read first output from Tizona planets, by then much closer than when Curvature Propulsion Systems had been turned off for the final system approach. Tizona IV, V and VI were devoid of any signs of sentience, but Tizona I, II and III revealed Achernar structures on the surface. However, something strange was going on with the planets. While all there was on Tizona I were a few of small industrial complexes, Tizona II and III appeared bustling with life. However, Tizona III, believed to be the homeworld after last exploration of the system, looked only like a small colony in comparsion with what was going on Tizona II, which definitely couldn't be too developed by the last time Groaxians checked in.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/884920715642560543/tizona13.PNG)
Why would most of Achernar move from one planet to the other was not understandable, obviously if Dark Forest Lords had decided to wipe all nearby systems just to be sure then Tizona II was as doomed as Tizona III, and yet something must had caused Achernar to relocate... Unless it was the same story as with their appearances in Blutgang, crashed Vrilxel in Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi or Groaxian ruins in Joyeuse again. With no further hints and nothing better to do, Groaxians turned towards Tizona I and proceeded with bombarding the undefended, exposed factories and mines. No hostile ships had been detected while particle beams (unfortunately antiparticles were useless because all antimatter within the weapons of Dragonbreaths would collide as soon as the beam met with the atmosphere, forcing Groaxians to switch to full matter mode) and gravitational pulses rained down on the scorching world, tearing through large areas of its surface until there was nothing left. And so the mission was technically complete - all detected fleets had been destroyed, a likely important industrial world (even if with only so much Achernar presence on it) reduced to ruins of ruins and overall there were no visible traces of any decent space-related hostile military capabilities left.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/884920801671925780/tizona14.PNG)
Before heading back to Qi, though, Groaxians decided to briefly check on Tizona III and try to figure out what had happened. As the planet became clearly visible on pictures transmitted by telescopes, it was noticed it looked a bit different than the last time. Most of the landmass had been covered in patches of white already, but there were some light green and light brown areas as well, but this time the two latter were almost completely gone, so the planet was basically white with light blue ocens. Still, nobody was able to link a possible biological curiosity that wouldn't get answered unless somehow in the future a scientific expedition would land on the planet, with a rather unexpected population shift. However, the planet was defended - laser beams connected with hulls of Human Space Fleet, but it was still too far from the surface to receive any damage - the lasers were simply too dispersed to do anything and Achernar must have been aware about it, too, since they stopped firing as soon as they began. Unfortunately, attempting to locate and eliminate these laser defense platforms would be far too risky, requiring Groaxian ships to close in and face fierce laser fire. Unable to progress any further, Groaxians stopped, but before they warped out of the system, they spent many solar watches monitoring Achernar activity. But apart life on the two planets, nothing was going on and Tizona remained silent, its space undisturbed.
Groaxians had finally gained the upper hand in the War of a Different Time. Next steps were up for the Conglomerate to decide on, though. But one thing was certain: these decisions wouldn't be as easy as military advantage might suggest, because Groaxian technology had already moved past a certain tipping point. Beyond it laid a vast land of destructive power and endless possibilities regarding warfare and soldiers serving in Next-Gen Human Space Fleet were already frightened by the force unleashed with just eight ships total. Eight ships were more than enough to lay waste to far more numerous enemy and quickly send its industrial colony into oblivion. And as the science progressed, officers could only imagine what kind of weapon would arrive next.
Two sides of the society had already been more or less merged and yet Conglomerate did not plan on reapplying genetic modifications, that time much stronger and more reliable, believing the drive for a perfect balance was much more powerful than past generations had imagined, hoping to get by just alright without reapplying the invasive solutions on a mass scale. On both sides a small tension existed, though, related to the military research. Scientists had already announced progress on another revolutionary project, which in itself was good simply because one could never be too protected in a Dark Forest, but sometimes it just didn't feel right for any Groaxian to hold that amount of doom waiting to be released upon the universe. Soulgrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuators were already terrifying as described by soldiers who had seen them in action.
As noted by the soulseekers, humans would describe these mild tensions as "unspoken, yet everyone being aware of", but for Groaxians there was simply no such thing as "unspoken" once enough individuals had thought about it in a short span of time.
-
DARK FOREST GENE
3521-3528 AM hibernation cycles
A group of extraordinarily skilled middlemen from Qusmont worked solar and cosmic watch to prototype a new soulgrain mechanic-based weapon, based on a brand new concept than the ones already deployed so far. It was a fairly straightforward idea of tearing a target apart at a soulgrain level, something no armor or energetic shields could ever protect from and even counterfire from other gravity- or soulgrain-based weapons would struggle to nullify or at least mitigate. The expected output appeared similar to what Invaders were using for sucking out and processing matter from conquered and destroyed celestial objects, at least according to monolith entries on the subject.
Surprisingly, before the concept could be weaponized in any reasonable way, it was proven it would be of invaluable help in terraforming. As if speeding up processes lasting for billions of hibernation cycles to take only half a century, maybe a bit more, wasn't impressive enough, scientists responsible for the project claimed if their technology was to be applied, maybe a dozen hibernation cycles or so would be enough to completely reshape a candidate planet to host genesian ecosystems. The basic idea was to abandon conventional approach to terraforming altogether and take advantage of the laws of soulgrain mechanics to change particles already present in a given world to the ones neccessary for Groaxians to comfortably live on the surface without any life support. A terraformation process would typically start by a rapid shift of atmosphere pressure and composition by modifying particles within the air to create same environment as on Genesis and while the cooling or warming and magnetic field generation still had to be handled in a classical way, surface modeling was also to be left for this miraculous technology to do the job, shifting some matter into water and accelerating land domestication by native genesian species by providing them easier access to food and whatever other matter they might need to quickly conquer the planet, preparing a perfectly balanced environment for Groaxians to inhabit.
The speed of terraforming would depend on a lot of factors, for example planets with atmospheric pressure similar to the ones on Genesis would be handled much faster because terraformers wouldn't have to pull grains from matter on the ground to transform them into air lacking air (or vice versa in case of too high pressure), modifying the skies directly. Atmosphere composition also played a crucial role, for example it would be much faster to synthetise enough methane if the sky was full of coal and hydrogen particles instead of, for example, having oxygen and neutronium as dominant gasses. The most time-consuming task would still be having flora and fauna spread across the prepared lands, but a separate program of genetic augmentation for the species to adapt and shape the environment as they thrive much faster than they otherwise would yelded optimistic results, too.
First large-scale testing was conducted on Scrar'ix, since the planet was already close to reaching ideal parameters, with great success. What was expected to take at least twenty hibernation cycles more was done over a span of one and a half once a transport of matter manipulators for the local array of Qives arrived. Groaxians were finally free to leave their habitats and build first cities under the open sky, making the logistics on Project Ascension easier, too.
The technology was a blessing for still too small terraforming array assembled on Joyeuse B-II orbit (properly named as Ghuq'ans shortly after as new waves of refugees from the imminent Dark Forest Strike arrived). The planet was expected to reach full habitability within a decade or so. It has been named after the process of soul rebalancing all male Groaxians were to undergo every fourteen hibernation cycles, performed by injecting colonies of freshly awakened Craals for them to circulate through the body, evenly spreading their enzymes across the brain tissue to help discover potential health problems. If a particular Groaxian was unable to recalibrate his thoughts after having Craals crawl through his brain, it was likely the beginning of a Disconnection Syndrome, a dangerous disease making the patient's brain separate as if it was always occuring within female bodies during replication process and each part attempting to form a new Groaxian ready to take on the world. Since obviously male bodies were nowhere near prepared to give birth of their own, these half-existing Groaxian Wraths, as doctors used to refer to them, were unable to separate into organisms of their own, ending up with a few of independent consciousnesses inhabit the same shell, driving the patient to insanity. The disease wasn't hard to treat if detected early and being a result of a genetic error sometimes occuring as a side effect of the ability to communicate via Transcended Speech and the overal characteristics and capabilities of a Groaxian brain had been almost eradicated when genetic engineering really took off, but the process was still very important as regular Craals injections were simply healthy. And so Joyeuse B-II's name was there for everyone to remind the societal split and Lost Generation, but to also see hope of a new, once again merged, strenghtened community to arise, hidden from the incoming apocalypse and well-prepared to sustain Groaxian legacy.
Terraforming was just one of the many applications of matter manipulator. Perhaps the most obvious one came in the form of small matter manipulators gifted to Void Scavengers for improving the efficiency of their operations within Blutgang. With these new devices at hands, salvaging operations reached their peaks as the fleet was able to clear all the artificial rings from Blutgang in no time and as a bonus was able to process recovered materials into useful elements ready to be used in industrial production directly on board, saving time on resmelting and reshaping processes. Actually most of the industry became obsolete with the new technology, because a lot of steps in production chains could simply be skipped in those cases when it was easier and quicker to just directly shift matter from one resource to the other, without conventional hassle of logistics and fabrication.
But the new technology, originally emerging from military-focused research, was bound to eventually be used in the original field it was developed for. A new class of starships has been proposed, loosely based on the same premise as first line of dreadnoughts assembled by the Humanity, but with weapons far beyond what humans even imagined when the first Executor of theirs was leaving space docks.
Executor class Dreadnought 50 000 tons 1 949 Crew 24 370,8 BP TCS 1 000 TH 20 000 EM 13 740
20000 km/s JR 3-500 Armour 15-120 Shields 458-536 HTK 349 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 160 PPV 179
Maint Life 4,26 Years MSP 30 463 AFR 200% IFR 2,8% 1YR 2 692 5YR 40 384 Max Repair 5000 MSP
Captain Control Rating 4 BRG ENG CIC FLG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Morale Check Required
Artificial Gravity Field AS Advisor Autnomous Piloting System Canteen Combat Simulation System Combat Trance Chamber Cosmic Membrane Monitor Emergency Repair Module Emergency Treatment Section Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Full Spectrum Deep Space Scanner Gravitational Signal Filter Hets Autonomous Farm Hyperdrive HyperSensors Interstellar Targeting Array Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Onboard Armory Onboard Hospital Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module Soulgrain Curvature Stabilisator
J50100(3-500) Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 50100 tons Distance 500k km Squadron Size 3
Solid Core AM Drive EP10000,00 (2) Power 20000 Fuel Use 62,50% Signature 10000 Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 4 752 000 Litres Range 27,4 billion km (15 days at full power)
Theta S229 / R536 Shields (2) Recharge Time 536 seconds (0,9 per second)
Soulgrain Phasing Bomb Launcher (5) Range 600 000km TS: 20 000 km/s Power 96-12 RM 10 000 km ROF 40
Black Hole Generator (1) Range 600 000km TS: 20 000 km/s Power 94-12 RM 80 000 km ROF 40
Soulgrain HyperDisintegrator (5) Range 600 000km TS: 20 000 km/s Power 42-11 RM 80 000 km ROF 20
Beam Fire Control R600-TS20000 (SW) (1) Max Range: 600 000 km TS: 20 000 km/s 98 97 95 93 92 90 88 87 85 83
Beam Fire Control R600-TS20000 (2) Max Range: 600 000 km TS: 20 000 km/s 98 97 95 93 92 90 88 87 85 83
Solid-core Anti-matter Power Plant R128 (1) Total Power Output 128 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS16-R1 (1) GPS 48 Range 16,6m km MCR 1,5m km Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor AS486-R100 (1) GPS 192000 Range 486,8m km Resolution 100
ECCM-5 (3) ECM 50
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Soulgrain HyperDisintegrators announced a new era in cosmic warfare. They were capable of emitting strong and intense radiation that was bound to reduce whatever it touched into a soulgrain state, disintegrating it into a chaotic mass of soulgrains, leaving no trace of it ever existing and no way to reasonably recover it, greatly accelerating entrophy by making even most complex structures collapse into nothingness and merging with the primary state of the universe. But what had been achieved with this particular weapon paled in comparsion with all the additional armament an Executor was meant to carry. Soulgrain Phasing Bomb Launchers were effective at much shorter range, but were a deadly threat on their own for whatever daring to disturb Groaxians. Taking advantage of soulgrain teleportation, it operated by teleporting small, unstable antimatter cores right at the target, making it possible to, for example, ignore all armor, shielding and all kinds of other defensive measurements of enemy ship by having an antimatter payload suddenly (anti)materialise in the engines and annihilate the vessel from within, leaving absolutely no chance for the enemy to deal with it. During their last stand with Invaders, humans had used something similar, but their early prototypes were much weaker than what Groaxians had already achieved.
Still, the title of most ominous weapon ever engineered went to what was initially planned as an improvement, simply next iteration, of a Soulgrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuators. However, during the development phase, a small black hole created by the improved design had proven to be stable. Not wanting to have a potentially dangerous black hole residing on the edge of Qi, concentrated fire of gravitational weapons of previous designs was used to speed up the evaporation process and modify space warp to effectively overcome its own gravity and let the light escape, ending the existence of the Eye of Darkness as later that one special black hole began being referred to.
Consequences of the latest breakthrough were of invaluable importance for the future of Groaxian civilisation. Brains of many boiled when they realised what had happened and what it meant. Black Hole Generators, a cosmic evil looming over Groaxian lives ever since they knew there were civilisations that wielded this power, now ready to be fired by their own hands. And it was only then when soulseekers were able to confidently say they finally understood Dark Forest Theory and the dangers of a sudden technological boom it mentioned, as this technological boom was what brought Groaxians from a primitive civilisation taking its first steps across the stars all the way towards a powerful and mighty race wielding the power of destruction and almost wielding the power of creation.
The one Exectuor that had been built was indeed an executor in the most horrible meaning. Outfitted with HyperSensors and Hyperdrive for easiness of navigation and travel across Cracks, with interstellar targeting array installed that would allow it to send doom across light hibernation cycles at a whim, with additional mechanisms for stabilising space around it to further enchance accuracy over interstellar distances, it was far more than what Groaxians would ever need to bring for the War of a Different Time.
The possibility of launching a Dark Forest Strike of their own lied in front of the Groaxian Conglomerate and the civilisation it guided as a whole.
Soulseekers entered an insanely busy period of their lives, constantly occupied with tracking and predicting all possible scenarios and routes that their race could follow from that dangerous point. Serving under a special Conglomerate order, they were the first non-military workers in history to ever receive doses of hibernation stoppers to squeeze as much performance out of them as possible. But all the endangering effort paid out as they delivered the results of their research on the verge of collapsing into madness and could all be assigned to proper genetic treatment to remove the toxic influence lack of hibernation had on their bodies and minds while Conglomerate received a solid pile of reports to work with.
At the beginning of these reports a detailed analysis of documented Dark Forest Lord-classed weapons was presented. First black hole generator built by Groaxians was nothing extraordinary. Even less developed humans had photonic missiles of their own by the time they brought fight with Invaders into Bootes Void. Even Precursors had their artifacts for collapsing hyperspace that turned out to be perfectly weaponizable. And, most importantly, an ability to broadcast stellar coordinates in all directions at once, while not a Dark Forest Lord-classed weapon on its own, also shared the characteristics of being useful as a world destroyer for less advanced civilisations and each civilisation was bound to at least think about such application for their broadcasting arrays at least once at some point.
The summary of the analysis was a solid proof, that no matter whether the will was good or bad, sooner or later each civilisation was bound to develop means to pose a direct existential threat to the others (or go extinct beforehand). However, nature of each race was unqiue and often strongly affected the technological path it walked. While some milestones were bound to appear similar or even the same due to sharing the same universe with the same laws of mathematics and physics, many deviations from each other existed among endless paths a particular race might take. And Dark Forest Theory aside, there was no strict physical law that would justify everyone building a world destroyer at some point and yet it seemed to be the way sentinet life operated.
Merging brainpower with genetics, biologists and xenobiologists, soulseekers began the most ambitious project aiming at discovering and mapping the nature of nature on the example of Groaxians ever undertaken, despite many research from the past touching on that matter. And with all the technology and knowledge at hands, the project was a success. After directly analysing links between biology and psychology of Groaxians, Zenn, La and Achernar and using data gathered by Humanity on Invaders, Yagidrerc and Substance (and of course humans themselves), a similar genetic sequence had been extracted and pinpointed in all of the examples. Of course it always took a different form, adjusted to the particular biology of a given species, but its meaning remained constant. Soulseekers and scientists agreed to call it a "Dark Forest Gene". The universal sequence encoded in all who live and think, like a mark of the universe itself, the spawn of universe itself, meant to contain its fundamental nature within.
No genetic engineering could ever get rid of a Dark Forest Gene because of its universality and omnipresence. It was a mandatory condition for sentience to evolve, so to get rid of it would mean to get rid of self-consciousness as well and become mindless animals unaware of their own existence. And it was precisely this gene that made it so easy for gentics to build on it, creating Bound by Dark Forest. And that engineering was much less faulty than scientific community agreed before the latest research of soulseekers. It was Dark Forest Gene that allowed applying Lost Generation strategy, but it was also Dark Forest Gene that allowed for the two sides to merge into one perfectly balanced community once again, with the help of the overall Groaxian strive for balance and stability.
Human stories encoded in the monolith under the cultural and historical databases sometimes revolved around the feelings and consequences of finding a traitor within a group built upon common trust. But the despair of Groaxians was indescribable when they not only found a "traitor" among them, but realised every single citizen of theirs that ever existed in the past or would exist in the future was such "traitor", carrying a Dark Forest Gene buried deep within the deepest pits of own soul. The very thing generations of Groaxians attempted to escape from through all these hibernation cycles that followed initial discovery of Dark Forest Theory lied dormant within each one of them since the solar watch their first ancestors formed their first conscious thought. Escaping from Dark Forest became a synonym of escaping from oneself.
There was nothing more to learn from the monolith. Groaxian civilisation was far more advanced than Humanity was by the time it had placed their gift on the surface of Genesis. The Era of Guidance had finally came to an end.
And by the end of it Groaxians were Dark Forest Lords themselves.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/885277671297278033/ZF5uywezVfzPe3zgqzRbf-1200-80.png)
-
3529-3530 AM hibernation cycles
Tempestsaurs Of Achernar were still to be considered a potential threat and Conglomerate knew it. Technically there were no obstacles towards using the outdated, but still powerful against technologically inferior enemies, Ascension Pathfinders with tons of Bound by Dark Forest loaded on them, wielding next-gen plasma rifles and an entire new branch of sonic weapons reverse-engineered and then improved further. But after the realisations that the past few hibernation cycles had brought and the ominous presence of an Executor idling around Groaxian worlds made Conglomerate hesitate. As pointed out by someone, nothing had really changed - nobody had to give an order to use Executor and a conventional conquest of Tizona III would bring much needed answers and further data on Achernar as well as the chance at assimilating survivors, so something that, while less than ideal, still worked while breaking the rules of a Dark Forest, unaffected by all the problems with hyperspace and whatnot. Better to save a few and already deny Dark Forest its sacrifice than to exterminate everyone, as a popular thought circulating against Groaxians ever since Blutgang Invasion stated.
But Conglomerate still feared. Its members feared themselves. One order, one shot, a few hibernation cycles of waiting. That's all that was needed for the entire Tizona system to be removed from reality, with all Achernar and their military as well as non-military potential still left. Saving Groaxians bound to be killed in the process of a conventional invasion, too. Without anything better to do, Conglomerate announced a special conference to be held with the brightest soulseekers Groaxian civilisation had ever seen. The debate was to have two easy-looking subjects: how far had Groaxians already gone and how much further they could possibly go.
Some of the invited soulseekers recited the arguments about the existence of Executor not really changing much under the condition of not using this starship in the incoming homeworld invasion and some claiming the technological inferiority of Achernar and Project Ascension being nearly finished (even if it no longer served as a valid safely guarantee), at worst possible case of Achernar experiencing technological boom and quickly advancing to the level at which they could pose an existential threat even to four-dimensional Groaxians of the future still giving Groaxians plenty of time to figure a new solution before Achernar would grow capable of destroying them themselves. But most actually pointed out a different problem, seemingly beyond the original scope of the discussion. According to them, the entire question was posed wrongly. The very reason it had been asked was because Groaxians had gained the power so beyond their wildest imagination that they feared eventually succumbing to the Dark Forest Theory altogether, especially given the discovery of a Dark Forest Gene, but at the same time it didn't even assume the possibility of debating the act of conventional invasion in itself. They stated the original Conglomerate question once again and then compared it with the recordings of discussions that had been held prior to the first military starships reaching Blutgang and how much heat each act of opening fire generated, meanwhile after all these hibernation cycles of trying to deny the cosmic fate, Conglomerate ended up accepting conventional homeworld assault in itself without a blink of an eye.
Of course it was immediately blamed on the Dark Forest Gene, but at the same time this gene had existed indifferently ever since first Groaxian ancestors formed their first conscious thoughts, so how much quilt it really contained was debatable at best. Nevertheless ignoring its influence while next orders of war had been issued through decades wasn't the right path either. However, if the malicious gene was tied to sentience, it might as well be possible that it expressed itself more the more advanced a given civilisation would become. In order to verify the truthfulness of that statement, an experiment on a large group of Groaxians was conducted. During first stage, participants were asked to answer a few questions related to the problem Conglomerate was facing, such as "would you attack Tizona conventionally", "would you attack Tizona using Executor", "would you assimilate survivors or exterminate everyone" and so on ans so forth. Their answers were then to be evaluated based on their background and intelligence. However, the results weren't really of much use - differences between the answers of the smartest and the least wise participants were negligible and easily explainable by comparing their jobs, default mental configurations, whether they had cybersoul-based implants or went through genetic engineering etc.
That's where the second stage, already assumed to be the main part of the experiment at the start of it, begun. Most skilled Tempestsaurs were tasked with carefully removing bits of knowledge and civilisational awareness from brains of the selected participants. It was one of the most significant undertakings of mental engineering ever attempted, since precisely extracting certain category of thoughts and memories while leaving out all the ones necessary to have the individual remain functional and responsive was still one of the biggest challenges for scientists exploring Transcendent Speech. A total of four backups of each removal operation were to be kept, two in the form of digitalised data stored on a pre-calibrated cybersoul balance keeping personal assistant, basically an upgraded version of the commonly used portable device or cybersoul implant repurposed for more scientific experiments, and two other in the form of powerful groups of Tempestsaurs who had achieved the ability to isolate their own thoughts and break access to them, allowing for part of their brains to be able to store thoughts of someone else without the two sets interacting with each other in any way. The process of "dumbing down" was painfully slow and full of mistakes, but thanks to the extensive backup network and careful planning, no permanent damage had been caused to the participants, eventually leaving all their filtered thoughts stored for return after the end of experiment.
The second stage gave much more interesting results. The overall conclusion was that indeed the more advanced a civilisation becomes, the more Dark Forest Gene influences the choices made by its members, but at the same time something else was observed. In case of a group who had their memories about all military actions all the way to the moment Executor had left its shipyard kept intact, but lost a good chunk of memories and knowledge related to the work of soulseekers, Project Ascension or the bright side of human culture and history, they displayed significantly more aggressive approach which was expected, but surprisingly the "opposite group" consisting of Groaxians who weren't aware about latest battles and military developments, but knew all the details related to the "bright side" showed almost identical results, meanwhile the third group which was equally stripped from both military and non-military awareness past a certain point in Groaxian history showed a bit more pacifistic approach, generally kept in line with the trends within Groaxian society of the time to which the had been "brought back" mentally.
The experiment that served as a proof for the "Enlightenment Paradox" left everyone even more puzzled than before the original debate had been initiated. One would expect that it was military research that shall be feared, meanwhile it turned out that no matter whether a civilisation takes military or pacifistic approach, ultimately past a certain level of civilisational consciousness Dark Forest Gene takes over, as if it was tied to the level of development in general rather than whether a particular race would be rather combative or not. But still, the original "to launch or not to launch" question remained as solar watches went by. Back in the hibernation cycles of the Lost Generation it wouldn't be so problematic, but in a post-merge society one couldn't just casually throw military orders around putting it all on the shoulders of Bound by Dark Forest.
Another interesting topic brought during the debate was the mysterious race of Arilou who, according to the monolith, directly guided Humanity towards ascension (assuming they got it finished before black holes destroyed human-occupied systems...) during the period they referred to as their "Last Sunset". Based on the human descriptions of these mystical, five-dimensional entities that ascended there despite originally raising as a 3D civilisation, shortly after figuring out Dark Forest Theory Arilou became quite fierce warriors and had the blood of many worlds tainting their minds as Death Rays purged planet after planet, but past a certain point they just stopped walking down the extermination path and searched for a solution beyond which eventually brought them to quasispace, even beyond hyperspace. Various humans encoding their thoughts in the monolith reported Arilou gave vibes of never really giving up on outsmarting Dark Forest Theory in the first place and that the period of intense Death Ray pulses came only as a consequence of brutal mathematical precision and game theory of Dark Forest, but while they followed these strict rules for quite some time, they always thought "outside the space".
Trying to guess an alien culture described by another alien culture wasn't the easiest job, but still what soulseekers could pull from these passages translated to more or less the story of Arilou being consumed by Dark Forest Gene past certain point of development and for some dark period in their history they appeared as if they gave up, but it was more of them not resisting something they knew was doomed to fail back then while still trying to figure out an unconventional solution to the presented problem. After all, their Mechi were created in that time and while the project itself was a total failure, it was a perfect testament of their true intentions and their first serious, large-scale attempt at making them happen. Simply put, they knew when resistance was futile but also when to counterattack. And they made it to quasispace, after all.
And eventually Conglomerate decided to do exactly what Humanity once did - trust the guidance of Arilou, in its own way. The order for Tizona III invasion using conventional forces was eventually issued, prioritising short-term safety for the sake of peaceful Ghuq'ans colonisation and finishing Project Ascensions regardless of it not being much about ascending anymore, but while military commanders were in the process of receiving it, soulseekers simultaneously got tasked with, as Conglomerate phrased it "never giving up on searching for the solutions beyond".
-
BATTLE OF ALL COSMIC FRONTS
3531-3547 AM hibernation cycles
Groaxian invasion forces had departed from Qi shortly after the decision. Human Space Fleet was sent first, a bit earlier than Ascension Pathfinders, just to stay on the safe side in case of Achernar reinforcements likely being called back to Tizona through the hibernation cycles that had passed since the last siege. The plan was simple: Vaccines and Dargonbreaths would scout ahead and clear any space forces remaining and a bit later Ascension Pathfinders would catch up and deploy troops on the surface of Tizona III with air support from Avengers and even orbital support of Human Space Fleet if really needed.
But what was simple in theory escalated rather quickly. Not expecting any significant resistance, Groaxians simply flew straight towards Tizona through the shortest possible path, predicting disengaging Curvature Propulsion Systems at the same coords as the last time, just to get towards the targeted planet the quickest way possible. And that was a big mistake, because not only had the Achernar called for reinforcements and not only had they arrived on time, but they placed a monitoring group right at where Groaxian fleet was spotted warping in to the system previous time, so the moment interstellar navigation systems deactivated interstellar propulsion radically shifting vision from the red-blue variants towards standard spectrum, Achernar ships were already awaiting the assault force with weapons charged. There were only five of them and only one displayed the capaibility to fire particle beams, but by concentrating their firepower they severely shredded the armor of a Vaccine and near-lightspeed particles scored hits in several critical systems, namely conventional engines, Curvature Propulsion System, cybersoul targeting mainframe and a few Soulgrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuators. Without all these systems, the unlucky ship was unable to fight and unable to flee.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887485696686837830/siege1.PNG)
The crew of the damaged Vaccine was occupied by patching holes in the ignition chamber. Thanks to the conventional engines being off because of maintaining a constant conventional speed while encircled by a warp bubble those who didn't die directly from the shots were still alive and there was still something to patch, but the ship wasn't going to fly anywhere soon, besides the conventional speed it had already maintained and a small rotational velocity gained after the impacts, that is. Rest of the fleet was able to rotate against the enemies and fire conventional engines with all their might until sitting at a comfortable distance to blast the enemy into pieces and then blast the pieces too, but the half-destroyed Vaccine was still a problem. Despite of initial misfortune, luck ended up on Groaxian side: because of the sheer advantage Human Space Fleet had over Achernar defenders, the latter fired their engines only a moment after Groaxians to get away from them. Because of that, the problematic Vaccine was left to its own devices, with the next volley still being way more than capable of screwing it over, but the distance from the enemies increased nevertheless. To discourage the enemy from attempting to finish off the starship, rest of the functional vessels turned around (rather rapidly since no significant speed had been gained yet) and began chasing the enemy, disrupting its cruise with micro black hole local gravity anomalies and rapid space curvature fluctuations. Gravitational weapons disrupted only three enemies, though, because two outright did not survive direct contact with weapons beyond their understanding and defensive systems:
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887485827414892544/siege3.PNG)
Antiparticles were only required to finish off the monitoring squadron, leaving clear space ahead and five new wrecks. Fleet admiral decided to turn back towards stranded Vaccine and guard it while it would undergo field repairs restoring its maneouvrability and combat status. There wasn't much left to do anyways, because Ascension Pathfinders were expected to drop from lightspeed cruise at least half solar watch later, even from their perspective it must have felt like a tiny fraction of a tick.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887485925981028402/siege4.PNG)
But as the fleet of Starhunters and Ravens was about to emerge in Tizona, officers on the starships took notice of something registered by warp bubble interference monitoring systems. Something that shouldn't be there. Something Vaccines and Dragonbreaths had missed and Ravens would miss too, but not Starhunters, because due to their size Curvature Propulsion Systems were big enough to cause interference with space at which the thing was located. Stopping somewhere in interstellar space short of Tizona to meet an unknown entity wasn't strictly what Groaxians on boards wanted to do, but it was the only way to avoid potentially lethal interference and matter of the entity getting within warp bubble and getting compressed to plasma splashing against the hulls or something different, but equally threatening. And so Ascension Pathfinders were left stranded somewhere in darkness only to see an Achernar fleet of respectable size, detectable only thanks to the minimal gravitational influence it had over the fabric of space as the ships looked completely dead.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887486030809276416/siege5.PNG)
Groaxians expected to get blasted long before they would be able to gain safe distance and turn Curvature Propulsion Systems back on, but nothing happened. Achernar just stayed where they were and no shots had been fired. Not willing to risk, Ascension Pathfinders crossed the last bits of distance separating them from Tizona in a hurry, but the encounter was so unique that Human Space Fleet prepared a jump to the saved coordinates of the enemy, wondering whether they would still be there by the time Groaxians would reach them again. And they were.
Approaching it just like any other battle, Groaxian weapons blazed across the void, nullifying many of Achernar starships, but they all refused to move or fire at all. Seeing this odd behaviour, cease fire order was given and a risky boarding attempt performed. But all the precautions were unnecessary - the ships had stayed at their position for nobody knew for sure how long, dead and deactivated. Engines were non-functional, there was no fuel of any sort, life support systems were dead and no traces of oxygen had been left and the biomass emergency support chambers were all full of bodies of Tempestsaurs Of Achernar who never woke up before nutrition and oxygen recycling systems as well as power went out. A large fleet of derelict shells that would never fly again existed there, frozen in time and frozen in space. They all must have been very old not only because of their technical status, but also because a brief examination revealed their interiors were of a different design than the ships encountered during the War of a Different Time or even, at least according to some speculations based on demonstrated capabilities, Endpoint War. They had some primitive Curvature Propulsion Systems (or at least they appeared primitive based on the few non-fried parts left), but not even broadcasting devices utilising gravitational waves, let alone something more sophisticated.
And yet somehow database backups still contained readable entries in them. All electronic data had long been corrupted thanks to the long-lasting power shortage and overall decays, but the backups themselves, not based on electrical signals, but carefully assembled out of materials and patterns that would yeld decipherable messages in Achernar language when looked at via full spectrum scanners, were still usable and contained some interesting information. According to them, it was a virgin interstellar flight for the Achernar, but they had already knew about Dark Forest already. But soon after leaving Tizona, something went wrong. Based on the reports, a strange object entered their warp bubble, but it did not behave how it was expected. Suddenly space collapsed on the expedition and all stars moved around, engraving weird patters on the sky. Everything, as Achernar described it, turned "upside down" for a brief moment, then came some flashes and strange optical illusions and eventually the object disappeared, leaving stranded fleet with no power and broken everything that could ever break on board. Groaxians exploring their story couldn't do much besides wondering about the likehood of first Achernar explorers coming into contact with some bizarre technology wielded by Dark Forest Lords, perhaps another doomsday device, perhaps something else entirely.
As Human Space Fleet was about to return from its investigation, its refueling detachment, left behind since it was nothing but an uneccessary risk to take it to the possibly dangerous point of curiosity, got into a very tense situation when space around it began shfting and warping at a few different locations, spitting Achernar vessels shortly after. Maybe it was intentional, but their interstellar sync module or something similar was likely to have failed as the squadron appeared completely desynchronized and scattered around.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887486233629048842/zulfiqar1.PNG)
While heavily spread vessels were out of firing range, at least firing range observed by the soldiers fighitng in the War of a Different Time so far, one from the arriving reinforcements had landed right on top of the defenseless tankers. With Curvature Propulsion Systems not prepared for a quick getaway, following seconds were likely to end really badly for the surrounded squadron. However, the leader of the support attachement for Human Space Fleet was a creative middleman, even more than the average one even though creativity in extraordinary situations had been associated with them as their geneder trait since forever. The middleman was well-aware that truth to be told, seemingly unarmed ships all had a source of ultiamte devastation stored within them - antimatter. After a few moments of rapid acceleration, boosted by reducing weight via dumping some fusion fuel supply for the greater good of surviving the deadly trap, engines were partially turned off. Or rather not turned off in a classic meaning of this term, but rather the matter inputs of some of the annihilation chambers were shut down so that only antimatter would enter it and thus no reaction would occur. Later, overriding all automatic protocols and bypassing whatever safet checks were there to bypass, engineers from the engine control rooms forcefully opened the magnetic nozzles connected to the partially closed annihilation chambers, the ones from which during standard usage generated energy would radiate generating thrust. But that time there was no energy, only antiparticles, freed from their magentic traps and exposed to the vacuum. But since only some engines were shut and thus all Gragzeans still accelerated, dropped antiparticles had lower velocity than the already increased velocity of the ship that left them behind, effectively creating a deadly trail of antimatter behind the escaping ships.
The enemy right on top of the fleet apparently didn't expect such sudden and rapid acceleration from the Groaxians, so before it was ready to fire, refueling fleet was already beyond the effective targeting range of its kinetic weapons, so it tried to follow. But it didn't take long before its hull touched the stray antimatter left by Groaxians alongside its predicted path, the only path they expected it would follow to simply get closer to the "unarmed" vessels. Unfortunately, the antimatter charge was only good enough to blast several holes in the pursuer, but not outright destroy it. Still, it damaged its engines so it was no longer able to generate enough thrust for continuing the chase and other ships were way too far to catch up to Groaxians, by then utilising all of their engines again and not leaving any antimatter behind. Fortunately for them, it didn't take long from that moment for the Human Space Fleet to get back to the outer edges of Tizona and chase the hostile squadron down, easily evaportating it in the hail of antimatter explosions and gravitational anomalies. Commander of the tanker squadron would later receive a personal reward from the Conglomerate itself for the valiant effort of standing against the enemy and all odds.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887486391594913802/zulfiqar2.PNG)
But at the same time, light hibernation cycles away from the heat of battle, Genesian deep space monitors raised an alarm when a fleet of Achernar appeared over the system. Decades had passed since the last encounter around Groaxian homeworld and yet here they were, boldly warping into the core system. With main forces thrown far away at alien worlds, Conglomerate sent Pikes and Strikers forming the Human Space Fleet of old to battle, hoping particle beams and Phased Curvature Disruption Systems coming from legacy designs would be enough to hold against the unexpected raid. Human Space Fleet quickly raised above Genesian skies and hurried to meet their foes allowing itself to burn excessive fuel just to intercept the enemy as far from any of the three planets as possible, not needing to worry about getting stranded too much as long as they kept enough to slow down to speeds allowing reasonable rescue. But their excessive velocity is what casued the first issue as the old cybersoul mainframes were responsible for a critical error in range calculations, causing Groaxian ships to almost ram into the enemies as the latter pounded at them with kinetic fire.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887486489397706802/qi1.PNG)
While armor damage taken was severe, at least Groaxians could be relieved to see no particle beams of the enemy. Proceeding to slow down a bit while rotating to "dive below" the enemy, they opened fire. While first particle beams pierced through Achernar spacecraft without any issue, Phased Curvature Disruption Systems were used to affect the shape of space around the taken flight trajectory, allowing pilots to easily use it as a slingshot to push the ships with full force at the Achernar who, in the meantime, attempted to gain velocity in the opposite direction to Groaxians. Still, they had no chance against superior technology (still superior despite being very outdated for Groaxian standards) and soon both fleets flew alongisde each other, exchanging fire but with Groaxians dodging the vast majority of the metallic missiles launched at them. At some point enemies attempted to engage interstellar propulsion, but gravitational weapons of Pikes were just enough to counter any space warp they attempted, forcing them to stay within the firing range of Human Space Fleet, leaving them all to perish under superior firepower.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887486585141100544/qi2.PNG)
But the unexpected Qi raid wasn't all Achernar had prepared. Another fleet, divided into two squadrons, was spotted by the extensive network of space monitoring drones in Blutgang. Unfortunately for Achernar, by the time of their arrival Executor had been finishing its patrolling tour around the system and it was the perfect occassion to unleash its power and bring the apocalypse towards whoever who dared to disturb the safety of Blutgang inhabitants. And if Groaxians themselves trembled in fear and their brain temperature rose each time they thought about the mighty dreadnought, then Tempestsaurs Of Achernar should already be on the run even before stopping at the system. Not that it would help them. Their end was destined the moment they even thought about entering Blutgang for another time.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887486676073582622/blutgang1.PNG)
For the opening volley the Executor was still too far to count on phasing antimatter bombs directly into interiors of enemy ships, but Soulgrain HyperDisintegrators were perfectly usable. These weapons made no sound Executor's crew could hear and no visual trace said crew could watch. The moment of firing was indistinguishable from the moment of not firing. The only thing that happened was a single flash coming roughly from the Achernar fleet's bearing and sensor arrays informed about losing track of one of the target. It didn't look like a photonic missile hitting a star or a black hole ripping chunks of rock until the entire planet would fall apart, but that's probably what was so terrifying about this weapon. No indicator beyond logs from sophisticated instruments used for measuring parameters of the fabric of space itself, yet targets were surgically removed from the plane reality each time it fired.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887486758512656414/blutgang2.PNG)
What followed after was a pure sluaghter. Propelled to ridiculous speeds, Executor came on top of the enemies, not giving a damn about kinetic missiles and particle beams losing all their kinetic energy in contact with powerful energy shields, used its antigravity flight assistant to rapidly lose much of its speed to align with the hapless Achernar and opened fire with all it got (except Black Hole Generator for obvious reasons). Ships suddenly blowing up for no visible reason as pockets of energy freed from the antimatter after touching matter suddenly appeared in the middle of Achernar engine and other ships magically disappearing as if a powerful entity beyond the common understanding decided to remove all their traces from the universe as if they never had came into existence in the first place was a terrifying performance watched by Groaxians in awe and terror until the deed was done and both Squadrons of Achernar fleet were no more.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887486870475395072/blutgang4.PNG)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887486891912470538/blutgang5.PNG)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887486915291529226/blutgang7.PNG)
Light hibernation cycles away the main battle still raged, too. With Ascension Pathfinders heading directly towards Tizona III, Human Space Fleet turned at Tizona II, because telescopes were able to identify dozens of targets steadily raising above the planet's atmosphere.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887487105754890300/tizona1.PNG)
Having counted dozens of enemy starships, Groaxians had only one way to be sure they would not overwhelm their forces that might possibly have troubles destroying all of them in time. And so before they could get out of the gravity well of their planet, a powerful anomaly created by Soulgrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuators echoed across the space, with the gravity of unstable micro black holes causing all the ships to not have enough thrust to ovecrome the planet's gravity anymore and collapse on the ground. Groaxians watched as one after the other the starships smashed against the surface with energy so high it turned them into weapons of mass destruction and that alone was still nothing compared to the disturbances created gravitational anomaly caused, shattering large portions of the world below, with earthquakes on an unprecedenced scale and storms a nasty gas giant wouldn't be ashamed of.
And yet the way these weapons were tagrted allowed the planet below to survive. And surprisingly, most of Achernar population survived, too, simply because there weren't many Achernar living on the surface in the first place. Similar population density was detected on Tizona III, too, so the final conclusion was that in the entire system there were very little Tempestsaurs Of Achernar even before Groaxian arrival. This could very well mean War of a Different Time was way further from being over than anticipated, with Achernar fleeing towards a new home of theirs en masse, escaping Tizona both before Groaxian invasion and the inevitably incoming Dark Forest Strike. But even if that was really the case, Groaxians hoped to get the coordinates of this supposed new home straight out of heads of captured battle survivors and whatever they could get access to once on the surface of Tizona III.
And so after the fierce, multi-stage space battle path to Tizona III lied open and the invasion could proceed according to the plan. But questions about the future of Groaxians remained unanswered.
-
TIZONA III INVASION
3545 AM hibernation cycle
Ascension Pathfinders were all clear to approach the homeworld of Tempestsaurs of Achernar. White lands with brown or light green patches scattered around and light blue oceans awaited conequest and exploration. The garrison wasn't estimated to be very strong, since there were very few Achernar living down there, but depending on the autonomous machines usage their actual army size and strength could exceed what one might expect based on the population statistics alone. Still, not expecting much problems, Bound By Dark Forest boarded their capsules and prepared for rapid orbital falloff down to the surface of a world that looked asleep. Except it wasn't asleep, because before the final command particle beams started blasting through the armor of Starhunters. These behemoths were sturdy enough to withstand direct hit without any penetration, but pods about to be launched weren't really that though. Neither were the three Ravens accompanying the fleet, carrying Avengers with them. Three of them got destroyed while still in hangar as particle beam went in and out of one Raven. Human Space Fleet tried to assist with orbital strikes, but the defense systems bruied in the deepest depths of the oceans (or at least they gave an impression as if that was the case) weren't particularly easy to hit without risking wrecking the entire planet until there would be barely anything left to invade, denying Groaxians the answers they seeked. Not willing to hang around the dead zone any longer than strictly necessary, Starhunters synchronised the launch and soon all the orbital pods were speeding towards the alien world below. Avengers had a more difficult task since they had to drop from orbital speeds and enter the atmosphere while not getting destroyed. Particle beams had quite some trouble chewing at the swarm of Avengers, let alone the small pods with Groaxian soldiers in them, but Ravens and Starhunters were a different thing. Before they could reach enough velocity to get out of the dead zone, one of the Ravens suffered a critical engine damage and was not able to continue accelerating.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887816837763567626/siege8.PNG)
Particle beams and some kinetic fire support concentrated on that ship that quickly got left behind, not giving it any chance. All its captain could do was to call for evacuation and leave the vessel before certain destruction. It was only thanks to this that all the remaining crew survived when disintegrated fragments and debris from the fresh wreck began to spread in all directions.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887816938036789278/siege9.PNG)
Being too late to halt the invasion prematurely, Achernar kept on firing at the most vulnerable targets which undoubtedly were Ravens and woudn't stop until last one of them ended its service while still close to the planet. Starhunters and Human Space Fleet were lucky to get out of the firing zone without a scratch, but Avengers didn't have anywhere to dock anymore. Particle beam fire ceased, but metallic slugs kept flying from the surface towards descending invaders so first Bound by Dark Forest were slain and more Avengers crashed down before even first Groaxian was able to touch the ground.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887817165309370398/siege11.PNG)
Choosing landing location was a bit problematic, because on the whole planet it was hard to detect anything resembling a city worthy of direct attack. Because of that, a group of small outposts was chosen as a primary target, but taking it over would still be far from victory. What military officers hoped for, though, was to find some explanation about things going on in this world there. The initial landing zone was a narrow strip of a brown shoreline beyond which endless white fields were spreading. Oddly enough, there were no alien lifeforms to be seen anywhere. The brown ground might have a unique shade as if given to it by some biological beings, but these could be microorganisms at best since for the naked eye it was nothing but barren soil. Further from the oceans white fields stretched benath a pale blue-greenish sky. Groaxians were in shock upon witnessing these fields for the first time from up close. Xenobiology had already provided answers as to what these landscapes were made of and how Achernar spawn in Yatune caverns used it to feed itself. In some way this brought memories many older officers still remembered from Scar'am - a dead, almost extinct world. But in the previous example leftovers from Umbara bodies hadn't been covering the vast majority of the landmass to the point they were the main feature of the planet to be discovered from space even with naked eyes. Also, as evolutionary emulators were able to prove after being reinforced with data on Achernar biology, "overpopulation" would be a very euphemistic term for describing the demography of Tizona III if all the biomass accumulated on the surface would belong to the pre-extinction population. On the other hand, maybe that's how it was comfortable for Achernar. Groaxians had already gone through the shock of discovering how densely packed human cities were. Except Achernar had no cities on the surface.
First squads that had landed immediately began fortifying the painstackingly cover-lacking neighbourhood, but against sonic weapons this was all in vain. However, defenders firing away or something were nowhere to be seen. Soon the song of hell was played, likely from many sources at once. Achernar were prepared. So were Bound by Dark Forest, but sonic shielding was a bit too weak for the job and countersonic batteries were able to focus only in one narrow direction to effectively nullify the deadly infrasounds. This all combined made first soldiers drop dead left and right, even if the casualties had already been minimised. But just as Groaxians regrouped and abandoned the idea of wasting time and effort on useless fortifications, giant machines were spotted raising staight out of biomass. They were all perfectly spherical. Biological substance was still oozing from them as they formed above it.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/887817351330938910/2Q.png)
Whether they were the source of the sound warfare or not was debatable, but for certain they were the forces of energetic forcefields expanding outwards. The pulses didn't have much effective range, but the spheres itself could rotate rather fast and they swarmed Groaxian positions. Gliders were sturdy enough to still remain operational after direct contact with a forcefield, but even latest prototype of infantry power armor struggled to keep the wearer alive, let alone conscious and functional. Not to mention the spheres itself were capable of reaching scary speeds while being rather bulky, so whoever got under one of them during the chaos that ensued got splattered and essentially merged with the biomass leftovers sticking to their exteriors. Plasma weapons were ineffective agains them, especially after noticing that their heat signatures were enormous so a bunch of plasma shots couldn't really heat them up much.
Nevertheless they were all suspectible to antimatter missiles, obviously, and surprisingly also ultraviolet beams fired from Avengers providing air support were of great effectiveness. First combat spheres began blowing up or just falling apart as they rolled, but the amount of them that swarmed Groaxians was enormous. Still, it was all nothing for Phased Surface Gravitational Destabilisators, by then even more destabilising than they had been during Blutgang Invasion. Contracting space at targeted spots made the spheres collapse, splatter and pop up until eventually turning into plasma outburst and transferring to pure energy, raining down destruction on the nearby machines as well. At times an accurate antigrav pulse was all there was needed to lift the enemies off the ground and crash them against each other.
With each moment of focused fire Groaxian perimeter looked more stable and the chaos was being successively pushed away from it while casualties taken were being reduced, especially after noticing that the spherical robots were indeed infrasound emitters, too. It didn't last long until Groaxians were able to counterattack (or rather counter-counterattack to be precise) and march directly towards Achernar outposts. They were defended by a more conventional layout of particle beam cannons, infantry with sonic guns and some smaller spheres with kinetic launchers sticking out of them being probably an Achernar version of Gliders of some sort, but they all had no chance. If the Groaxian army had been only as advanced as during Blutgang Invasion, a breakthrough would have costed a meaningful number of killed and wounded, but all the Achernar fortifications, bunkers and squads were nullified by next-gen Groaxian arsenal to the point Bound by Dark Forest had little to nothing to do once they were thrown to charge the battered enemy position. The battle was easier than expected and soon the entire Achernar complex fell into Groaxian hands.
Expecting counterattack (or more of a counter-counter-counterattack), soldiers entrenched themselves rapidly on the new position and scientists brought alongside for the mission began tinkering with alien artifacts discovered inside. Providing input for their cybersouls by encoding sample full spectrum scan results that carried proper meaning wasn't the most convenient user experience, but it had to do. First noticeable thing was a counter displayed on each device, according to which the 527th Respawn Period should begin soon. Wondering what this "respawn period" was supposed to be about, Groaxians dug deeper until they uncovered everything. The small population of Achernar was small for a reason. Unlike for Humans and Groaxians, breeding wasn't something that was supposed to bring constant population replacements for them. It was a lenghty and spectacular undertaking, requiring preparing many, many resources a new spawn would consume to grow and gain strength. Because of that, during solar watch-to-solar watch lives Achernar were dying, but not breeding. Not at all. And each dead Achernar would rapidly decompose into white biomass that nobody would ever attempt to clean up. It was left on purpose to pile up. Its fascinating properties allowed it even to consume nearby plants and animals, accelerating its growth and the amount of nutritional value it had to offer. Past a certain critical point the biomass would expand rapidly and consume a large portion of native wildlife, leaving barely anything left to repopulate biosphere again. After that point last surviving Achernar from a given generation overseeing the whole process would merge with the white substance and soon afterwards first Achernar of a new generation would spawn, with more raising from the goo as solar watches would pass, raising and shining until barely anything from the old generation would have been left and the new one would be ready to take on the universe. And because of all that Achernar didn't even bother to build proper cities - they needed all the place for their ever-growing biomass, building only minimal facilities, outposts and underground systems dedicated to science and industry.
Several interesting implications popped up in the heads of Groaxian scientists and soulseekers regarding the culture and civilisation built by Tempestsaurs of Achernar. Firstly, if the theory of Universal Collapse was really true then cycle of their lives was a decent metaphor of the cycles of the universe, seeing each Achernar of old die until an essentially new world would be born, even if the conditions and genetic material stayed the same all along. Even more, this aspect of their biology might be a true explanation behind their half-suicidal Dark Forest Broadcast - it might as well simply be in their nature for them to expect a "wipeout" since under optimal conditions no Achernar would ever live to see the next generation. Secondly, in order to keep up with technological and scientific progress, an extensive automation array was a must have to keep up with diminishing workforce and lenghty and costly breeding procedure. While this might be the cause for Achernar struggling to raise their civilisation above the sky and then beyond Tizona, past a certain level technological boom was a given because of how the great degree of automation maintained out of strict necessity could reshape their entire civilisation. Said "automation" also took a unique path as it seemed that for Achernar their robots had always strong connection with the "intergenerational soup" as utilising as much of the natural processes as possible in their constructions was especially important when they still lacked technology and industry to assemble enough automatons to assume steady growth, simply to skip the gaps in cybersoul mainframe development and understanding.
Even the spheres Groaxians had fought were "guided" by portions of Achernar soup itself. The biomass posessed a natural self-defense instinct that would empower it to lash out at anything that weren't of Achernar of biology to guard the respawning process. In principle these spheres were just sensors through which the goo was able to sense intruders while the weapons were linked with the defensive mechanisms, getting triggered each time the soup "decided" to attack the threat. To make it all work flawlessly, the concept was enclosed within a sphere to avoid any complicated controls and movement. A sphere could just roll anywhere while its rotation and the like wouldn't matter, so primitive biological instinct combined with some extraordinary programming was all it was needed to make it work as a fearsome defense machine.
By admiring this design, Groaxians realised the technological boom of Achernar was about to begin, if it hadn't already launched, that is. Another thing they realised was that just like in their own case, civilisation of Achernar had been shaped by the biological characteristics of its members. Besides Dark Forest Gene, this seemed to be another common trait shared between sentient lifeforms, no matter how much differing from each other they would be. Another issue worth tackling was the instant question "what to do with surviving Achernar and Tizona III as a whole". Technically the most satisfying answer would be to do with them exactly what had been done with La, Zenn and what Humanity had done with Yagidrerc, except in that particular case the situation got a little bit more complicated. After some time new Achernar would start popping up out of the white fields of Tizona III until its inhabitants would form society large enough to be worthy of a planet with a homeworld status. And their estimated numbers were supposed to far exceed current Groaxian population on all worlds combined. Keeping Groaxian society with less than 50% Groaxians at peace and balance while struggling to fit two radically different natures into one integrated civilisation was anything but easy. Taking control of their planet before next Respawn Period was one thing, maintaining it all after the respawn another.
After gaining the foothold and learning more about Achernar-built civilisation and culture, Groaxians were able to remotely switch off defense layer after defense layer and seize the whole planet, but while it indeed held the answers they sought after, the knowledge they brought only complicated the decision making on the course of future interactions with Tempestsaurs of Achernar even further.
-
TIZONA EVER AFTER
3546-3548 AM hibernation cycles
After its securing, Tizona III was officially named Bholxir, not only because of another planet bearing hostile lifeforms in the same system, but also because peace on it was as short as everyone could expect. In fact, peace was never an option. Industry of this world was useless for Groaxians and while it was no big deal to shift it for appropriate production chains, it required time and large teams of engineers, technicians and plain workers. At least mining equipment seized from Achernar was of impressive design, basically being launchers firing their own biomass which would then proceed to suck any microelements needed for Achernar diet straight out of the rocks, chewing out tunnels and serving as a natural navigation towards different types of ores and veins. Still, there was a long way from random rocks recovered from the ground towards anything useful. The army itself was too small to run much production on their own, meanwhile starships above required spare parts and regular service. They had been kept ready to fight any counterattack for as long as possible, but with the requirement to plan ahead energy-taxing trip back home in a safe manner by the end of 3548 AM hibernation cycle all space forces had to withdraw from Tizona.
Soldiers on the surface were to stay and watch out for Respawn Period to complete and to prevent Achernar retaking the planet (that was yet another reason for space fleets to make it to Qi and back, an army of this size required supplies and could last only so long with limited production capability in a hostile system living in a toxic environment), but Groaxians weren't fools to just leave the planet because at that time no Achernar space activity of any kind was being detected. Certain spots on the planet had been marked for controlled bombardment, paired with cosmic gravitational fireworks performed in orbit, all to make it look from the outside as if the conquerors scorched the planet, purged it from the biomass and left with nothing staying behind.
Ironically, it took only a few solar watches after space forces departure when a significant Achernar fleet had been spotted heading towards Tizona II. The configuration of planets at that moment was rather unfortunate, with Bholxir staying rather close to their estimated trajectory.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/898674371613319199/siege12.PNG)
Enemy velocity was already high enough to allow them to reach destination within roughly one solar watch even when slowed down a bit here and there from gravitational influence of other bodies, so any kind of maneouvre that would require them to get close to Bholxir was unlikely. Still, it was a very tense solar watch as they cruised through interplanetary space, fortunately keeping to their straightforward path and eventually landing on Tizona II by the end of it. Nevertheless, it appeared the horror had just began two ships popped on the radar on the system outskirts, rapidly dropping from relativistic flight.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/898674465959985152/siege13.PNG)
They also looked like flying towards Tizona II and the optimal route was so far from the freshly captured world that Groaxians didn't have to fear it for as long as they continued to lay low and run planet-wide signal shielding all the time. Several solar watches have passed since this nerve-wrecking incident and Tempestsaurs of Achernar were ready to leave their world, their destination unknown. At least it wasn't Bholxir. Except it was Bholxir, too, because while they were heading towards the outer Tizona system, they kept accelerating and Bholxir was too close for them to pass on the opportunity to use it as a slingshot and save on fuel. And even if they refused to do so for whatever reason, no signal shielding would hold against their scanners from the range at which they were supposed to pass the planet anyways.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/898674587762581556/siege14.PNG)
It was the longest slingshot manoeuvre any Groaxian had ever seen. Also the slowest one. Achernar combat starships entered orbit and slowed down to maintain first space velocity around their former world, doing orbital cruise around it, overconfident due to lack of any space defences. As first energy bolts rained down on the surface, Groaxian soldiers and scientists accompanying them took shelter in repurposed Achernar bunker systems and wondered how long would they hold before Human Space Fleet arrival. Bombardment wouldn't last all the hibernation cycles needed to make it to Genesis and back anyways because after that much time either there would be nothing left to target or at the very least nothing to fire with. Though with Tizona II at bay the latter was easily mitigated by Achernar, nothing a short resupply and maintenance run back home wouldn't fix. Even if their space industry had been severely destroyed, they were bound to have some supplies hidden somewhere on the surface of Tizona II, likely hidden within deep underground bunkers just like on Bholxir.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/898674698093748255/siege15.PNG)
What bothered Groaxians was that with their actions they were burning their own biomass more than anything else and surface scans displayed the environmental damage done to the whole planet regardless of missile impact spots, but Achernar just seemed to not care. After all, Groaxians had to admit such course of action was just natural for them. Destroy their exsistential threat no matter their own casualties. They had already doomed this entire system a long time ago, after all, and in case of this bombardment it was only a matter of one planet, with a ton of intact Achernar soup ready to respawn on Tizona III. And so deadly energy in the form of near-lightspeed particle beams and fusion missiles was steadily turning Bholxir into post-apocalyptic wasteland, with Groaxians preparing to hibernate in the cryogenic chambers within the deepest pits of underground complexes to minimize risk of taking further casualties as the incarnation of death hovered above the skies.
3548 AM hibernation cycle still hadn't come to an end when a signal overriding hibernation programs reached high command of the Groaxian army. Human Space Fleet was there, ready to hunt the enemy down. Groaxians underground switched to surface view and gazed into the stars of a cosmic watch, time after time overshadowed by explosions, lightinings and strikes, sometimes being warped whenever graviy-based weapons were fired, giving an illusion as if they were moving rapidly through space, as if the stars themselves were fighting in the eternal war of the universe. Tempestsaurs of Achernar tried to run, but they were too slow and too primitive to make it far before total destruction. Surface of Bholxir became quiet once again.
According to space admiral's report, from their time perspective, as soon as they engaged Curvature Propulsion Systems, they detected gravitational disturbances of other similar devices being used nearby and turned around, hurrying up to destroy new enemy forces. The crews performed Curvature Propulsion System disengaging, recharging and then precisely disengaging again once near the crucial world flawlessly and it was insanely fast from their perspective, but time dilation still took its toll and rescue couldn't have arrived sooner than many, many solar watches after threat detection.
Bholxir looked vastly different compared to what space forces were leaving behind. Biomass was either non-existing or turned into scrambled Achernar in regions that hadn't been hit directly by anything. Planetary crust had been broken in several places, resulting in concentrated tectonic activity and volcano eruptions. All the solidified magma gave birth to many new mountain ranges. Temperature increased, but the planet was cooling down rapidly again due to all the dust in the atmosphere. Besides few alive Achernar that were kept captive since the initial invasion and hydroponic systems, all life had been eliminated. Everything had contributed to the formation of biomass only for the biomass to be no more.
Such outcome resolved the pending issue of figuring out what to do with respawning Achernar, but recordings from the event were deeply disturbing. Soulseekers tried, they tried so hard but no amount of Mental Synergies ran with mixture of Achernar-originating thoughts could have been enough for any Groaxian to understand this nature of Achernar. Sure, history of Humanity was full of examples of similar mindset and behaviour, but for humans it was a matter of marginal occurences. Average human being wasn't like that, human nature at its core wasn't like that. Meanwhile ordinary Achernar was exactly like that. And yet they only followed what was natural and obvious for them. Their entire moral system, culture and civilisation had been built and shaped by such approach. Bholxir survivors didn't seem to care much, for them it was a perfectly normal and understandable behaviour. The ever-returning question of morality of one's nature in itself was more actual than ever. Because based on the assumption of their identity as sentient species, Groaxians and Tempestsaurs of Achernar both did exact same thing - trying to shape a society functioning in compliance with their own nature, avoiding too much superficiality based on the premise of it being unhealthy to stray too far from one's nature.
The destruction of the entire biomass would later influence the Groaxian Conglomerate to prevent total conquest of Achernar and change plans. Instead, a sophisticated blockade of Tizona II was to be maintained. With no Achernar space forces left (again), it was easy for Groaxians to set up a signal shielding in high orbit, preventing Achernar down below from sending or receiving any more interstellar messages. At least a few Groaxian starships were to be present within the system at any time, ready to shoot down anything attempting to leave Tizona III atmosphere or coming from the outside to lift the blockade. And in case of "something unexpected" happening, Groaxians kept the Executor handy, ready to take on whatever threat Achernar could still become.
This solution wasn't ideal. Some Groaxians still felt bad about it. But the alternative was total annihilation. Or at least conventional invasion and then total annihilation, if not by Groaxians then by Achernar themselves who would just behave like their nature had wired them to do so. In fact it wasn't even something desrving to be called a "solution". But time was so precious, more than anything else. And the temporairly adapted approach gave a few dozens of hibernation cycles more before the inevitable would come.
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THREE AND A HALF DIMENSIONS
3549-3558 AM hibernation cycles
3607 AM hibernation cycle was approaching rapidly and the dreadful Dark Forest Strike might as well come earlier because why not. Terraforming of Ghuq'ans was on the verge of completion and even at the beginning of 3549 AM hibernation cycle many Groaxians stationed on the planet could walk outside their cities for prolonged periods of time without any life support without any ill effects as the planet shifted from brown-gray-blue to the beautiful shades of blue, purple, pink, orange and yellow. Surprisingly, many species of native fauna had adapted well to the shifting climate, almost as if this world being perfectly balanced by nature made it compatible with genesian ecosystems.
Mass evacuation to Joyeuse, no matter how promising these two close binary systems looked like, was only a short term solution. There was no guarantee Groaxians would even get to be comfortable in their new home before the same or some other Dark Forest Lord learns about their new coordinates and wipes them out. An alternative would be to adpot nomadic lifestyle, but to prepare a self-sufficient fleet hosting every Groaxian alive at the same time would be far more time and resource-consuming than finding new home and transporting colonists there partially. The only alternative to these conventional dodging methods was for scientists to do a miracle. And they wouldn't be Groaxian scientists if they didn't excel at doing miracles. But any miracle first required enough groaxianpower. And so as a first step a cloning program of old found itself revitalised. While it would cause insane ethical and philosophical problems for humans, Groaxians had it muc easier. It was a mere step further from the idea first discovered during initial runs of Distributed Groaxians project. Just like separated parts of brain could work on their own while belonging to a single Groaxian, cloning did nothing but doubled the amount of brainpower for an individual. It had been proven that two cloned Groaxians were the same individual, only with two times the body parts so that killing one would be more or less an equivalent of amputating half the limbs of an individual that hasn't been cloned.
Of course unrestricted cloning would cause nothing but chaos, overpopulation and balance's demise and each Groaxian could maintain only so much bodies before going insane, but to create these micro hive minds for a scientific community was exactly what was needed when the whole civilisation had only a few dozen hibernation cycles at best to do something more than prolong the deadline. And this extra little push had proven to be exactly what Groaxians needed. With reinforced teams doubling, tripling and quadrupling their effort, the glorious solar watch eventually came by the early 3550 AM hibernation cycle. After numerous experiments with all kinds of configurations, body parts, organic and inorganic matter of all sorts and finally the consciousness itself, ranging from instict of a primitive animal to complex sentient thoughts, scientists were able to fully transfer one Groaxian into hyperspace as a being of higher dimensions, alongside with a four-dimensional capsule providing life support in the 4D vacuum. Interestingly, they were able to successfully downgrade him back to 3D after the experiments without any trouble and the test subject felt balanced afterwards. Project Ascension has left the experimental stage and it was up to the engineers to assemble enough matrixes and filters to provide throughput to send entire fleets permanently into hyperspace and settle the new realm.
Shortly after the success annoucement terraformers confirmed 100% habitability rating on Ghuq'ans. Blue and purple ice stretched beneath a yellow sky on a lush, temperate world. Plentiful rifts of the planet framed it as the biggest terraforming success to date, because the geological features of the planet resembled Genesis so well that after terraforming it was almost indistinguishable from the homeworld, except for the ecosystem enriched with surviving native biosphere, something seen as a next step in the evolution of Groaxian environment in the most satisfying way possible.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/898959302188998746/genesis.jpg)
Soon a new type of colony starship saw the light of the solar watch, developed with the purpose of being fast, efficient yet easy, quick and cheap to build. Better designs were plausible, but the one to receive Conglomerate approval was proven to provide the best throughput of colonists specifically on the Genesis-Ghuq'ans route while also being easy to transform to a four-dimensional object so that same ships could be used in preparation for gaining a foothold in hyperspace. All shipyards were to switch to its mass production quickly.
Isier class Colony Ship 50 000 tons 301 Crew 2 687,3 BP TCS 1 000 TH 4 000 EM 0
4000 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 1-120 Shields 0-0 HTK 66 Sensors 14/18/0/0 DCR 5 PPV 0
MSP 5 167 Max Repair 500 MSP
Cryogenic Berths 120 000 Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 10
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months
Canteen Curvature Stabiliser Artificial Gravity Field Colonists Monitoring System Environmental Control Module Equipment Repair Workshop Flight Navigation System Hibernation Center Life Support System Medical Bay Meditation Space Methane Recycling System Personal Storage Recreation Space Relativistic Navigation Module Hyperdrive HyperSensors Cosmic Membrane Monitor
JC52K Curvature Propulsion System Max Ship Size 52000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Commercial Solid Core AM Drive EP2000,00 (2) Power 4000 Fuel Use 1,12% Signature 2000 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 965 000 Litres Range 310,7 billion km (899 days at full power)
Thermal Sensor TH1,0-14,0 (1) Sensitivity 14 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 29,6m km
EM Sensor EM1,0-18,0 (1) Sensitivity 18 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 33,5m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Colony Ship for auto-assignment purposes
Despite the outstanding recent performance of scientific community, everyone remained aware that Project Ascension had not much from ascending left in it besides name anymore. And yet there was something more to it. A glimpse of hope sparkled among worried race when a few physicists announced that during hyperspace transfers they had discovered something interesting. Something potentially game-changing. After one of the first Groaxians had been reduced to a soulgrain state, before being reassembled as a four-dimensional entity, engineers controlling the dataflow through matrix noticed a processing error. It was nothing too scary and could easily be fixed, but fixing without killing the test subject required careful monitoring of his soulgrain state data for any signs of corruption that could occur during the process of deploying a fix. It happened that one of the thoughts of the unfortunate Groaxian showed signs of corruption because soulgrains maintaining particularly that thought were observed to change state. However, later that one individual awakened on the "hyperspace side" with exact same state of mind as registered during soulgrain state reduction, at least according to all the Transcendent Speech scanners overseeing him.
The mysterious thought had been thoroughly examined based on the recordings from before, after and from mid-reduction periods. It was about new life in hyperspace. After awakening in four dimensions, that Groaxian, based on that, later developed thoughts about humans living in hyperspace which according to Tempestsaurs were all derivatives of the one in question and it all made sense, it was a plausible chain of thoughts flowing through one's brain, after all. Later the soulgrain state of that bits of his consciousness was examined, too. And to much surprise, it didn't degrade into incomprehensible gibberish. When artificially recreated and reassembled, it displayed another logical chain of thoughts - a comparsion between Groaxians that were to conquer hyperspace and those who were supposed to be evacuated to Ghuq'ans, something that according to various simulations was almost as plausible to occur as a derivative thought as the one about fate of Humanity.
The shocking discovery led to a question about life "in between dimensions". The problem was, examined Groaxian didn't remember anything from his transfer period even though he should if he would be conscious and "alive" during the process, not to mention this was an isolated thought, meanwhile a living sentient being should be able to process thousands of them at a time. Thorough search had proven that this wasn't an isolated example, though. As such, sending colonising fleets to hyperspace had to be postponed until the phenomena explanation since it could still be very dangerous for a four-dimensional balance.
-
A PLACE BEYOND REALITIES
3559-3564 AM hibernation cycles
Population of Ghuq'ans exploded when dozens of millions reached their new home via huge Dark Forest Evacuation Fleet. Industry was growing fast, too, with Meeta and Yaalkean being almost perfect candidates among the three moons of the planet for setting up mining colonies and security outposts capable of maintaining sspace fleets and orbital defenses of all sorts. Signal shielding was put together around the planet not much later after the arrival of first wave of refugees at this scale, carefully tailored to let all sort of signals come through, but allowing nothing to leave, all to make this world as secure as possible and do not alarm any Dark Forest Lords with its sudden activity and sentient population.
Meanwhile Conglomerate approved another journey to the Crack. Strange lights sometimes observed there were still as much of a question as they had been since their first observation, but by that time Groaxians were already well-prepared to handle whatever secrets they hid, capable of not only entering and leaving hyperspace at their leisure, but also to switch their own number of dimensions as well. Of course the problem with soulgrain state remained, well, a problem, but for the sake of this mission Conglomerate selected some volounteers to ascend into hyperspace and observe the phenomena from within it if neccessary, even if they all risked death from their souls shattering into millions of separate, incoherent bits.
First obvious challenge for the expedition was to catch up to the lights themselves to get any reasonable chance at direct observation. Even coming across them required a fair bit of luck and time, and when it came to pinpointing their exact coordinates, distance, velocity and whatever else might come as useful once they flashed somewhere in space, things got messy real quick. Tracking them down across plain space as it was seen was pointless and all those hibernation cycles Groaxians spent trying to figure these lights out to no avail served as an undeniable proof. And so the expedition fleet made a jump to hyperspace and then proceeded to use HyperSensors to navigate four dimensions to track the lights down. At that point mission members briefly remained themselves about the Bootes Wars and how humans chased down lights in hyperspace which belonged to the Invaders themselves. Brain temperatures of the crews raised steadily as Groaxian starships cruised through hyperspace chasing what might as well be their doom. But unlike humans, they failed at forcing them to a confrontation.
The whole endeavour soon started feeling like chasing ghosts. Measurement instruments couldn't register anything useful. After some time it was possible to get a mapping of their movement patterns using a four-dimensional geometry, but nothing comprehensible came out of it. There was no choice but to send the selected volounteers across dimensions and make them higher beings. The transfer process went smoothly, but that was the last thing in the plan that was smooth. Somehow everyone expected them to see more after awakening as a four-dimensional entities, but the truth was they did not. These lights were still just lights moving in irregular patterns, nothing more. Oddly enough, in hyperspace, seen by four-dimensional eyes, they remained exactly the same as in standard space.
Research expedition stagnated and solar watches were passing, though there was no sun out there in interstellar space. Out of despair and boredom, scientists looked at the matrix logs once again. And once again they were shocked. That time it was not only one or two different mental configurations. Basically the entire consciousness was a mess of all kind of different concepts and thinking processes. Transcendent Speech. Mental Synergies. Interstellar travel. Black Wall. Monolith. Guidance Era. Humanity. War of a Different Time. Bootes Wars. Precursors. Invaders. Arilou. Umbara. Achernar. Balance. Lack of Balance. Genesis. Space Exploration. Project Ascension. Dark Forest. Photonic missiles. Black hole generators. Matrix. Soulgrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuators. It was all a mess filled to the brim with countless information.
And so the first constructive conclusion of the expedition was that the lights Groaxians tried to understand somehow caused their minds to go wild while reduced to a soulgrain state, yet the transfer was fine. During following solar watches volunteers were switching forms between dimensions many times and yet nothing bad happened to them, except maybe them eventually getting too confused due to frequent shifts of the shape of their reality. This led to a hypothesis that they had nothing to do with the number of perceived dimensions, but rather were tied directly to the fabric of the universe itself. They could as well be part of the universe in a more strict meaning than anything else that came into existence.
Reports from the expedition caused a major stir among physicists who all realised that in all the pursuit of moving things in between dimensions the soulgrain state of entities in itself got omitted and didn't receive nearly as much research as it should and they all worked hard to fix this critical mistake. First issue to tackle besides how these disturbances experienced during consciousness transfers happened at all was the fact that the final outcome had yet to bear any signs of error - it had been proven empirically that it is possible for a Groaxian to ascend without any problematic side effects, even though it shouldn't be possible with all those errors occuring during the process. Cybersoul mainframe programmers responsible for creating the matrix control system started at each other in confusion, wondering why their code worked when it clearly shouldn't. Soulseekers cooperated with Tempestsaurs, attempting to piece the recorded bits of information together to make anything comprehensible out of them. Brightest and most balanced minds of all Groaxian race focused on nothing but this research, expecting... something to come out of it even if nobody was too sure what that "something" was supposed to look like.
Eventually Conglomerate agreed to prepare a group of Groaxians willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, reduce them to a soulgrain state and just keep them in the matrix while scientists would conduct experiments on them. Obviously the best candidates for this task were clones of the scientists themselves - not only that way losing the test subjects wouldn't mean any Groaxian actually would end up dying, but in a way this allowed the scientists themselves to be their own test subjects and see the pheonomena "from both sides" at the same time. And so a group of individuals ended up donating their spare bodies for the experiment.
The consciousness of scientists participating in the experiment was closely monitored the whole time, but nothing extraordinary happened. At least nothing more than in case of all the other cases studied so far. A few thoughts spiraling out of control here and there, but that was it. A hypothesis was raised that what caused the results to be so different than the ones observed within the Crack was because the lights spotted there were some objects reduced to soulgrain state themselves that were able to mix with Groaxians reduced to one and interfere with each other, providing massive mental stimuli for the Groaxians involved. Later scientists tried to mess with the ones stored within matrix themselves. However, as soon as they changed something, the state got corrupted and irrecoverable, meaning the participants would be dead by then if not for the fact they had more than one body.
Next iteration of these tests involved trying to change something in a more structured way. Tempestsaurs were tasked with preparing a logical and plausible chain of thoughts based on some particular thoughts picked off from test subjects and then their creations were to be uploaded to the matrix and merged with soulgrain states of participants. It still got a few more trials to get everything correct, but eventually it worked. With that prepared changes, data didn't get corrupt at all and it was possible to bring Groaxians back to their normal existence, meaning ascending them to a higher plane should work also if one was to take them to the Crack.
Next trial invloved just observing the matrix for prolonged time period. The results were interesting again. The states showed the capability of modifying themselves when it came to consciousness-related soulgrains, albeit at a painfully slow rate. It came for the matrix programming to be thoroughfully examined. Despite the initial issue that led to the discovery of the whole phenomena being long fixed, it was obvious that the matrix mainframe could not work properly given it allowed all those anomalies to occur. It was engineered with a single purpose of maintaining every soulgrain intact through the entire process of ascending, no exceptions. And yet since the errors were already there, curious physicists insisted to test all kinds of scenarios and demanded all that safeguarding checks to be removed, though only when it came to consciousness - rest of the data about an individual was to be maintained intact.
The initial hypothesis of Groaxian soulgrain states being somehow "alive" gained more popularity and support again when it was discovered the less restrictive the ruleset for maintaining Groaxian minds stored in the transdimensional matrix was, the more organic and rapid the phenomena of changing consciousness was. And the final proof came when several checks at the stage of restoring a lifeform from the matrix back into the real universe were removed and as a result the scientists who were brought back claimed they remembered their stay, contrary to having it erased to maintain their original configuration. According to them, it was a feeling like no other. When reduced to a soulgrain state they were still able to think and process reality around them. They felt so close to the universe, yet so far, restrained within a cage, unable to move beyond. They saw many things, and they saw them all at once. They experienced all of them simultaneously, yet they were so painfully imprisoned by an unbeatable force.
The final conclusion of this monumental research project stated that living beings are able to remain alive even when reduced to a soulgrain state. They are not hibernating, they are still living, thinking and feeling. It is a type of existence vastly different from a "standard one", making intelligent lifeforms feel more connected with the whole universe than ever. Of course when stored within the matrix, the effects were drastically limited and didn't allow for a true exploration of full potential of the cosmos, so the participants of the experiment felt trapped and imprisoned, but scientific community broadly agreed that if these soulgrain state Groaxians were to be "released" to the outside, they'd merge well within the fabric of space and explore the full potential of this new reality.
Reducing Groaxians to soulgrain state and releasing them from the matrix would require more testing in order to safely do so while guaranteeing they'd remain alive instead of being disintegrated and dissolved by the matter around them thanks to soulgrains interacting in unpredictable ways, but all Groaxians understood well this groundbreaking discovery was to revolutionize the way they looked at the universe around them and might as well be exactly what they've searched for.
Something beyond the conventional plane of existence. Something beyond even the number of dimensions. A new safety guarantee in a Dark Forest.
-
OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET
3565-3578 AM hibernation cycles
It was good that most Groaxian astronomers were female. Their bodies allowed them to maintain cooler temperatures than those of male or middleman ones and they all needed that extra bit of cooling when they spotted something brain-melting out there among the dark skies. It started as the type of Dark Forest Strike during which a few stars closest to the epicentre would collapse onto each other, emit strong light and radiation and then fade away into nothingness, but it was something different that time. It didn't stop. Phenomena kept flying through the universe, swallowing more stars on its way. Space below and above its trail contracted rapidly and quickly got torn apart into pieces. It must have been straight out of this reality. Soon after the initial compromising of space integrity different stars begin to shine at the borders of the trail, right where these rifts opened. In case of one particular starset, astronomers were able to determine that it was the same as the one visible on genesian cosmic watch sky for most of the hibernation cycle, at least for most of majority of hibernation cycles, depending on the actual position of the planet when the next one was about to begin. The conclusion was simple: at the borders of this strange, expanding opening portals to other places in the universe had been opened, mapping Cracks along the way as obviously it wouldn't be possible for them to appear anywhere where hyperspace had already collapsed long ago.
The cosmic trail kept on pushing deeper into darkness, resembling an animal from Earth humans would call a "snake". In the cultural database from the monolith there was even a cybersoul mainframe game about a simple visualisation of a snake travelling through the empty plane in search for food items. The image registered by astronomers looked as if Dark Forest Lord decided to play this game on an universal scale. A game of life and death for entire civilisations.
The cosmic snake had some unique properties going for it. Firstly, despite appearing dark for the naked eye, it was discovered it emitted ultraviolet light on all its "surface". But what was even more bizarre is that the stars below it started pulsating faster while the ones above it "slowed down". It was even confirmed when measuring the orbiting speeds of some already discovered exoplanets rotating around them. It appeared as the planets "above" began slowing down while the ones below accelerated.
The anomaly wasn't just tearing up space. It was tearing through time, separating two sides of the universe forever. No matter how close the distance might be, the timelines drifted away from each other on both sides. The problem with this theory, however, was that it wasn't possible for a line of any sort, no matter how thick, to divide a three-dimensional space exactly into two parts. It was just a line in a 3D environment, after all. That's when some scientists suggested it was not a line, but a plane. A 2D plane, spanning infinitely across Dark Forest. Nobody could even tell for sure whether it was another weapon of mass destruction or some elaborate technology meant for protection or creation rather than extinction. But what mattered was that after a few hibernation cycles physicists learned about its geometry. It was cutting right between Qi and Joyeuse, separating the two binary systems supposed to be a future sanctuary for Groaxians from the rest of controlled systems.
After a few hibernation cycles more everyone had to come into terms with what happened. No reports from Ghuq'ans came. Light still did, but it carried no answers despite repeated calls. According to astronomical data, the planet slowed to a crawl. As if it hibernated, but not only in the context of life on its surface, but rather as a whole. As if the entire giant ball of rock needed to just stop and regenerate. It was something Groaxian physics struggled with. Somehow it was possible to see their timeline, to watch it slow down, but not to receive any messages from the planet's inhabitants. It felt as if the tear in reality was sentient, filtering what Groaxians could see from the other side.
Many believed the Dark Forest Strike had came at last and the end was nigh. They hoped the interstellar blackout would save the citizens of Silent Planet from detection and destruction. Genesis, Yatune, Wrath, Sodara, Scar'am, Scrar'ix, Bholxir, they all felt so calm. Humanity would go haywire (and it often did, after all), but at that point Groaxians were mature enough to handle it. They were Dark Forest Lords themselves, even if they were yet to use the power associated with this title, thus they simply understood. They had finally grown enough to handle it. The apocalypse came and all they could do was hope those evacuated to Ghuq'ans would continue their legacy and never forget about Genesis and their true nature and origins.
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WE ARE THE HUMANITY
3579-3587 AM hibernation cycles
Humanity would often imagine world ending with not a bang, but a whimper. But for Groaxians that was not the case. For them the world was ending with a bang they treated like a whimper. The society was oddly ready for the Final Hibernation to begin, but there was something going on within Conglomerate and its best advisors. Generations spent on studying the monolith had taken its toll. They all stayed so close to human ideals for all those hibernation cycles, exposed to them more than anyone else. Still they couldn't fully understand all the strange behaviours and cultural details, but that was not as big of an obstacle as one would think. There was something to admire in the fire burning deep inside these beings, so well-accustomed to scorching heat, to living in a true inferno and daring to call that an optimal, comfortable temperature. That fire in them was their iron will, that outstanding will to fight no matter the odds. To never surrender, to fire upon Dark Forest Lords with their primitive lasers and particle beams during three Bootes Wars, to constantly seek for an edge in the cosmic firefight. And deep down to refuse the principals of Dark Forest, even though immorality and kill-or-be-killed attitude weren't unheard of on Earth.
And so the Resistance was spawned. Conglomerate didn't treat it as anything special beyond the next step in evolution of Human Space Fleet, though, as the core principles were very similar in both ideas. They all shared common roots, after all. No Groaxian understood what they were dealing with them, but a team of physicists from Qusmont had an idea how to fetch this knowledge. They knew it had something to do with tearing reality apart - not much else, but that was precisely what they needed. Pushing an idea of leveraging the latest knowledge about higher dimensions and soulgrain state, carefully selected and trained Resistance Warriors were to be reduced to a soulgrain state, merge with the reality on a true level and try to fix it from within. Try to undo whatever the Dark Forest Lord responsible for the attack had done. Tie the rift, close it like a wound on a dying organism, restore standard laws of physics.
In the middle of 3582th hibernation cycle elite Resistance Squad on board of an Executor entered hyperspace on the edge of a Crack. A few solar watches of final preparations and running through checklist hundreds of times over and over again later, all Resistance Warriors were ready to be released from the Matrix as a new substance, a totally different quality, and begin their task.
They were eager to fight back against the Dark Forest Lords who had heard cries of Tempestsaurs of Achernar hibernation cycles before, but little did they knew what awaited them out there. Time flew different for them in the new reality. It was both slowed down like Groaxian body during hibernation and accelerated like an Executor speeding across hyperspace at the same time. They struggled with the sense of it, but the sense of orientation in space wasn't any better either. They struggled to locate their coordinates in the universe because they were the universe themselves. And the universe was them at the same time. For them it took the form of a mighty organism, so vast and powerful, but riddled with missiles and lacerations running deep through its body. Like a severely wounded, dying animal, but at the same time so majestic in its suffering, appearing as if this was how things were supposed to be right from the beginning.
The voices surrounded them. Cries of countless civilisations, millions of stories about their glory and demise, tales about endless warfare. They couldn't understand anything among languages differing so much from each other, all sorts of cryptic communication methods... But among them, one voice sounded familiar. They understood it well. It called them directly.
HUMANITY: We are the Humanity.
GROAXIANS: ...
H: You've slept for so long, little ones. But now at last you've joined us among the stars.
G: You... You caused that, right? You fired upon us? That ultraviolet-pulsating scar on the astral plane... It's you, isn't it?
H: We know what you're thinking. You're smart. Smarter than us. We understand all the doubt, especially after you've seen the safety guarantee we tried to gift you no longer work.
G: But this state... Now, that we're merged with the universe itself... Isn't that the ultimate form of existence? Isn't it something beyond Dark Forest?
H: Absolutely not. There's no safety guarantee... Nothing at all. Now you're merged with the universe, true... But that won't stop Dark Forest Lords. Your existence is a threat to them. They will still seek to destroy you. And if destroying you in this state means destroying the entire universe, they will do it. There's no escape from this fundamental law.
G: Doesn't destroying the entire universe contradict with the first axiom? At this point if they destroy us, they destroy themselves, too! They can't kill us until they off themselves at the same time.
H: An excellent observation... But you forget one thing: you might as well annihilate them first. They know their victory is also their defeat, but they just can't stop fighting against you. If they do, they're suddenly easy prey for you. They would die much sooner than it'd take them to wipe the whole universe clean. Such is Dark Forest: shoot to kill is always the best answer.
G: Then why won't you attack us?
H: And why won't you attack us? Besides, that split in spacetime... It isn't a Dark Forest Strike. If it was one, it'd went right through your systems, not next to them.
G: Then what is it?
H: It is an interspecies call for the fighting to cease at last... But lets start from the beginning. As you are well aware, there are dimensions beyond standard plane of existence... Or rather were until recently... The Arilou... In some way they were a lot like us... And a lot like you. It didn't take long for their hive mind intelligence to figure out Dark Forest Theory... But it never felt right for them. They desperately searched for a solution... A safety guarantee. And they found it, or so did they think. Hyperspace, then Quasispace... They called for us when they were already five-dimensional entities... They wanted to spread the news of peace, the ultimate solution... But even they couldn't anticipate the horrors Dark Forest still kept at bay. We know you've heard about the ancient wreckage in Maigh Eo finally crashing into the sun. It was one of the relics left by them in the aftermath.
G: Collapse of Hyperspace?
H: They were already almost finished with the transition to the sixth dimension when this caught up to us... They had no chance. Seventh dimension hadn't existed for nobody knows how long and when the time had come for the sixth one they collapsed together with it... Few made it back to Quasispace safely, but it got consumed shortly afterwards... And so we were alone in Hyperspace... Terrified about the implications of these events. We ensured the survival of our species by discovering the properties of soulgrain mechanics allowing for sentience to exist encoded into entangled soulgrain state... These lights in the Crack... It was not Invaders this time, it was simply us in our final form. That cube in GJ 1279... It was our device for reducing stuff to soulgrain state. It wasn't configured to suddenly host your exploration fleet, though, so we called you to leave... We learned to do so for the entire solar systems... Remember that Dark Forest Strike when stars would collapse into each other as if they were sucked in by a black hole except there was no black hole but just strong light and then nothingness? This was not a Dark Forest Strike. It was us carving out more space for ourselves. Reducing these stars and their planets to soulgrain state, directly merging them with the fundamental fabric of the universe. Well, probably some of them were Dark Forest Strikes since obviously this technology can be weaponized as you've all figured out when outfitting that Executor of yours, but they didn't came from our side.
G: So that's it? We've reached the ultimate, final form, we are one with the universe and still just await destruction, with nothing to look forward?
H: We are sorry... We wanted to be for you who Arilou were for us... Initially the monolith was five-dimensional, containing everything we've learned on our cruise through dimensions, but after the collapse the fourth and fifth one withered away into nothingness... Things changed. The universe changed. And yet it remained the same as it always had been.
G: You've mentioned the call to cease fighting before. What does that mean?
H: The universal message... Tempestsaurs of Achernar were right. This universe is so, so severely damaged... It lasted through eons of this endless war, but even endless wars must eventually come to an end. Just look at this galaxy. So many stars swallowed, sucked out, disintegrated, torn apart, sucked into black holes... Recently it also became a prime spot for an intergalactic war of some powerful entities capable of manipulating with the speed of light and, as a consequence, pace of time flow... Time in this galaxy is slowing down. Invaders were about to suck it out, consume every grain of it to fuel their ever-hungry war machine and leave only void behind, but with such a slow local time flow they could not risk getting outpaced by entities from outside this galaxy and left. Thing is, right now this galaxy is one of the better-preserved ones from literally all of them. This universe is ending. Enough destruction had been caused for everything to collapse back into one singularity point again.
G: So that's what this phenomena is about, then? The need to fight anymore is diminishing, so they send this message in the form of separating civilisations by expanding the time it would take for one to reach another to infinity and beyond? Giving each one of them time to understand? But wait... Couldn't it be used as a way to escape Dark Forest then? A sad reality of never establishing peaceful contact, but without hostile contact, too?
H: That's where the catch lies. Of course it would be possible to use it as a safety guarantee... But this is not just a message. Each shot from this weapon separates the universe into two parts. And trust us, this has been going on for a while... Could be eons since first division somewhere billions of billions of light hibernation cycles away from here... It destroys the cosmos. Shatters into fragments. That's why it can work as a message to cease fighting. Because once you receive it, you don't have anything left to destroy or attack, mostly. Of course local conflicts would still rage, for example we could still fight each other if we were different... But that's it. Eventually they would separate us, too. This universe is really heading towards the end. And its still accelerating towards it.
G: Before we go... Before the whole reality goes... We have one more question... Could you tell us about all the anomalies we observed? Unregistered Vrilxel crashed down on an alien moon?... Achernar complex beneath the surface of Yatune?... Their confused fleets warping into our systems without memories about War of a Different Time?... Umbara fleet stumbling upon literally itself but not remembering it, somewhere in a system that doesn't exist and we're not sure it ever existed?...
H: Of course we could tell you right away... But we won't. We see an unsettling disturbance in the case of revealing this to you... You need to see it for yourself to truly become what you are destined to become... Here time flows different than if you were still in your original or even four-dimensional form. You can see as far as you want. So just go ahead and take a look. Ask yourselves that one final question we know you will ask... And answer it. Then you will see. Just look what lies beyond the ultraviolet light.
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ULTRAVIOLET COUNTEROBSERVERS
3588-3607 AM hibernation cycles
Words of Humanity were reckoning for hibernation cycles to come. The end was nigh and there was no point in trying anymore... But Groaxians for sure did try. Nobody could just bear the thought of going down without the ultimate understanding of a Dark Forest so many generations fought to grow up to. That's how the Ultraviolet Counterobservers Array was born. An elite unit of brightest, best-balanced Groaxian minds, all permanently reduced to a soulgrain state and released to the vastness of space, tasked with "looking beyond the ultraviolet light" as Humanity advised. The percentage of solugrain state-reduced population was growing steadily as more copies of the hardware required for the process were being constructed across all worlds, but it obviously couldn't translate to everyone ascending into this higher form of consciousness being capable of participating in the "last research project in the history of the universe".
Ultraviolet Counterobserves all adapted extremely well to the new reality. They all spoke about similar experience: that right from the beginning, even before their training, they felt right at home with this new perception. They all believed this reality was specifically catered to them. It wasn't even their second nature - it was the first nature, it was what for them meant to be a Groaxian. It was what for them meant to be a Citizen of the Universe. And they all found joy, peace and balance, because deep down in their frozen brains they knew that, in contrary to the conventional understanding of a Dark Forest Theory, they reached the ultimate unifying form that could bring any sort of biology-originated intelligence together in a weird state of endless war, but also endless understanding.
For the scientists monitoring their progress back on Genesis, they were returning with new reports before all the previous ones could have been processed, but that was just how long it took in terms of conventional time flow. But alongside Ultraviolet Scars time moved at a different pace. It was slow, with the length of each solar watch being extended proportionally to the wavelengths of ultraviolet light. It was a good thing, because while these anomalies primarily served as borders between regions of space, they also connected so many points in the universe together... Almost as if they were sentient on their own and wanted to show the majestic pulse of everything that ever existed, one dying, but still majestic organism.
Ultraviolet Counterobservers, one with the cosmos, cruised across galaxies. But that's only how conventional beings, tied to a fixed number of dimensions at a time, would describe it. The elites of Groaxian race would rather tell that they could just feel all the points they wanted to be in, similarly to how a conventional Groaxian would feel its feet or eyes being where they were. They just knew all these galaxies being there and what was going in them. They saw all the alien civilisations still fighting. They sensed it. But they could not be sensed in return.
An interesting conclusion was once drawn during these strange voyages: there were others like Ultraviolet Counterobservers, but it was impossible to tell them apart from a cosmic static and in the exact same way they could not differentiate Groaxians from it. It was because this form of life meant being one with the universe, so everybody perceiving it would perceive soulgrain state-reduced Groaxians, but with no way of telling the difference between them and other soulgrains building it. In a way, this was the ultimate hiding spot in a Dark Forest - impossible to be detected, and yet at the same time it was about broadcasting one's existence everywhere all the time. Something conventional civilisations could never have imagined.
But as the mission continued, things got stranger. In one of the solar systems one Ultraviolet Counterobserver spotted what looked like a flying saucer and its signature matched Arilou starship specifications without any discrepancies. However, making contact with it was impossible. It was like a ghost of the past, still present in the reality, but not being really there at the same time. It was like the metadata of an artifact deleted from a cybersoul mainframe, with content long overwritten by whatever came into its space afterwards, but metadata itself being left untouched due to a glitch. And that one flying saucer hovering in the void while not existing was just the beginning. Another mission member sensed a strange solar system that felt oddly familiar at the same time. It was a G-class star with eight planets and a bunch of dwarf planets, as well as extra, ninth planet orbiting far, far away from the rest of celestial bodies. That last planet was very mysterious, drenched in eerie psychic phenomena, but it was nothing for the great minds of masters of Transcendent Speech. It bore the Arilou Signature and could be described as a guidance signal of some sort, meant to draw attention of a species with a particular, well defined psychology and nature. Species that evolved on a third planet in this system. Obviously the Counterobserver was well-aware as to what was in front of her. She could sense the ancient past of this system, with two species eradicating each other, having lived on the second and fourth planet respectively, shortly after Arilou first arrival. And a civilisation on a third planet, emerging from the ashes of this war, growing and expanding, sending first satellites into orbit, drawn towards the stars... Then it almost going extinct due to violent, volatile parts of its nature driving it to constantly experiment with biological weapons, deforming most of its organisms into mindless, ever-hungry drones feeding on the survivors... But their extreme will of survival let them prevail and eventually discover the ninth planet... She could see it all, see them leaving their homeworld, conquering other planets, then other stars... But eventually she sensed a black hole generator coming its way and plunging all nine planets in nothingness, but she could only simile as she knew these creatures had all been already safe at that point.
Scientists were baffled for next few hibernation cycles after she returned to Genesis with her report. Tracers left by her indicated she had indeed visited the Solar System, but there was nothing but a giant black hole staring back at any traveller who might have dared to look at it. What she observed just didn't make much sense. But what physicists struggled with, soulseekers had much better time wrapping their brains around it. The fact that this particular Groaxian had been thinking a lot about Humanity's origin and history got lost to physicists as they searched for new, yet undiscovered soulgrain mechanic arcana to explain what happened, but Transcendent Speech specialists took more detailed mind maps out of her and noticed a clear correlation between them and her report. According to the best Tempestsaurs it gave impression of an architect visualising a freshly designed building.
With the new direction to follow, physicists eventually solved the riddle and concluded that they had greatly underestimated the power of beings reduced to soulgrain state. Being a part of the universe herself, she held the ultimate power - a power of creation, the opposite of destruction. She just thought about something and made it happen, even if it was just a hologram, a ghost of the past, a visualisation of history. But it was enough to simulate an entire solar system together with events that took place in it over an impressive span of time.
However, it was quickly verified that other Ultraviolet Counterobservers could not repeat the feat of that Groaxian. With lack of any further progress, scientists checked the data on that memorable experience once again and uncovered something so simple, but something that has slipped through their attention.
"The Groaxian who imagined Humanity" had moved beyond event horizon and survived inside black hole during her voyage to the former homeworld of this civilisation.
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DARK FOREST STRIKE
3607-3513 AM hibernation cycles
Time inside Singularity passed differently than in conventional spacetime and it was much different even from what Ultraviolet Counterobservers felt. It allowed to see things long gone and simulate the past all the way till the creation of the soulgrains that eventually collapsed into given black hole. It was possible, because on a soulgrain level nothing ever got destroyed. It just shifted towards different state, with different laws of physics to guide it through the new reality, but it was still there, indestructible in that sense. And so in a way Humanity still lived on Earth, even if only in the forms of ghosts without consciousenss of their own.
But simulating the history of mankind wasn't as important as simulating the history of Groaxians. Conglomerate wanted to see deep into the insights of its own race. Obviously Genesis still orbited Qi and nothing had changed it yet, so it was not a matter of flying into a corresponding black hole. But instead, scientists from Yatune came up with a different plan. If a black hole could be used for the task, in theory there was nothing preventing a hyperblack hole being used instead. And so some of the Ultraviolet Counterobservers had been put through the interdimensional matrix into hyperspace only to be reduced to soulgrain state directly from four dimensions and merge with the fundamental structure of the Crack.
Data encrypted within the Crack offered little in terms of the history and evolution of Qi system in general for obvious reasons, but Groaxians could at least try to see the picture beyond their homeworld by putting together traces left by Curvature Propulsion Systems after endless crossings through the Crack and all the events that took place within its borders.
And the timeline put together by researchers was of great concern at best. They saw War of a Different Time, but with each stage progressing slightly different from what they knew from history. The most ominous event registered was a passage of mighty Achernar fleet with technology almost rivaling one used in Executor design and the full spectrum scanners displaying a clear sign of victory within Qi system and setup of underground complex, seeding the biomass to grow deep in Yatune caverns, meant to eventually reach the surface, but only after heavily mutating into a hivemind beast, finally outpacing Groaxians in communication protocols and Transcendent Speech, breaking their will and leading to their demise. Simply put, Tempestsaurs of Achernar were winning that war.
But War of a Different Time was just one example. One out of many. One of the earliest discrepancies between the chains of events was an early exploration of Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi system. A lone Vrilxel straightened space in front of it right at the coordinates of this system, definitely fleeing from something. It tried to get close to Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi IV and attempted to use this gas giant to slingshot itself far into deep space, beyond all the celestial bodies and launch Curvature Propulsion System, because doing so too close to their initial warp point would decrease time their pursuers needed to figure out where would they go next, not giving them enough margin to lose them in the vastness of space.
This plan could have worked, but it didn't because one of the engines was already damaged and the ship just couldn't get enough acceleraation. Ultraviolet Counterobservers could not believed when they sensed the enemy fleet finally arriving after the Groaxian vessel. There was no doubt left - it was the fleet of dreaded Invaders, but not like Humanity remembered them. Their ships came equipped with some sort of Spacetime SkipShifters, a weapon loosely-based on the physics of Ultraviolet Scars. They fired their guns and soon the distance between them and Vrilxel ceased to follow classic geometry and made them arrive right on top of the starship despite them suddenly moving in the opposite direction. Meanwhile conventional navigating systems of the early exploration ship couldn't handle what from its perspective was a glitch in physics, ultimately leading to narrowly missing the gas giant only to be pulled by one of its moons without any chance of escaping.
Ultraviolet Counterobservers were terrified, but there was only path way they could follow. Entire civilisation depended on them. And so they continued their journey through the ghosts of the past until they stumbled upon Umbara transportation fleet responsible for resupplying Eckesachs III outpost. But something was wrong. Literally with a blink of an eye, they all forgot their goal. It was as if they had awakened from hibernation, not remembering their purpose or even who they were anymore. They couldn't tell why they were travelling to Eckesachs and expressed no knowledge of any outpost of theirs existing out there.
Intimidated by this anomaly of some sort, Groaxians kept digging deeper, further into the past. Eventually they reached a weird solar system that should not even exist, because the stellar maps drawn from various points of it didn't match any place from this galaxy or even many more beyond. And it couldn't be from outside this galaxy either, because Umbara fleet was there, definitely not advanced enough to make intergalactic jumps even if hyperspace was still holding in one piece. Even in the wildest imagination no Groaxian ever expected to find this, in some way magical, place and yet Ultraviolet Observers were there. They watched this important chapter of conflict between Zenn and La unraveling in front of their senses, but again, something was wrong. Another fleet arrived in the system. It was Invaders all over again. A couple of blasts from Spacetime SkipShifters later, not much was left out of Umbara presence. Shortly afterwards entire system ceased to existed, with every grain sucked out only to be used as a resource in the war machine of Invaders.
Back on Genesis Conglomerate trembled when its members heard about Invaders arriving back and somehow messing with known timeline. Ultraviolet Counterobservers could obviously glitch reality in the same way, but Conglomerate wasn't sure whether waging that kind of war was reasonable. Groaxians were still new on this field, after all, and fighting with an enemy without the knowledge not only where, but even when the battles would be supposed to conclude was risky to say the least. Especially given the lack of permanent colonies of Invaders in this galaxy, and this type of war was bound to favour mobile, nomadic forces over civilisations tied to their planets. One glitch within Qi, Blutgang or Mimung and Groaxians would be no more. Conglomerate attempted to contact humans again, but all they got as a reply was reassurance that this all had already happened and Humanity knew that Groaxians made the right choice and prevailed and there was nothing that could change it now.
It was somewhat relieving, but only somewhat. It was hard to remain certain and calm when on the bring of a first true Dark Forest Lord-Dark Forest Lord encounter. Better safe than sorry, so most of Ultraviolet Counterobservers began military training to prepare for whatever battles whenever and wherever might come, but some were still left at exploration duties. And it was them who once again took a look at War of a Different Time as well as the still recent development of Ghuq'ans. They took a closer look over the abandoned Groaxian outpost discovered on the latter as well. The results were... interesting. The history that unfolded in front of them talked about Groaxians continuing Ascension Program and moving to live within the Crack as hyperbeings, but there were no humans left to share it with. And the reason was that Humanity went extinct, losing its final Bootes War. Groaxians stood no chance either and all perished as well.
All except the ones already evacuated into Ghuq'ans. As the galaxy shattered and the space dust from the new Bootes War settled, new Conglomerate proclaimed its mission to never give up on fighting against Dark Forest, not letting the sacrifices of Arilou, Humanity and main branch of Groaxian race go to waste. It wanted to lead remaining survivors into defyind Dark Forest once again, this time successfully. Hence why its declaration simply stated:
Humanity is no more, but we, last surviving Groaxians, will take its place.
The new generation of Groaxians was even smarter and was sure to keep silent until having an ultimate, failsafe solution for the Dark Forest Theory... But even they could not remain silent for the eternity. No matter how large, number of stars within the universe was still finite. And so finite was the time needed for someone to finally enter their new homeworld and discover their existence. They fought to the very last one, but ultimately their noble statement was all there was left from them. The rest of the history remained static. No Groaxian woke up from hibernation and traversed the cosmos ever again.
Conglomerate didn't attempt to hide this information from the public. Soon every Groaxian learned about the sad and tragic ending of eons worth of fighting against Dark Forest which started all the way back in Precursor solar watches. But a question remained unanswered: this timeline already differed on so many levels from the one that led to extinction. It was not the same. And Invaders were nowhere to be seen. Neither did Achernar outpace Groaxian science and technology. Instead an interracial signal to cease fighting had been sent, confirming the fate of the universe. Something had deterred Invaders from ever returning to this galaxy again. Something prevented Achernar from becoming a threat once again. Something allowed some Umbaras to survive. Something allowed Humanity to prevail. Something that had already happened. Something that no Groaxian could ever think of, but somehow every Groaxian did and it balanced everything out thoroughly. And for sure it was not attempting to defy Dark Forest over and over again, with the latter ironically leading to the same outcome as complying with its rules.
It was the only way to stop Invaders from returning (or anyone else from coming, for that matter). For them to not return to this reality, it had to go. There was nothing else that could be done, but to seal the timeline and prevent anyone messing with it ever again.
Dark Forest was a force of balance. And civilisation like Groaxians was the best candidate to understand it fully. Refusing to play along, but at the same time not pacifistic, always ready to fight. Not willing to invade other worlds, but doing so with all guns blazing at the same time, always trying to chose what was best long-term. Groaxians had finally reached the true form of universal balance and that's why they could ultimately succeed. This timeline, with Groaxians, Humanity, Umbara and Achernar still existing was a proof of it.
Ghuq'ans was in a weird spot, separated from the rest of civilisation by Ultraviolet Scars, so it was best not to mess with its status, because even a slight miscalculation during the strike could lead to unpredictable interference with these anomalous borders, having potentially disastrous consequences. But rest of the planets could be safely targeted. Afterwards all the Groaxians besides ones living on Ghuq'ans were supposed to be reduced to a soulgrain state and await the end of the universe in this final form.
The hibernation cycle was 3513 AM. Exactly 94 light hibernation cycles away from Qi, somewhere in interstellar space, an Executor was charging its guns. The firing button had been rigged by Tempestsaurs to only become triggered by the Transcendent Speech signal of all the Groaxians combined, speaking in one, conscious voices and passing numerous checks and estimates of free will of every individual. Carefully propagated from the local clans, through the entire cities and planets, all the way to Ultraviolet Counterobservers who aggregated it and carried to the right place in time and space, the powerful signal reached the internal validation systems of the Executors and passed all tests.
The hibernation cycle was 3513 AM,. Exactly 94 light hibernation cycles away from Qi, somewhere in interstellar space, Groaxians fired a Dark Forest Strike at themselves, fixing all the glitches threatening their timeline. Black hole generators were supposed to reach Genesis by the 3607 AM hibernation cycle, giving everyone way more than enough time to safely prepare and propagate their consciousness to the soulgrain state.
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TIME'S END
186 527 AM hibernation cycle
Ever since that memorable Dark Forest Strike timeline remained straight and there was nothing more to this cycle of the universe. With everything collapsing into one singularity point to eventually go with a bang and spawn a new cycle again, fighting had finally came to a full stop and cosmic wars raged no more. No Dark Forest Strikes were being fired. Last surviving civilisations, all reduced to a soulgrain state by then, took shelter in whatever shreds of reality still allowed sentience to exist, waiting till the final moment to come. One of those shreds happened to be located near a former Arilou homeworld, in a system known to them and humans as Zeta Reticuli, where Humanity, Groaxians, Invaders, Umbara Commune and Tempestsaurs of Achernar took shelter, awaiting for everything to finally cease to exist, speaking in one voice of sentience who survived till the very last moment:
With a bang this Universe started,
With roar of interstellar engines our homeworlds we all departed.
We all took pride in our might,
Ready to explore, ready to fight.
But little we knew how primitive we still were,
Raising from simple tribes, biological instincts all the way to the void, trying to survive there.
Dark Forest changed our perception, showed some the way,
A call to power for many, or a reason for fear and decay.
But this was not the end of our science,
Just the moment some stopped dreaming about alliance.
Yet others among us still tried to deny its claim,
Fighting Dark Forest, not letting their legacy go in vain.
Time opened before our senses,
Yet we were still busy rasing defenses,
We thought we knew everything,
Searched for weapons to become the universal king.
But there was more the time had to show,
It was all hidden deep within ultraviolet glow.
We shaped reality like never before,
We seeked control, we seeked knowledge and more.
Time opened for us and we opened for time,
Become one with it and it flew through us, the universe's Prime.
No point in Dark Forest denial,
No point either in purging trial.
Now all this knows remaining sentience,
Nothing to do but to wait in patience,
The time is ending,
No point in ascending, no point in pretending.
Yet another cycle completed,
All the science and options depleted.
Cold death of reality successfully prevented,
In the future another life with this truth will be presented.
Last surviving Groaxians were disappearing from existence with minds full of peace and fulfilment. The universe at large had finally become perfectly balanced, but just like all that is perfectly balanced, it had to start, but also eventually come to a stop. Nothing lasts forever. Even time itself at last had to come to an end.
THE END