History of Mankind after COVID19 pandemic (conventional start, 1st January 2021)

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

After extensive research of wormholes built by Invaders, scientists are baffled by the abundance of life on the planets discovered within it, but no signs of sentient life detected. Given how the Invaders open fire without a warning, some experts on alien life and intelligence form a hypothesis that this advanced civilisation arrived in Milky Way to purge it from all sentient life and on top of that is capable of doing it without harming non-sentient biosphere or leaving any traces of civilisations existing there before the Invasion.
Photos documenting alien life on these planets quickly spread among humanity. Tensions rise even more as the beauty of non-sentient life discovered radicalises naturalists even more, fuelling their beliefs that Invaders are here to purge the universe from filthy, corrupt intelligent life and leave all those planets for mother nature.
Elite soldiers deployed to protect genetic laboratories after terrorists attempted to plant bombs there to stop humanity from "taking the wrong path of altering their biology". After two weeks of protests 259 rebels were killed and 11503 injuried, while soldiers protecting the labs lost 4 K.I.A. men and further 21 injured. Intel teams investigat how protesters managed to get their hands on 251 LR-3000-A2 laser pistols used in the firefight.
Despite the situation, thanks to additional data from frozen planets hosting life within Invaders' wormholes, researchers manage to achieve first breakthrough. A group of carefully selected candidates had a mixture of genes inserted into their DNA, shifting their comfortable temperature range to between -30C and -50C. This is still nowhere near enough for Epsilon Eridani A-VIII's eight moon or Nibiru, but genetic engineers are on the right track.
12th January 2188, Nibiru terraforming efforts are considered complete as no amount of greenhouse gasses will warm the planet up any more. Surface temperatures stabilise at -210C and heating infrastructure is needed. Extensive research into genetic modifications is the only remaining hope of truly conquering this world. Terraria stations are pulled into Venusian orbit to speed up the largest terraforming project in history.
14th January 2188, 6:31:58, exploration mission taking a routine FTL-flight break in Gliese 526 makes a shocking discovery: A small Void Wormhole appeared in the system which definitely wasn't there the last time someone appeared around the local sun. This one, while much smaller than the behemoth the NN 3009 one has already grown into, is expanding at a steady rate as well. No wormholes were detected in the system so far (well, besides the one linking Milky Way with Bootes Void, obviously), indicating Invaders haven't started building their second network yet (or used another form of FTL travel...). In order to destroy the threat before it grows too large, government pours more and more funding into space plasma weaponry and space interceptor designs utilising it. The project ends up with a success shortly after discovery in Gliese 526 and prototypes of a new squadron tasked with guarding wormhole exists are built:

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Anarchy class Interceptor      4,657 tons       144 Crew       1,237.5 BP       TCS 93    TH 1,125    EM 1,200
12079 km/s    JR 1-50      Armour 4-24       Shields 40-300       HTK 27      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 12
Maint Life 2.57 Years     MSP 966    AFR 173%    IFR 2.4%    1YR 205    5YR 3,070    Max Repair 562.5 MSP
Captain    Control Rating 2   BRG   CIC   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

J6000(1-50) Alcubierre Drive     Max Ship Size 6000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 1

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP1125.00 (1)    Power 1125    Fuel Use 381.84%    Signature 1125    Explosion 30%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 10.1 billion km (9 days at full power)
Theta S40 / R300 Shields (1)     Recharge Time 300 seconds (0.1 per second)

15 cm C6 Plasma Carronade (3)    Range 60,000km     TS: 12,079 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 10,000 km    ROF 5       
Beam Fire Control R262-TS12000 (1)     Max Range: 262,500 km   TS: 12,000 km/s     96 92 89 85 81 77 73 70 66 62
Magnetic Confinement Fusion Reactor R18 (1)     Total Power Output 18.4    Exp 5%

Active Search Sensor AS3-R1 (50%) (1)     GPS 5     Range 3.5m km    MCR 314.7k km    Resolution 1

ECCM-3 (1)         This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

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Devastator class Interceptor      9,292 tons       286 Crew       3,224.9 BP       TCS 186    TH 2,250    EM 1,200
12108 km/s    JR 3-50      Armour 9-39       Shields 40-300       HTK 51      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 30
Maint Life 0.73 Years     MSP 1,016    AFR 691%    IFR 9.6%    1YR 1,393    5YR 20,895    Max Repair 636.9 MSP
Captain    Control Rating 2   BRG   CIC   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

J12000(3-50) Alcubierre Drive     Max Ship Size 12000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP1125.00 (2)    Power 2250    Fuel Use 381.84%    Signature 1125    Explosion 30%
Fuel Capacity 2,000,000 Litres    Range 10.1 billion km (9 days at full power)
Theta S40 / R300 Shields (1)     Recharge Time 300 seconds (0.1 per second)

40 cm C8 Plasma Carronade (1)    Range 400,000km     TS: 12,108 km/s     Power 40-8     RM 10,000 km    ROF 25       
Particle Lance-18-2 (1)    Range 320,000km     TS: 12,108 km/s     Power 55-8    ROF 35       
Beam Fire Control R450-TS12000 (2)     Max Range: 450,000 km   TS: 12,000 km/s     98 96 93 91 89 87 84 82 80 78
Magnetic Confinement Fusion Reactor R18 (1)     Total Power Output 18.4    Exp 5%

Active Search Sensor AS3-R1 (50%) (1)     GPS 5     Range 3.5m km    MCR 314.7k km    Resolution 1

ECCM-3 (2)         This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

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Dragonbreath class Interceptor      9,289 tons       262 Crew       2,395.3 BP       TCS 186    TH 2,250    EM 1,200
12111 km/s    JR 3-50      Armour 9-39       Shields 40-300       HTK 50      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 36
Maint Life 1.01 Years     MSP 961    AFR 690%    IFR 9.6%    1YR 938    5YR 14,067    Max Repair 562.5 MSP
Captain    Control Rating 2   BRG   CIC   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

J12000(3-50) Alcubierre Drive     Max Ship Size 12000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP1125.00 (2)    Power 2250    Fuel Use 381.84%    Signature 1125    Explosion 30%
Fuel Capacity 2,000,000 Litres    Range 10.1 billion km (9 days at full power)
Theta S40 / R300 Shields (1)     Recharge Time 300 seconds (0.1 per second)

40 cm C8 Plasma Carronade (3)    Range 400,000km     TS: 12,111 km/s     Power 40-8     RM 10,000 km    ROF 25       
Beam Fire Control R450-TS12000 (1)     Max Range: 450,000 km   TS: 12,000 km/s     98 96 93 91 89 87 84 82 80 78
Magnetic Confinement Fusion Reactor R24 (1)     Total Power Output 24.1    Exp 5%

Active Search Sensor AS3-R1 (50%) (1)     GPS 5     Range 3.5m km    MCR 314.7k km    Resolution 1

ECCM-3 (1)         This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Thanks to the devices recovered from wreckage after battle of IG 85, engineers gained an invaluable insight into jamming technology used by the Invaders which obscured fire controls of combat ships, making it harder for them to connect to their targets. This allowed humans to design proper hardware and software to filter out the jamming signals, hopefully improving accuracy during future battles. New systems are to be mounted onboard fresh-designed interceptors, which on top of them being deadly at "space equivalent" of point-blank range will hopefully make them more accurate as well. Shipyards at HIP 47650-A II and Alpha Centauri-A II are expected to start mass-producing these ships ASAP.
Strategic and tactical map of explored space receives additional updates to better reflect current situation:





13th April 2188, after accumulating enough psi-capable people on Tau Ceti-A IV, they managed to form a stable link with the devices in ancient complex, allowing them to communicate with it and unseal the closed part. Interiors of the so-far closed part were all marked with a strange symbol:



As the hive focused more on the markings found around the complex, strange symbols formed into words inside their heads, words they couldn't understand per se, but rather words that formed images and conceptions inside their minds. A vision of a civilisation long born, long expanded across stars, galaxies and even whole galaxy clusters and long gone before humanity was a thing. Worlds built, thriving and destroyed, among them Nibiru and Epsilon Eridani-A X.
A hydrogen-breathing species, evolved on a massive planet with high gravity and dense atmosphere, with temperatures dropping almost to absolute zero, who colonised Nibiru as it was almost perfect world for them to exist on and they did so in times so ancient back when abundant life thrived on Venus and Mars before their ecological catastrophes.
An Invasion from advanced race who breached into upper dimensions and purged the stars, allowing the Void to spread across the universe as the stars, even entire galaxies, flared one by one before switching off.
A fierce defence of Milky Way, Andromeda and many other galaxies before Invasion focues on them and erased their homeworld from existence and purged all their colonies.
A new light onto the Invaders and Bootes Void has been shed. Barely anyone can wrap their head around Bootes Void once being full of light and life and the mysterious Invaders, so powerful that they've managed to destroy so much during eons before.
Panic ensues, despite victories won so far humanity trembles upon the thoughts of a race so powerful that is literally capable of flaring all the stars within a galaxy. Everyone now understands that this whole Invasion so far is in fact only a small-scale scout mission to explore Milky Way and find and erase civilisations that could be problematic for Invaders to proceed with their "galaxy switch-off" procedures.
Lack of any solid evidence of alien civilisation thriving on Nibiru before could also now be explained as Invaders simply wiped Precursors clean from the planet, leaving no traces of their presence ever existing on the planet. This also explains all the mental problems Nibiru has caused through decades of existence as a human colony.
It is theorised that Precursor founding their automated outpost on Tau Ceti-A IV were not mistaken - the planet's environment was extremely hostile for Precursors, but rather friendly for many other lifeforms, so they could've hidden outposts like these so that other civilisations might stumble upon them while Invaders, busy with eliminating their presence from the universe, would skip these insignificant planets. So far that's the only somewhat reasonable explanation as to why their achievements and buildings vanished without a trace from Nibiru or Epsilon Eridani-A X, but the lonely complex on Tau Ceti-A IV survived.
Further research indicates that many complexes like this linked together could form some sort of a weapon/defence system capable of defending a given galaxy from Invaders, disabling their access into it.
Physicists specialising in other dimensions theories get excited after complete translation of the data found within the ancient complex as it contains many data and insights into this field of science. With the help of gathered knowledge scientists are now able to present a formal proof of the possibility for a "hyperdrive" to exist, allowing piercing through the fabric of space to appear in a higher dimension and then returning back into the normal 3D space at will, from any point in the universe, without having to rely on pre-built wormholes.
It is also quickly proven that hyperspace is not the limit, there's nothing preventing a ship equipped with a hyperdrive to pierce through the fabric of hyperspace as well and travelling through a 5D space to further cut the distance needed to travel through in hyperspace, just like travelling through hyperspace cuts the distances in normal space. The only limitation is exponential energy requirement growth for reaching higher and higher planes.
A new light onto the Invaders and Bootes Void has been shed. Barely anyone can wrap their head around Bootes Void once being full of light and life and the mysterious Invaders, so powerful that they've managed to destroy so much during eons before.
28th May 2188, 16:19:51, during the rudimentary pickup of resources produced by EZ Aquarii automated interplanetary industrial complex a bunch of Mechi ships are spotted among the three suns.
The sudden encounter shocks government since while EZ Aquarii theoretically lies within Mechi's wormhole network which ends on a wormhole linking EZ Aquarii with Ross 128, Mechi fleets were never observed in this system, the closest contact has been established close to WISE 1150+6302, one wormhole link from EZ Aquarii. Despite Wormhole Interceptors not being constructed yet, government risks it and orders a preemptive strike at the intruders. Part of the human space forces tracks Mechi in EZ Aquarii system and chases them further as they return into their territory, entering wormhole into WISE 1150+6302.
9th June 2188, 15:35:40, humanity emerges in WISE 1150+6302 and immediately makes contact with chased Mechi fleet:



Mechi ships launch volley of missiles and before human ships manage to set up their defenses, several missiles impact the fleet. Fortunately for everyone shields held and no ship got even a single scratch from it. All ships in fleet powered up their engines as much as they could in order to not get outmaneouvered by Mechi squadron which started circling around their enemies.



Anti-missile beams and flak cannons are prepared quickly and Phalanx-Vanguard line quickly destroys any further incoming missiles.



9th June 2188, 15:41:02, Mechi ships suddenly make an U-turn as they fear humanity detaching their assault ships and blocking their way and attempt to escape into EZ Aquarii as Tomahawks start to lauch first missiles.



It is quickly revealed that they don't posess any serious anti-missile capabilities as even first volley is devastating, spreading chaos and destruction among their ships.



Mechi attempt to split their two remaining ships and spread out, but Tomahawk-fired missiles get them all. Soon the battle is over and all Mechi ships are eliminated.





After the battle scans quickly show signatures of escape shuttles launched before all ships got destroyed. This provides an invaluable opportunity to capture "alive" Mechi so that IT engineers specialising in AI could attempt to communicate and hack into Mechi representatives and get as many information from them as possible. Fleet admiral orders to capture the surviving robots and return back to Earth. Meanwhile in Solar System the construction of all space stations providing necessary infrastructure and supplies for the naval fleet to operate in outer space for many years is almost gone, which means a full-scale invasion into Mechi territory should be made possible soon.
In the meantime, as a result of recent space battle, government pulls some of the exploration forces into investigating Mechi branch discovered in Struve 2398.
It is quickly confirmed that previously discovered Luhman 16 system doesn't contain any additional wormholes besides the one that connects it with Struve 2398, meaning it's one of the ends of "Struve branch". Another wormhole from Struve 2398 allows travel into WD 1142-645 system:







WD 1142-645-A III, despite having a hydrogen-based atmosphere and extremely cold temperatures, is determined to not be a possible long-destroyed colony of the Precursors due to too small size and gravity.
When several Manhattan colony ships (long outdated but some still in service) and freighters resupplying HIP 47650 system get attacked by Invaders and destroyed in WISE 2359-7335 system while returning to Sol, government bans all the starships to stop there, ordering them to travel directly to their destination, even if it means far larger fuel and energy expenses required to make longer flights in warp bubble. Ban is supposed to be lifted only when Void Wormhole in NN 3009 will be secured.
3rd January 2189, 12:02:53, Orion starship finds itself stranded when a critical failure of interstellar navigation module leaves it stranded in deep space in NN 3815 system, unable to find the way back home.
3rd January 2189, 12:54:17, Orion's crew detects Invaders' assault squadron and calls for help while powering up engines to accelerare as fast as possible and get out of fire range. It is actually considered a miracle that they've managed to escape before shields overcharge.
19th January 2189, 05:47:31, Arks tasked with tugging stranded starship appear with a powerful naval escort to lead explorers back to safety. Immidiately upon entering the system through the wormhole from WISE 2359-7335 the fleet is fired upon, which explains the "miracle" of Orion's escape. It was an ambush. Both Arks get destroyed and one of Pikes escorting them is wrecked too.



19th January 2189, 05:48:35, hostile fleet jumps through the wormhole into WISE 2359-7335 and uses the good old "hit and run" once again. Human naval forces follow.



Invaders split into two and a powerful squadron of Strikers and Blades catches up to one group and exchanges fire. The groups haven't managed to split too much by then, though, so both can be targeted. Another firefight begins.



Main assault forces overtakes Invaders, turns off main engines and performs 180 degrees turn to open fire while maintaining course, exposing their enemies like on a shooting range, and score many good hits as a result, A fuel leak from one of Invader's ships forces its crew to decelerate while they still can. Unfortunately same situation happens for one of the Pikes, which shields didn't hold for long enough.



19th January 2189, 5:59:45, main assault force risks it and attempts to reverse flight direction and pass the Invaders' ships at high speed and score good hits along the way from the flank. As they decelerate to lose current speed vector they become vulnerable for a while, which enemy makes a good use of. However, shields hold for long enough until the manoeuvre is completed. Meanwhile detached Pikes maintain course and turn around like main force a few minutes ago, scoring good hits with particle lances while remaining in front of their enemies.



As main squadron adjusts flight direction to take into account Invaders' flight paths and destroys one of the two most dangerous laser assault ships of the enemy force, enemy finishes off Pike that previously suffered from fuel leak. Invaders begin to spread out to make concentrated targeting harder for humans and encircle their forces. Fierce firefight continues.



Invaders change course suddenly and so does human fleet, however due to slightly higher acceleration assault squadron does it faster and overtakes Invaders once more, dealing heavy damage along the way while they're still vulnerable as they're a bit too slow with losing their speed vector and acquiring a new one. However, they manage to blow up one Blade in the process.



In a bold manoeuvre Pikes and main assault squadron change their trajectory and turn around in a way that makes them travel around the Invaders, encircling them and firing from both sides until both squadrons merge at rendezvous point. Invaders take heavy fire in the process.



19th January 2189, 6:12:15, Tomahawks finally manage to launch a few quick volleys, meanwhile lasers, mesons and particle beams wreak havoc among enemy lines:





Rest of Invaders' forces are no match for overwhelming missiles, which quickly finish them off:





Another battle has been won by the forces of Humanity. After another defeat Invaders go quiet for a while, allowing a safe operation of rescuing survivors and escorting damaged ships back to Solar System.

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

2190s

Government announces yet another incursion into Invaders' network. Additional three wormholes are explored, one leading from Gliese 483 to the lonely star of Gliese 3:



A wormhole from HIP 13218 connects to the WISE 1457+5815 star:



Another two wormholes are detected near it, one leading into the binary system of Kappa Tucanae:





























When explorers saw this system, their jaws dropped. Legends say for the rest of their lives they haven't managed to lift them back up and close their mouth.
Kappa Tucanae-A II. A second Earth. No terraforming required. A bit colder, but still comfortable. Perfect atmospheric pressure and composition. Slightly lower, but still very good gravity. Comparable diameter. Similar moon orbiting it.
Vast oceans, seas, rivers and lakes with marine and aquatic life, ranging from small microorganisms, through fishes, coral reefs and larger fishes up to equivalents of whales, some even bigger than those found on Earth.
Birds of all kinds flying around. Lush valleys with hundreds of species of flora and fauna. Life thriving in the mountains. Similar trees. Similar grass. Similar herbivores. Similar carnivores. Similar everything.
The beauty of this world was breathtaking. No terraformation ever came close to its majesty. It was even more beautiful than Earth itself. A perfect world, ripe for the taking. Utopia.
Then was Kappa Tucanae-A V, also accompanied by a moon similar to Earth's. Slightly higher amount of oxygen, but measured pressure showed exactly 1 atm. Much higher gravity due to size, but still bearable. Once populated, this world could theoretically support dozens of bilions of people. Terraforming will be required to warm this planet up and melt ice sheets, but that's about it. Complex life thrives there, too. Samples from various species could help scientists working on adapting humans to freezing temperatures with their research even more. Especially given that near equator, where temperatures reach -65C, some more complex plants managed to grow and blossom. Studying their organisms could provide invaluable insight into freezing temperatures survival.
As if two planets teeming with life weren't enough, there's also a tropical paradise of Kappa Tucanae-B II. Temperatures are scorching for human beings, but nothing a quick terraforming couldn't fix. Besides that, lush rainforests cover most of the surface, making place for more temperate climate zones only closer to the poles. Lower gravity allowed the trees to grow extremely tall there, resembling tropical versions of the tallest Earth sequoias. Among them many creatures found shelter, notably large snake-like animals, looking somewhat like wingless dragons.
Exploration team brought many photos from these three lush worlds. Kappa Tucanae-A II:







Kappa Tucanae-A V:







Kappa Tucanae B-II:







As if three habitable planets weren't enough, the system contains lots of other celestial bodies, from gas giants through regular "rock chunks" to asteroid belts, all ready to be mined. The system was often referred to "Sol++", as with all its features it was like Solar System but better.
Despite uncertain times and soldiers dying during Bootes War and recent Mechi skirmishes, discovery of all these planets in Kappa Tucanae poured some optimisim into the hearts and minds of many. Government mobilised even more people to work hard on assembling Wormhole Defence Squadrons, promising to open this system for colonisation as soon as Void Wormhole in NN 3009 will be blocked and contained by the fleets of Anarchists, Dragons and Devastators. The best of the best will board these combat spaceships as their role now will be even more significant than previously expected -  they'll guard route to the system that'll become more precious than Solar System itself. Their service will be crucial in making Utopia actually becoming true Utopia.
A special update to the explored space map gets added, clearly marking the most beautiful system explored so far:



As threat from Invaders continues to grow many citizens become tired from the war, feeling of looming danger and all the tensions, protests, radical organisations and acts of terrorism. And in those uncertain times their eyes turn into Utopia. All the explored and conquered space so far feels insignificant and ugly when one looks at the photos from Kappa Tucanae, a pure diamond among mere coal bricks.
Only one thing concerns everybody: despite such abundance of life, there were no signs of sentience detected. Not even a single ruin. Kappa Tucanae so far is the strongest argument for the hypothesis that Invaders managed to purge sentient life from many systems, but left the non-sentient species intact.
This realisation is terrifying, the thought of settling on remnants of civilisations long destroyed in such a clean way that there are in fact no civilisation remnants left...
But government promises that humanity will not bow before Invaders and will prevail, bringing sentience to these long forgotten stars and making Invaders regret what they did. Humanity shall utilise the network linking many life-bearing worlds to expand and eventually defeat Invaders once and for all.
Large quantities of supplies and facilities are already being produced and prepared, reserved solely for the purpose of conquering Utopia once it'll be safe enough to do so. Despite bilions of stars out there, eyes of everyone turn into just two of them. Many hope that Utopia will bring humans closer together once again, deescalating tense political and societal situation on many worlds.

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

Programmers and computer scientists make a first breakthrough in hacking into Mechi and retrieving information from them. While it's still not much, a few parameters describing species that designed them are pulled out of their data banks:



Not much more can be said about the Designers, though their physiology must be weaker than that of a human, given lower tolerance for high gravity and pressure. From the data retrieved it is still unknown whether they are a creation or a product of cybernetic ascension. This question seems to be fairly important for ethics as the answer determines whether humanity is getting rid of dangerous machines or killing sentient beings.

Another piece of information recovered, this time very disturbing, is about their missiles. An exact top speed of the ones used in the first larger battle with Mechi forces has been determined - it's exactly 192000 km/s, 64% of the speed of light. These missiles are very small, but if used in larger quantities, with such speed will quickly overwhelm Phalanx-Vanguard lines. Currently it's impossible for missile engineers and technicians to build missiles that'd come close to this. An exact blueprint still remains hidden between Mechis' circuits.

Some voices in scientific environment specialising with extraterrestrial intelligence propose that Mechi could also be a product of reaching singularity by the mysterious species. This poses even more questions than answers, though.

Meanwhile, newest pictures of Void Wormholes in NN 3009 and Gliese 526 cause many worries and headaches across military commanders.





No Invaders appearing within Gliese 526 system were detected so far, though.
In parallel to recent updates on enemy capabilities, first stage of Project Utopia progresses according to the plan.

9th September 2192, a small net of wormholes linking two stars as well as several key planets in Kappa Tucanae is discovered. Could this be a work of Invaders? No intra-system wormholes were previously detected among Invaders-explored stars. Was it a civilisation existing there that did it? Or maybe Invaders indeed built them? But if so, for what purpose? No one could came up with a different logical hypothesis than Invaders needing them to rapidly shift forces from one star to another during battles that took place there. Battles with another alien civilisation. Battles for their homeworld, or at least a very well-developed sector.

25th September 2192, a branch of space forces heads into Mechi territory to launch a proper invasion and establish presence in their territory. GJ 1277 system is chosen for the first target, because gas giant GJ 1277-A III (discovered by exploration mission which participants met their doom at hands of Mechis' lasers back in the day) will be able to provide the fleet with much needed fuel, allowing military fleet to reach further into Mechis' wormholes.
8th October 2192, 7:51:12, radars pick up huge Mechi fleet in orbit of the gas giant. It is very likely that many of the ships siphon fuel from it.



8th October 2192, 7:55:49, Tomahawks immediately launch several volleys:



"64c" missiles, named after their dreaded 64% of the speed of light, are determined to not only be ultra fast, but also ultra accurate as one by one they manage to thin out Tomahawk's incoming missiles:



Mechi anti-missile defence joins combat as it helps clear out all the missiles from first volley. More volleys quickly follow, though, and Mechi can't keep up with the overwhelming firepower. Several ships explode within a matter of seconds. This lowers Mechi defence capabilities, allowing even more missiles to hit their targets. Damage quickly starts to pile up:





8th October 2192, 8:01:30, Mechi attempt to split their forces to save at least part of it, which is rather effective short-term. More missiles follow, though:





8th October 2192, 8:14:07, human fleet reaches orbit of the gas giant as Mechi try to flee in two separate directions:



It is decided that it's best to save ammo, Tomahawks go slient and a squadron of Strikers opens laser fire. Mechi depserately try to accelerate further.





Human forces leave orbit of gas giant and chase remaining ships, flying past them time after time again, decimating their forces as they flee:



8th October 2192, 8:24:17, Strikers detach from the main fleet and chase lonely surviving ship which managed to accelerate unnoticed and is now cruising away from the battlefield, taking advantage of the radars flaring up with dozens of targets. In the meantime rest of the fleet mops up remaining Mechi ships.



Four of Mechi fuel harvesters surrended. First lifepods, now surrendering - officers and regular soldiers baffled as these robots show more "life" signs than Invaders, who despite being made out of biological matter always fight to the bitter end, never giving up, never trying to escape burning wrecks. Maybe Mechi are indeed alive beings, transcended into "cyberconsciousness"? One thing is certain: this technology, while serving economical rather than military purposes, will give an invaluable opportunity to study a Mechi ship intact.

8th October 2192, 8:35:41, despite battle being over, sensors pick up two additional targets. At first they're expected to be either some sort of scouts checking out what happened in GJ 1277 or something like that, but as Strikers move closer to investigate, they shook their heads in disbelief: these two ships are clearly the ones used by Invaders:



8th October 2192, 8:37:15, before Strikers can catch up to them, they suddenly disappear. It is expected that they travelled through a yet undetected wormhole or powered up their FTL drive if they had any. Quick scan of their last known position confirms it's the former: wormhole leads to GJ 1151 system:









Strikers quickly catch up to the two ships and pierce their hulls with lasers:



Meanwhile in GJ 1277 Chimera carrier picks up all the remaining Mechi floating around onboard their escape pods and heads with them back to Earth. As it flies towards WISE 1150+6302 wormhole, its sensors pick up another two Invaders:



Not willing to risk it due to being slower than them and not being able to accelerate further to spare enough fuel for the trip, it engages warp drive as captain decides it's best to avoid usage of Mechi wormholes this time and travel to Solar System directly. Only tons of tons of debris remain in GJ 1277, guarded by human combat fleet:



13th March 2193, second stage of initial Mechi Invasion is successfully completed: several space stations are finally tugged into GJ 1277-A III's orbit to help military forces establish themselves in the system. They include Astera stations for fuel harvesting, Atlas stations for maintaining the fleet and performing necessary repairs, Arcadia to provide a place for the crewmembers to rest, relax and entertain themselves during breaks and Seraphim station for storing spare ammunition. Asutralian engineers help design a special ship capable of safely delivering missiles for ever-hungry Tomahawks:

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Kangaroo class Ammunition Transport      16,732 tons       160 Crew       900.3 BP       TCS 335    TH 2,000    EM 0
5976 km/s    JR 1-25(C)      Armour 1-58       Shields 0-0       HTK 27      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 33    Max Repair 500 MSP
Magazine 1,000   
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months   

JC22K Alcubierre Drive     Max Ship Size 22500 tons    Distance 25k km     Squadron Size 1

Commercial Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP2000.00 (1)    Power 2000    Fuel Use 1.33%    Signature 2000    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 81.1 billion km (157 days at full power)

Ordnance Transfer Rate: 48 MSP per hour     Complete Transfer 20.8 hours
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

With the help of newly arriving infrastructure fleet operating in GJ 1277 system will be able to take on much longer missions, pushing further into Mechi space. GJ 1277 is now oficially to be considered as controlled by humanity.
Thousands of robots recovered from the battlespace in GJ 1277 sped up hacking and data recovering procedures. While it is still extremely hard to get anything useful from a single Mechi, when one has thousands of them it becames less of an issue and bit by bit some valuable information can be uncovered. Some of them include full data about Zeta(1) Reticuli and GJ 1277 systems - the two that decades ago haven't been fully explored because Mechi turned hostile.
Apart from the two already known wormholes in GJ 1277, there was also a third one, leading to a star that Mechi called "Napamute". Or rather two stars, given it's a binary system:























Napamute-A III and Napamute-A IV planets appear to be potentially rich in minerals due to mountainous terrain and extensive tectonic activity. Both contain traces of oxygen within their atmospheres and frozen surface water (ice sheets cover almost all of Napmute-A IV's surface, this world is basically Antarctica on a planetary scale), however no life signs are detected. The atmospheres on both worlds on top of being too thin and containing too little oxygen also appear to be contaminated with traces of toxic gasses. Only traces, but more than enough to kill a human almost instantly.
Another wormhole from Napamute leads further, to the star referred to as "Napolean":



More astronomical data gathered reveal information of a star called "Narrabundah" by Mechi. It is a part of their network and contains at least one wormhole in its proximity, but exact wormhole routes leading to it are unknown, so are space coordinates, excluding a possibility to travel to it directly with help of a warp drive.



Astronomers analyse data gathered about the three stars and try to match them with existing charts, hoping to learn what stars Mechi had on their digital minds. Provided these stars were already named and classified, that is. Data gathered so far about Mechi space presents itself as follows on the tactical map:



On top of that, by combining examined wrecks and technology with data deciphered from Mechi storage systems and captured fuel harvesters' layout, spaceship designers are able to piece together several Mechi ship blueprints:

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Araluen III class Fuel Harvester      75,771 tons       343 Crew       1,365.7 BP       TCS 1,515    TH 800    EM 0
527 km/s      Armour 1-159       Shields 0-0       HTK 168      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 11    Max Repair 100 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   
Fuel Harvester: 27 modules producing 2,700,000 litres per annum

Commercial Inertial Fusion Drive  EP800.00 (1)    Power 800    Fuel Use 0.99%    Signature 800    Explosion 2%
Fuel Capacity 750,000 Litres    Range 180 billion km (3952 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 100,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 7 hours

CIWS-250 (2x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 25,000 km/s     ROF 5       
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

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Ajana III class Geosurvey Ship      8,272 tons       111 Crew       1,150.4 BP       TCS 165    TH 1,680    EM 0
10155 km/s      Armour 1-36       Shields 0-0       HTK 46      Sensors 18/18/0/4      DCR 6      PPV 0
Maint Life 2.59 Years     MSP 521    AFR 91%    IFR 1.3%    1YR 109    5YR 1,637    Max Repair 252 MSP
Leftenant Colonel    Control Rating 2   BRG   SCI   
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months    Morale Check Required   

Solid Core AM Drive  EP840.0 (2)    Power 1680    Fuel Use 14.91%    Signature 840    Explosion 6%
Fuel Capacity 3,250,000 Litres    Range 474.5 billion km (540 days at full power)

Thermal Sensor TH1-18 (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km
EM Sensor EM1-18 (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km
Improved Geological Sensors (2)   4 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

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Amaroo III class Missile Destroyer      10,748 tons       246 Crew       2,953.9 BP       TCS 215    TH 2,800    EM 0
13026 km/s      Armour 9-43       Shields 0-0       HTK 66      Sensors 18/0/0/0      DCR 3      PPV 36
Maint Life 0.55 Years     MSP 515    AFR 308%    IFR 4.3%    1YR 937    5YR 14,057    Max Repair 700 MSP
Magazine 572   
Leftenant Colonel    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Solid Core AM Drive  EP1400 (2)    Power 2800    Fuel Use 53.45%    Signature 1400    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 1,050,000 Litres    Range 32.9 billion km (29 days at full power)

CIWS-320 (1x12)    Range 1000 km     TS: 32,000 km/s     ROF 5       
Size 6 Missile Launcher (6)     Missile Size: 6    Rate of Fire 15
Missile Fire Control FC69-R5 (1)     Range 69.5m km    Resolution 5
Ballista Anti-Ship Missile (95)    Speed: 81,600 km/s    End: 19.7m     Range: 96.4m km    WH: 10    Size: 6    TH: 272/163/81

While certain technologies are considered obsolete, most attention is paid to the antimatter engines installed on Ajana III and Amaroo III class ships. Theoretically the engines could be reverse-engineered and constructed, but to this day, despite numerous advancements in science, humanity lacks efficient ways to produce enough antimatter for these types of engines to be of any practical use compared to well-established fusion reactors after several upgrade cycles. Government wants to continue invasion in hopes of uncovering methods of producing enough antimatter to reliably power the newly-discovered engines.

"Ballista" missiles are another thing, though: with the current technology copying or at least coming up with a very similar design should be doable, experts claim. Their design, somewhere in between the power of packing a punch and light decoy missiles that could theoretically be propelled to outstanding speeds, could lead to a new class of missile combat spaceships - ones that don't need extra decoy missiles, but are capable of launching enough of their base ones to deal with enemy anti-missile capabilities.

Out of all those information, one stands out, still echoing across minds of many: proof of Invaders existing in Mechi-controlled space. Everyone reminds the message received decades ago, shortly before Mechi opened fire for the first time:

"You know nothing. Nibiru before. Coming from outer space. Leave. Reticuli unstable."

A warning. Not only about Mechi turning hostile, but a warning about Invaders. Invaders that once annihilated a powerful interstellar and intergalactic civilisation who among thousands of other worlds colonised such planets as Nibiru, for example. And in the present times, humanity wasn't the only civilisation attacked by creators of Bootes Void. No additional Void Wormholes were discovered by the probes briefly launched through the wormholes into Zeta(1) and Zeta(2) Reticuli systems, though.
Some computer scientists are redirected to researching possible ways to hack into Mechi on a broader spectrum and override their hostility, forcing them to cooperate and be willing to be used as a cannon fodder to spare human lives and resources during ongoing Bootes War.

A brief mission to check out Gliese 762 system has been launched after astronomical observations suggested two planets orbiting the star within its ecosphere. This turned out to be nothing but a computation mistake as the only celestial bodies found around the star are comets just passing by:





15th April 2193, Alpha Centauri-A II, after crossing 700 milions inhabitants and spawning more and more plasma interceptors for wormhole defence, with its constantly expanding economy has officially received a staus of a Core World. To mark this title, it has been renamed to Gaia - standing even stronger than Earth itself did after COVID-19 pandemic.

Terraforming of Epsilon Eridani-A II shouldn't take more than five years plus some error margin, commander of terraforming forces claims. Freighters begin to ship construction materials and prepare initial shelters for future colonists despite the atmosphere still being toxic, hoping to kickstart this world quicker than usual. Terraforming took enough time and effort already.

AI overseeing automated industry in EZ Aquarii warns about EZ Aquarii-B II falling off from stable orbit after experiencing too strong gravitational pull from EZ-Aquarii-C. It was definitely a smart move not to leave any people there at mercy of the chaotic system of three bodies. Buildings were assembled from the toughest alloys known up to date, they should withstand rapidly and unpredictably changing temperatures.

As tensions on Earth rise, most of genetic engineering-related research move to Gaia, where situation is a bit better. Steady progress is being made, but biologists claim that modifying population large enough to survive temperatures low enough will be "a long road".

As more and more interceptors leave Gaia and HIP 47650-A II's docks, government prepares a designated transport fleets with only one task of transferring people and supplies into Kappa Tucanae system, preparing for colonising Utopia beforehand.

An old computer scientist specialising in AI predicts that with the latest breakthroughs in the field thanks to Mechi-related research breaching the barrier of Singularity is "more than possible". Many citizens concerned given how Mechi treated humanity so far.

A team of physicists from HIP-47650-A II receives grant for building a "hyperdrive" on a microcosmic scale. The device is supposed to transfer a beam of neutrons through a series of dynamically established and collapsed wormholes, reaching the effective speed of 200c. Results won't be representative for practical applications as the beam will be launched at near-lightspeed from the beginning and with such speed will be entering and leaving wormholes.

27th November 2193, a small set of ruins is discovered on Gliese 504-A II. Their existence doesn't make much sense since the planet doesn't contain any traces of an atmosphere or water in any form and is basically just flat, barren rock riddled with craters. There isn't much to mine on it, either. Rest of the system doesn't present itself any better, hence it was deemed dead and hopeless. Maybe it's a long-abandoned mining outpost, left there by a civilisation long long time ago, after exploiting the system. XAT unit moves in to investigate.

Growing population on Tau Ceti-A IV maintains psionic linkages, able to quickly assemble hivemind if needed. The planet becomes a center for psionic research. Scientists try to estimate whether it'd be possible for human brains to develop ability to "translate" each other's waves, allowing psionic powers without chips and brain implants, in the process of evolution, be it purely natural or sped-up with technology.

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

4th December 2193, first fleet of Anarchy, Devastator and Dragon class interceptors arrives at the wormhole leading from NN 3815 to NN 3009. Its duty begins, and hopefully an era of longed stability too, allowing safe colonisation of Utopia.
17th December 2193, 20:14:56, fresh fleet has to face combat sooner than expected as a strong Invaders' forces emerge from the wormhole. Baptism of fire arrived almost instantly, though many feel relieved they were just in time to intercept next batch of hostile ships. Plasma begins to splash over their hulls, boiling them from the inside.





17th December 2193, 20:15:41, enemy fleet begins to accelerate, trying to gain distance. Interceptors begin the chase:





17th December 2193, 20:16:01, main branch of enemy forces suddenly brakes and begins to gain speed while travelling the opposite direction, which could result in human forces getting attacked from two sides. Humanity sends Anarchists to disrupt them.





Main fleet ignores Invader's skirmishes and tries to support Anarchists as they took a beating from an overwhelming forces. Invaders make a tactical retreat:







Enemy maintains its distance while detached skirmishes disrupt manoeuvres of Interceptors. Plasma cools too fast to pose a danger to main bulk of their force.





17th December 2193, 20:24:25, Anarchists rejoin the formation and the whole fleet attempts to close in.



Particle lances of Devastators score first hits while solo-operating Invaders finish off damaged ships that sadly had to be left behind:



Suddenly enemy tries to pull off another distraction manoeuvre to make evasion more difficult and opens fire. One of the devastator can't handle lasers anymore and disintegrates.



Pursuit continues, but soon it becomes obvious that before Interceptors close in enough for the plasma to become deadly once again, Invaders will pick them off from a distance, one by one. Retreat is necessary. All Anarchists meet their doom during deceleration phase. More damage tanked as Interceptors almost overheat engines to generate enough thrust quickly enough.





17th December 2193, 20:29:53, lacking any other options, in an act of desperation survivors of the battle of NN 3009 wormhole head straight into it at full throttle, disappearing from Invaders' radars and sending a desperate call for reinforcements, leaving debris and human escape shuttles floating around on the other side. And combat-ready Invader fleet.

Humanity shocked after their first defeat and failure of Void Wormhole contamination. Some Kappa Tucanae almost-colonists have a change of heart and prefer to stay on any other world but to travel through Invader-infested solar systems. No later than when the news've arrived, protests suddenly burst out with full force across Core Worlds, and, to some limited extent, in other colonies as well. Newest military doctrine called into question as Pikes, Blades and Strikers combined with missile support worked much better so far. Government responds with "the enemy appears to have brought a new class of laser combat spaceships in rather large amount, current tacticis would've worked if only more Interceptors would've been brought up in time to create a 'true swarm'". Morale across the crews of plasma interceptors drops, but somehow it all resulted in morale boost for the "old fleets" as as a side-effects of the complaints against newest strategy they were praised a lot.

2nd January 2194, 23:11:23, main assault fleet spots two hostile ships hanging around NN 3815 wormhole in WISE 2359-7335.  It looks as if they "guarded entrance to their territory".



2nd January 2194, 23:12:19,as soon as the fleet approaches, enemies disappear in the wormhole. Assault fleet follows and finds the rest of Invaders' forces on the other side, sighing with relief they haven't chased survivors of wormhole defence forces so far:



Shields easily deal with incoming fire. Another battle, and a rescue operation as well, begins. Or almost begins as enemies detach two of their next-gen laser assault ships and send them deeper into the system as the rest jump back into WISE 2359-7335. Assault forces recharge shields and prepare to jump back to WISE 2359-7335. Squadron of Strikers and Blades is sent to chase and destroy the two targets while they're separated.

2nd January 2194, 23:12:19, as the pursuing ships get closer, they pick up more targets on their sensors:



As they get closer, it appears that ships are damaged and are cruising at only half of their maximum observed speed. This should be an easy fight. Enemy opens fire first, but human assault ships dodge with ease, waiting for the right moment to attack. Patience pays off, first damage has been dealt:



Fleet admirals risks it and decides to speed right in front of enemies. This risky manoeuvre costs life of a valiant crew of one of the blades, but one of the two dangerous laser beam ships gets destroyed, too.



Fierce firefight continues. Human forces shocked to discover that the enemy jamming technology has improved significantly, preventing target lock even at ranges below 200 000 km.



Another Blade gets torn into pieces, but eventually Assault Squadron manages to destroy the second next-gen Invader ship. After that it's only a formality to obliterate the remaining ships, too weak to stand any chance. Assault Squadron returns to the main forces and prepares for WISE 2359-7335 wormhole breach.



2nd January 2194, 23:35:18, Assault Squadron composed of the "Pike+Blade+Striker" dream-team  traverses the wormhole and finds itself in WISE 2359-7335. Unfortunately, one Pike receives an unlucky shot that hits the onboard fusion reactor after Invaders concentrated fire and overcharged its shields when human fleet was still emerging from the wormhole. It had no chances.



Human forces desperately try to gain distance and Invaders seem to be doing the same thing. Before their dreaded laser guns open fire once again, vast majority of shots are easily dodged by skilled and experienced pilots.





However, at that range, paired with Invaders' jamming sequences and Assault Squadron's outdated software, Strikers can't score a hit either. Pikes detach from the main fleet to serve as a decoy and Strikers with Blades use their engine power advantage to quickly accelerate towards Invaders and catch up to them.





Humanity tanks heavy laser fire, but shields hold and first connecting shots are fired at the enemy:



Two fleets head straight into each other. Admiral leading the assault attempts to do a classical space combat manoeuvre - fly past them at high speed and then immediately turn around to unleash even more fire as ships will maintain their inertia. He hopes to do this while Invaders are busy recharging their weapons.





Due to estimation errors Invaders score crippling hits before both fleets distance from themselves, but shields hold. Barely, but hold. One of enemy vessles suffers critical engine control failure, sending the ship way off course, accelerating in random directions.



Human eventually destroy one of the four next-gen Invader laser assault ships with overwhelming firepower and turn around, dodging some incoming shots from the hostile fleet still maintaining its course. More luck than skill was involved, as rapid change of course always requires dreaded deceleration, making ships vulnerable.



Humanity takes casualties eventually, but the firefight continues and the assault forces find themselves behind enemy once again. Not that it matters in the vaccuum.





2nd January 2194, 23:48:30, Taking advantage of all enemy ships being engaged, Tomahawks warp into the system and begin preparation for missile launch. Invaders react with an unexpected change of course, attempting to stop them. If they could get to Tomahawks at firing range, results could be devastating.



Threat posed by assault fleet forces enemies to reconsider their decision, though, as they turn around, hoping to unleash powerful volleys at space equivalent of point blank. They take severe fire during deceleration phase, though. Human pilots bravely dodge incoming fire, which isn't hard to do when the enemy is almost standing - Invaders timed their shots poorly this time. Humanity uses the advantage to quickly overtake them and make U-turn behind them, circling rapidly around their foes.







Eventually Invaders do score hits, crippling one of the Blades and throwing it off-course:



2nd January 2194, 23:59:17, suddenly Invaders pull one of their ships away into some sort of kamikaze mission. As all guns are focused on bulk of the enemy forces, it approaches uninterrupted and unleashes a swarm of debris from some sort of flak guns, similar to the ones used by human space fleets for anti-missile defences. Fortunately shields hold thight.



Enemy takes more casualties, but they suddenly drop a lot of speed, making humanity overtake unintentionally. By doing this they gained some much needed range.



Human combat forces fire once again, breaking Invaders' manoeuvre by forcing them to accelerate to have better chance at dodging. It is a bit too late, though, and they suffer heavy losses in the process.



3rd January 2194, 0:02:15, as the most dangerous vessels have been turned into debris, Tomahawks are ordered to conserve missiles and do not fire. Meanwhile after Invaders circling in one place for long enough, Pikes quickly catch up to them and finish off remaining vessels, blowing up all of them:



The battle has been won and the fleet appearing out of NN 3009 finally defeated, but thanks to heavy casualties took by plasma interceptors the price was much higher than in any other battle so far. Also targeting systems jamming capabilities paired up with massive firepower demonstrated by the new class of Invaders' spaceships terrify even the bravest soldiers. It took too long, way too long for Tomahawks to prepare their volleys. Sure, their systems were outdated compared to the newer Javelin missile cruisers, kept outside of combat so far since up to the day of this large-scale engagement Tomahawks performed decently enough after their decoy missiles overhaul, but not to the point of such massive delay. Crews of these ships reported several strange errors in targeting software occurring en masse as they struggled to provide requested support for main assault forces. Thankfully everything ended well, but if missile support would be critical in that battle, human forces would end up decimated.
Among the two stars across which the battle took place, NN 3815 and WISE 2359-7335, only debris remains.





After rescuing survivors in escape pods and tugging back broken ships, but not broken enough to disintegrate and stop supporting life of their crews government tries to focus on the overall combat being won and promises to improve on the plasma interceptors "soon" to secure efforts in Kappa Tucanae, protesters focus on the first part of the battle, that one involving total massacre of ten Anarchy ships and a couple of others as well.

Government organises extensive training for paradise conquerors on Gaia. Two Dyson Spheres are  put around both stars that make Alpha Centauri System. Timing wasn't accidental as after initial failure of intercepting Invaders' fleet many continue to raise concerns over safety to no end. Putting these people on a first extraterrestrial Core World with two Dyson Spheres appearing in the system is expected to raise their morale.
Tight psionic psychological evaluation takes place to determine whether new citizens of Kappa Tucanae will be able to handle potential dangers included.

Interceptors tasked with securing Gliese 526 growing Void Wormhole are doubled in fleet size as a firts improvement that could've been done immediately. Strength in numbers.
20th January 2194, large amounts of interceptors finally arrive in Gliese 526 together with all the necessary infrastructure for prolonged stay in deep space. Fear of Invaders starting building their network of wormholes from elsewhere drops only slightly.
Research into improving heated plasma generation on a large scale begins. Many engineers attempt to further optimise designs of interceptors for the "mk2" versions to be far more successful in the future.

Fuel Rats receive a new vessel, this time with its own warp drive, removing the need for using Guidance System or fleets that happen to pass by and have warp drives powerful enough for enclosing their tankers within own warp bubble:

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Dispatcher class Tanker      50,448 tons       222 Crew       1,431.4 BP       TCS 1,009    TH 4,000    EM 0
3964 km/s    JR 2-25(C)      Armour 1-121       Shields 0-0       HTK 45      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 17    Max Repair 500 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months   

JC60K Alcubierre Drive     Max Ship Size 60000 tons    Distance 25k km     Squadron Size 2

Commercial Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP2000.00 (2)    Power 4000    Fuel Use 1.33%    Signature 2000    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 25,000,000 Litres    Range 6,727.1 billion km (19641 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 80,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 312 hours

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

As fuel shortages hit Gaia due to using up everything for more and more Interceptors, extensive harvesting of rich gas giants in the system begins. This resolves the brief crisis efficiently.

An exploration mission is launched into Lalande 21185. It lasts for a very short time as the star doesn't have any celestial bodies orbiting it:



During yet another trip explorers in WD 1142-645 can't find any additional wormholes besides the one from Struve 2398 which they used to arrive here. This confirms that the system, similarly to Luhman 16, is the end of "Struve Branch" of Mechi territory. Two unexplored wormholes in Struve 2398 remain to be explored.
Current situation of humanity across the stars presents itself as follows:





Extensive research into sensor technology begins. As a next step in the raging war government wants to put an array of monitors or patrol ships to help scan for any Invaders that could theoretically slip through other parts of the network, even if so far no solid proof of them having a Void Wormhole elsewhere has been provided.
The new starship is expected to be able to both spot enemies from afar to cover as much of deep space as possible and launch all-purpose missiles to either deal with smaller groups of enemies independently or provide artillery support in battle from safe spot.
This next-gen technology should be made possible thanks to usage of gravitational scanners so sensitive that they could, in theory at least, detect disturbance of fabric of space by picking up gravitational waves even from the smallest shuttles out there and then use special programs to filter it out from all the "background noise" of celestial bodies floating around.

Astronomers finally manage to match Mechi names with star catalogues, identifying the 3 Mechi-explored stars. "Napamute" turns out to be Struve 1280, "Napolean" - HIP 82724 and "Narrabundah" is determined to be HIP 76315.



An exploration group repors sightings of classical "flying saucers" as navigation systems failure forces them to emerge from warp bubble in Alpha Centauri. Government denies the rumours and conspiracy theories, blaming it all on failure of reporting ship's sensors. "Alpha Centauri is the most populated System after Solar System and local listening outposts would've detected any unidentified spacecraft long before some random Orion starship with broken systems could " - comment astronomers working for SETI.
Shortly after these news a small psionic waves surge is detected to occur on Gaia. Official reports written by Psi Squads sent to investigate claim it's a result of conspiracy theories gaining popularity, seeding paranoia across local populations, sometimes even among psi-capable citizens.

Scientists successfully complete quantum teleportation of a paramecium, classical example of a microorganism every kid has to learn about at school. While technically experiment was a success, ethics point out that it is unknown whether the paramecium arriving at the destination is indeed the same one or did the original one essentially die while its perfect copy materialised into existence. Currently physicists working on the project have no idea how to determine this, which will be crucial for human teleportation. However, further research can proceed normally as this technology could still be safely used for inanimate objects or plants and animals transfer. Animal right activists outraged by the latter part of this declaration.

Gaia becomes the centre of mining technology development. Refitting plasma guns mounted on spaceships to make them usable in mines shows promising results. Digging through large patches of ground is achieved faster than in case of lasers, although is less precise. This won't be make for a good ore extraction, but could speed up setting up tunnel network significantly.

Red Dot 2359 v 1.2.5, the most advanced AI program up to date, claims that it'll "eradicate humanity". Programmers desperately try to patch it out before it could enter industrial or military applications. Failure at doing so would mean the necessity to remove large portions of code, wasting years of work.

Man falls in love with a robot, luckily for him it's nothing a psionic therapy cannot fix. Such cases are nothing new, but that one is the first one when psychologists, after analysing psionic scans of patient's brain, determined that this time it was "true love" rather than some mild infatuation.

Initial research on Invaders' software used during combat helps improve espionage techniques of governmental secret services. A small microchip patch is released. Thanks to this, police forces were able to figure out connections between many radical organisations, cutting them out of their weapon supply lines and information sources, severely harming protests organised by them.

Earth reaches pre-COVID-19 population briefly, but massive colonisation efforts bring it back down by a few hundred millions.
4th July 2196, "Hyperdrive Experiment" is a success. A beam of neutrons completed its journey through the series of dynamically created and collapsed wormholes safe and sound. Work on building a first real hyperdrive begins. However, many scientists point out that this is not a "true" hyperdrive, it's just fast building and collapsing of small, short-ranged wormholes. True hyperdrive should pierce the fabric of space only once and make the starship stay in four-dimensional space for the entire journey.

Quantum teleportation research receives more funding after team of military engines suggests it could be used to, for example, teleport explosives directly into interiors of enemy spaceships. Such level of precision needed for this to be viable plus making it possible to target a destination that doesn't contain necessary "receiving equipment" make it a far-fetched sci-fi for now.

8th July 2196, 21:54:37, after another period of relative peace achieved by destruction of latest Invader fleet sent into Milky Way during memorable events from two and a half years before, Orion class starship, escorted by an entire fleet capable of dealing even with larger Invaders' forces without much trouble, crosses the Void Wormhole in NN 3009 and arrives at Bootes Void.
Despite several attempts, sensors don't pick up anything. No Invaders, no additional wormholes, no space infrastructure of any kind floating around, no traces of Prophet starship which disappeared in Bootes Void during investigation of Void Wormhole before threat from Invaders has been known to mankind. Just dark void. No hints as to why Void Wormhole has been created from this particular place and not any other.
15th july 2196, 21:54:37, similar mission is launched from Gliese 526, where second Void Wormhole has appeared. Explorers arrive at a different spot in Bootes Void, but the results are the same - nothing has been detected. This is just another random place, milions of light years away from matter of any kind.

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

New fleets of Plasma Interceptors embark to establish blockades along Void Wormholes. They're not necessarily fleets anymore, they're literal swarms. Numerous simulations have proven that using enough of them should be a sufficient measure to hold off Invaders before newer designs are invented and tested.

After several discussions between various groups of specialists the design of a new cruiser capable of surveying large patches of space has been agreed upon:

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Overseer class Area Defence Cruiser      36,235 tons       912 Crew       8,680.8 BP       TCS 725    TH 5,000    EM 6,240
6899 km/s    JR 3-250      Armour 10-97       Shields 208-520       HTK 165      Sensors 960/720/0/0      DCR 30      PPV 96
Maint Life 1.09 Years     MSP 5,497    AFR 1050%    IFR 14.6%    1YR 4,619    5YR 69,291    Max Repair 1250 MSP
Magazine 1,795   
Captain    Control Rating 2   BRG   ENG   
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Morale Check Required   

J49200(3-250) Alcubierre Drive     Max Ship Size 49200 tons    Distance 250k km     Squadron Size 3

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP2500.00 (2)    Power 5000    Fuel Use 75.89%    Signature 2500    Explosion 20%
Fuel Capacity 5,000,000 Litres    Range 32.7 billion km (54 days at full power)
Theta S208 / R520 Shields (1)     Recharge Time 520 seconds (0.4 per second)

Size 4.0 Missile Launcher (60.0% Reduction) (40)     Missile Size: 4    Rate of Fire 50
Missile Fire Control FC102-R20 (2)     Range 102.7m km    Resolution 20
Frunze Anti-Ship Missile (440)    Speed: 38,900 km/s    End: 43.2m     Range: 100.7m km    WH: 16    Size: 4    TH: 168/101/50

Thermal Sensor TH40-960 (1)     Sensitivity 960     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  244.9m km
EM Sensor EM40-720 (1)     Sensitivity 720     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  212.1m km

Compact ECCM-3 (2)         ECM 30

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 Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Overseers shall provide an extra layer of security as they are going to be able to quickly scan several systems for any hostile activity, making it difficult for any Invader to slip undetected and pose threat to civilian traffic. They will often accompany colonisation fleets on their way to Kappa Tucanae and back, serving as an early warning for the fleet to switch to retrograde and retreat in time.

With several systems from Invaders' network finally secured and no new signals of recent activity of them, Government declares an end to First Bootes War, now officially named First Bootes War. Sceptics claim it's only a propaganda and PR move, nevertheless even the World Government itself didn't try to hide that it's the end of the problem by calling the end of First Bootes War, admitting there will be a second one in the future. The one where Humanity will counterattack, though, as soon as it is determined precisely how do Invaders arrive in the Milky Way in the first place.

CONQUEST OF PARADISE

12th October 2196, first colonists touch the ground of Kappa Tucanae A-II. The long-awaited moment has finally come. Humanity begins conquering the Utopia, a solar system so perfect no one would ever believe it existed, let alone only roughly 68 light years away from Earth.
Rapid advancements in medicine, cybernetics and generic engineering quickly follow that memorable day, all achieved with supporting and speeding up progress of the most ambitious colonisation project up to date. Thanks to them, average human now can live up to 130 years and roughly 25% of the population swaps their bodies for purely robotic ones at some point in their lives. Experiments with artificial skin and exterior body features brought newest models to a whole new level, making them almost indistinguishable by all human senses from their natural, biological counterparts.

Psionic experts claim Kappa Tucanae population will have the potential to form another hive mind, similarly to what happened on Tau Ceti-A IV, as only class-A citizens, wielding psionic implants, were selected for the initial stage of Utopia Conquest Program.

Due to ongoing efforts in Epsilon Eridani-A II, terraforming of other planets withing Kappa Tucanae system gets postponed till project in Epsilon Eridani is fully completed.

In parallel to expanding into Sol++, more Orion starships leave docks, ready to discover new wonders of the universe. A new wave of space exploration begins. Several new stars are explored, for example Gliese 588:







HIP 9786:











Initial readings confirm HIP 9786-A III hosts life.
1st January 2197, 2:45:30, before any detailed research can be conducted, a squadron of alien spaceships appears out of the blue (or rather out of the black) and opens fire without a warning.
Flak guns spam debris at incoming missiles, but they can take out only so much. Shields are raised, but they can tank only so much. Before war drive can be engaged, a critical hull breach tears Orion exploration vessels into three. There was nothing that could be done.
Last messages received from destroyed ship together with distress signal show that attackers bore markings of Precursors on their hulls. It is thus estimated that HIP 9786-A III could contain ancient complex, similar to the one found on Tau Ceti-A IV. Shortly after XAT team on Gliese 504-A II confirms that the lone outpost in a long-exploited system belonged to Precursors as well, albeit that one doesn't contain the sealed off part requiring psionic to unlock.

With the threat from Invaders still in the hearts and minds of many, government focuses its attention on HIP 9786. Another piece of a mysterious anti-Invaders weapon might be buried there. On top of that, discovery of their ships flying around is considered a significant one. Maybe those are just purely AI-driven vessels, just like Mechi and their spaceships, but maybe small nomadic communities of Precursors survived their apocalypse somehow?

Flight to HIP 9786 will require too much fuel for combat-capable fleet, hence a "space gas station" is proposed to be placed in Giclas 9-38 system, the birthplace of a legendary "WOW" SETI-received signal from two hundred years ago, due to two gas giants there being extremely rich in "fuel gasses" and easy to harvest.
To speed up the whole operation and ease transit, a small group of Chronos-class ships gets tasked with building a wormhole network leading to Giclas 9-38 from WISE 0254-0223 , a star often chosen for a warp vector recalibration instead of Gliese 526 system after Void Wormhole appeared within the latter. The small network is planned to lead through Luyten Palomar 914-54 and TZ Arietis. Later it is also decided that it'll link Gliese 504 (via Gliese 105) as well to make FTL travel to HIP 9786 even faster and save even more on fuel consumed by warp drives.

Depending on the development of current situation, HIP 9786 could become a target for future colonisation.
Another target chosen for exploration is Gliese 674:







Despite initial optimism, no life signs were detected on Gliese 674-A III. Gliese 674-A I contained very simple unicellular organisms in the upper layers of its toxic atmosphere, though.
Gliese 322 turns out to not contain any sort of planetary system:



NN 4079:





The only three celestial bodies orbiting local sun are three planets. First one is a toxic hellscape, but the two other further from the sun contain frozen water on their surfaces. While NN 4079-A II is a dead world with traces of toxic atmosphere, NN 4079-A III turns out to be a lush world, rich in methane-breathing lifeforms.
Ice sheets span across most of the planet's surface, but relatively high temperature for methane-based worlds discovered so far allowed lifeforms to achieve pinnacle of an alternate, exotic from "earth-like" point of view, evolutionary path.

Among hundreds of species catalogued on this planet, notable ones include tree-sized mushroom-like plants. According to multiple measurement, their internal body temperature reaches insane 700 degrees. Under such high temperatures they're able to combine methane sucked out both from underground patches and air with water melted from ice and snow laying around them to trigger a reaction producing carbon monoxide and hydrogen, with the former being eaten by them as food. This process is essentially a methane-based equivalent of photosynthesis. It has been discovered that large forests of those plants contribute to the overall planet temperature being harder. Their "trunks" could possibly find applications as an organic anti-heat shield.

However, most of their time in NN 4079 researchers spent on observing a different species:



These bipedal creatures inhabiting the planet have been found to be capable of abstract thinking and organising themselves into basic societal structures. They are still stuck in primitive tribal structures, nevertheless initial psionic scans suggest high level of intelligence, predicting rapid development of their civilisation shall Invaders not end it first. They appear to produce strong pheromones mixing into an observable, pink-purple gas, but were determined to actually not being able to smell them. Instead, their communication seems to be based purely on looking at exact shape and colour of emitted cloud. Different shapes and shades of pink and purple essentially mark different expressions in their language.

This is the first confirmed discovery of an alien civilisation living on a planet - no Mechi colonies besides asteroid mining outposts were detected and Invaders' homeworld (or any colonies) remain undetected and no data about them could ever be recovered from their wrecked ships.

1st February 2197, following the discovery of a first civilisation too primitive to understand the nature of the universe and concept of aliens, Natural Decree is passed by the government. According to it, any interaction with such civilisation besides remote scientific tasks that don't pose significant risk of the civilisation in question spotting either researchers themselves or their equipment, is strictly prohibited under the punishment of at least ten years of imprisonment and direct exposure to harmful psionic waves.

Exploration into Struve Branch of Mechi territory progresses as well. Another wormhole from Struve 2398 appears to lead close to Kaptyens Star, a sun without planetary system:



A wormhole found there links it with WISE 1647+5632 system:





The system itself doesn't look very interesting, except maybe the fact that it's fourth planet from the sun looks as if it could've belonged to Precursors in the era of their civilisation and expansion among the stars of Milky Way, but this quickly changes once explorers detect two small unarmed Mechi vessels dismantling a pile of debris floating around, a sign of a battle long fought and lost. Was it a work of Invaders or another foe, that remains unknown.



Another exploration mission surveys Kruger 60 binary system. Kruger 60-A has some planets orbiting it:















AX Microscopii system:















GJ 1061 system:





28th May 2197, after many long years terraforming of Epsilon Eridani-A II is officially deemed as finished. What was once a hellish world with over 30 atmospheres of toxic gasses has become a planet very closely resembling Earth, with similar temperature ranges and climate. This is the biggest terraforming achievement up to date. Terraria stations responsible for this huge success will soon be redirected, some to Venus as their experience gained during Epsilon-Eridani-A II terraforming project will be crucial, some to Kappa Tucanae to help prepare other planets in Sol++ for conquest as well.

Population on Gaia crosses first billion.
First stage of Utopia colonisation program proceeds according to the plan, so far over 10 million citizens live on the surface  of Kappa tucanae-A II, building cities and establishing infrastructure for dozens and hundreds of millions more to come. No Invader activity has been detected, colonisation ships and freighters cruise back and forth without any trouble.

3rd June 2197, 14:58:27, SETI detects a signal originating from Barnard's Star, a star very close to Earth that for whatever reason has been skipped so far during exploration missions. Several independent AI assistants estimate the probability of it originating from intelligent civilisation to be placed between 34% and 57%. According to some personnel reports, several signals had been broadcast to this system before so that one could theoretically be a response.
An exploration mission is launched immediately and arrives close to the star in question on 9th June 2197, 22:51:12:







Hearts of the scientists starts to beat faster as initial analysis determines Barnard's Star A-I, despite low amount of oxygen and overall low atmospheric pressure, bears signs of life presence.
9th June 2197, 23:59:02, scientists pick up more signals coming from the planet. Presence of an alien civilisation is confirmed.
10th June 2197, 1:35:42, Orion starship achieves a stable orbit around the planet. Lights of their cities from the night side shine beautifully. Several satellites float around as well - it seems like alien beings living on the surface have just started making first steps beyond their homeworld. Maybe that's why they haven't replied to any of the previously sent signals - they simply weren't advanced enough and maybe only recently started their own SETI program. In some weird nostalgic way their efforts resemble early space programs of humanity from two hundred years ago.



10th June 2197, 1:41:27, before any communication attempts could be made, suddenly dozens of ground-based weapons open fire at the exploration ship. Lasers overcharge shields and puncture the hull within seconds, causing ships' reactor to overheat and blow up, disintegrating hull into thousands of pieces. Hearts of the scientists stop beating.
Whether it was a misunderstanding or active hostility remains unknown as xenolinguistics attempt to crack down received messages.

Due to the civilisation being roughly two hundred years behind humans, possibly less though, given they've demonstrated pretty powerful ground-based planetary defence array, and as such not having any real space combat capabilities beyond their homeworld's orbit, government doesn't give assault fleet an order to invade apparently hostile world - they don't pose any threat in the current situation. Multiple probes were placed around their system to closely monitor their development and further actions after the incident.

15th June 2197, a Decree of "Barnad's Army" receives governmental approval. According to it, in case aliens from Barnard's Star will turn out to be too dangerous at any moment, human space forces will quickly bombard their planet from orbit until they either surrender or lose capability to pose said threat, no matter how insignificant it'd appear at first.
According to current procedures, communication attempts will continue via SETI program despite assault on the Orion research vessel.

SECOND BOOTES WAR

20th June 2197, during a routine patrol over explored Mechi space, once populated by their ships flying back and forth, now eerily deserted thankfully to the activity of the Invaders in the area, a fleet that once conquered GJ 1277 stumbles upon large amount of wreckage floating around deep space in HIP 79762. A fleet of Fate-class salvaging ships is sent to investigate and recover whatever might be recoverable from the leftovers of a battle long fought and forgotten.
22th June 2197, 15:13:31, Fate fleet meets its fate as unknown attackers fire upon them. Before anyone can react, all the salvaging ships join debris they attempted to mop up.



22th June 2197, 15:24:56, human forces catch up to Invaders, confirming it was Invaders who opened fire, not Mechi or some other previously undiscovered threat. It is quickly determined that it's by far the largest fleet encountered:



Without hesitation humanity attempts to retreat while Tomahawks open fire at enemies who begin their chase. To the horror of every human participating in the battle, Invaders are too many and none of the missiles can get through their overwhelming defences.





22th June 2197, 16:45:87, despite constantly accelerating and using subluminal warp drives every ship is equipped with, Invaders manage to close in without any trouble. The whole fleet becomes endangered.
In a brave act of self-sacrifice, commander of Chimera carriers squadron offers to slow down the enemy advance by turning around and launching Valor fighters to disrupt them, buying time for the rest of the fleet for each ship to engage Alcubierre Drive in emergency mode. The plan seems to be working, but its execution is observed with great sadness and grief as Valor pilots die by dozens within seconds, together with crewmembers of their motherships.







22th June 2197, 17:54:21, even combined sacrifice of Valors and Chimeras isn't enough to let the rest of the fleet power up their warp drives and get the hell out of the system in time. Invaders catch up and begin blowing up missile destroyers one by one:



After finishing off literally all of them, the enemy consumes Tomahawks next. Terrified crews launch missile volleys one by one, even if they know it won't matter:







22th June 2197, 18:02:53, with the last Tomahawk going down, Strikers are left without support of any FTL-capable ship. Having no other option, they head towards Zeta(2) Reticuli wormhole from where they plan on travelling through Mechi wormhole network all the way to Ross 128 where it ends (or rather begins) and then sending distress signals for other naval forces to come pick them up and take under the wings of their warp bubbles back to Mars.
30th June 2197, after outrunning Invaders' fleet due to simply being faster, surviving squadron of Strikers arrives in the Solar System. Meanwhile kilotons of debris floating around HIP 79762 remain even bigger than before, thanks to fresh Invaders' prey:



After few years of peace (well, not counting incident with Bardnard's Army), successful (at least for the time being) securing of NN 3009 and Gliese 526 Void Wormholes and starting colonisation of Kappa Tucanae humanity is deeply shaken after the events that took place close to HIP 79762. It wasn't even a lost battle, according to the reports it was a hopeless slaughter. Fleet admiral has been slain himself, unable to do anything about the situation just like everyone else involved.

Just as humanity prepared its solid defences around systems of main concerns, Invaders surprised it by launching the biggest assault so far from the least expected direction. They poured en masse from a place where only Mechi forces, much weaker, have been expected, hence why the fleet stationed around the region wasn't really prepared to face threat of such proportions.

Another wave of crisis hits Core Worlds due to horrible morale of entire human society as a whole. Because of the way Second Bootes War has started compared to the first one, massive protests hit the streets of every major city once again. Birthrates plummet, economy slows down, depression and suicide rates increase and more and more people lean towards "doom scenarios" which, in fact, Invaders do represent.

However, worsening situation doesn't really affect citizens living on Kappa Tucanae-A II and Tau Ceti-A IV since entire populations of these two worlds are psionic-capable and thus able to easily resist the dark thoughts. The difference it makes only radicalises more unstable members of society as they feel forgotten and basically threw away by the government into a trash bin, left in the Old Worlds to perish from the hands of Invaders while the elite flees into a new, better home. Secret services barely manage to prevent several terrorist attacks targeting Utopia colonisation fleet.

Many military experts claim that efforts put during First Bootes War were good enough to hold on in a reasonably well shape, but nowhere near enough to actually resolving the issue of Invaders once and for all. It's only a matter of time before last humans will perish if no breakthrough besides putting better and better defences is achieved.

Since missions exploring Bootes Void don't seem to yield anything useful under current circumstances, it is agreed that the best course of action would be to capture and interrogate a live Invader. And since they don't launch lifepods even if it means all crewmembers on their ships die possibly for that exact reason, there's only one way to achieve that goal: use a squad of elite space marines specifically trained for this operation that'll board one of their ships and take control over it.
A new military force is designed specifically for this task:

Code: [Select]

Space Marine Assault Rifleman
Transport Size (tons) 6     Cost 1.5     Armour 36     Hit Points 36
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.19     Resupply Cost 1.3
HP-5000A2 plasma rifle:      Shots 1      Penetration 19      Damage 15

Heavy Power Armour
Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Advanced Cybernetic Implants
Elite Psionic Combat Skills
Boarding Combat

Vendarite  0.24   
Development Cost  75

Code: [Select]

Space Marine LMG Support
Transport Size (tons) 12     Cost 3     Armour 36     Hit Points 36
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.38     Resupply Cost 6
SLR-3050LMG pulse laser LMG:      Shots 6      Penetration 15      Damage 15

Heavy Power Armour
Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Advanced Cybernetic Implants
Elite Psionic Combat Skills
Boarding Combat

Vendarite  0.48   
Development Cost  150

Code: [Select]

Space Marine HMG Support
Transport Size (tons) 20     Cost 5     Armour 36     Hit Points 36
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.63     Resupply Cost 9
HP-5050H plasma HMG:      Shots 6      Penetration 22      Damage 15

Heavy Power Armour
Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Advanced Cybernetic Implants
Elite Psionic Combat Skills
Boarding Combat

Vendarite  0.8   
Development Cost  250

Code: [Select]

Space Marines Squad
Transport Size: 500 tons
Build Cost: 125 BP
54x Space Marine Assault Rifleman
4x Space Marine HMG Support
8x Space Marine LMG Support

Latest achievements in the field of power armor, best plasma weaponry excelling at CQB in tight interiors, pulse laser machine guns for decently accurate support, most advanced genetic modifications and combat drugs, cybernetic implants, years of exhausting and dangerous training, both in the real universe and in the military-grade matrix as well, with psionic combat skills as a cherry on top of it all, these soldiers are the toughest out of the toughest out of the toughest.

A prototype of a small, very fast boarding shuttle appears. Capable of accelerating up to twice the enemy's speed it shall have no trouble reaching its target and pouring marines into it. Each squad will be divided into two such shuttles:

Code: [Select]

Gauntlet class Troop Shuttle      6,187 tons       162 Crew       1,935.1 BP       TCS 124    TH 2,500    EM 6,240
20203 km/s      Armour 5-30       Shields 208-520       HTK 25      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 2      PPV 0
Maint Life 1.33 Years     MSP 1,590    AFR 153%    IFR 2.1%    1YR 953    5YR 14,290    Max Repair 1250 MSP
Troop Capacity 250 tons     Boarding Capable   
Captain    Control Rating 2   BRG   ENG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Morale Check Required   

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP2500.00 (1)    Power 2500    Fuel Use 75.89%    Signature 2500    Explosion 20%
Fuel Capacity 750,000 Litres    Range 28.7 billion km (16 days at full power)
Theta S208 / R520 Shields (1)     Recharge Time 520 seconds (0.4 per second)

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

A few Strikers and Blades are going to be used for training since they are even faster than Invaders' fleets and are much smaller than the average Invaders' ship, meaning if a particular space marine and Gauntlet crewman can handle catching up and boarding them with ease, they're more than ready to tackle on Invaders.

The biggest challenge of a boarding operation is determined to be the moment Gauntlet will disengage its small, subluminal Alcubierre Drive and emerge from warp bubble right on top of its target, giving marines only a few milliseconds to attach themselves to the hostile hull. Of course even such elite troops will need at least one second to successfully complete that task, which means powering off warp drive will need to occur slightly ahead of the enemy, based on its predicted course.
During such small time periods enemy won't have time to do any significant manoeuvres, but with the level of precision required even the most insignificant detail could possibly make a difference between a successful boarding and a total disaster. Most advanced AI will be used to accurately predict all the actions hostile ship might attempt to perform during this critical moment.

Explored part of the Milky Way on the brink of Second Bootes War looks as follows:

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

Conquest of Paradise continues, population on Kappa Tucanae A-II crosses 30 million citizens while Terraria stations achieve orbit of Kappa Tucanae B-II. Cooling it down a bit to adapt it to human beings while trying to preserve as much of the original ecosystem as possible is going to be very challenging even in spite of latest research on climate control and modification.

HIP 47650 A-II goes on through its journey towards Core World status. A Dyson Sphere is put around its sun.

5th July 2197, scientists conducting research in Kruger 60 discover a Precursor outpost on Kruger 60-A I. Unlike the one on Tau Ceti-A IV, it remains unguarded. Only hellish atmosphere full of extremely toxic gasses protects it from access from outside, buried beneath almost 40 atm pressure and almost three thousands degrees.
Initial simulations quickly reveal that current technology is not going to cut it and terraformation of the planet is impossible. It orbits its star way too close.
Dyson Sphere research team stands up to the challenge and comes up with another space megastructure: an orbital city, capable of hosting millions of people. Since establishing self-sustaining colony on the surface is impossible, they propose to put permanent population in orbit.
A hypothetical city shall be built by putting together several hundreds of space stations built specifically for this occasion:

Code: [Select]

Olympus class Orbital Habitat      501,667 tons       40 Crew       290.1 BP       TCS 10,033    TH 0    EM 0
1 km/s      No Armour       Shields 0-0     HTK 30      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 0    Max Repair 200 MSP
Habitation Capacity 200,000   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months   


This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Space Station for construction purposes

As soon as the projects receives governmental approval, engineers and technicians begin construction in Gaia's orbit.

A prodigy on Kappa Tucanae-A II successfully creates a reinforced version of psionic implant currently in use. Her project focused primarily on increasing the maximum effective range for maintaining psionic linkage. She successfully convinces government that putting her implants in heads of people who are going to populate Olympus will successfully limit the time they'll have to spend on the surface during their work.

After blockade of NN 3009 Void Wormhole received additional reinforcements "just to be sure" and successfully intercepted and blasted into pieces several Invaders' reckon squadrons within seconds, colonisation project targeting the tropical paradise of GJ 1279-A II and a dead, but thanks to surface liquid water easily terraformable GJ 1279-A III, is initially accepted and enters planning phase.
Overseer project receives some tweaks and improvements before entering mass production, main concern being maximum speed it can accelerate into before burning too much fuel being too low in previous design to outrun Invaders if surprised at point blank:

Code: [Select]

Overseer class Area Defence Cruiser      40,790 tons       1,097 Crew       11,282.5 BP       TCS 816    TH 10,000    EM 0
12258 km/s    JR 3-50      Armour 10-105       Shields 0-0       HTK 177      Sensors 960/720/0/0      DCR 30      PPV 96
Maint Life 0.35 Years     MSP 5,728    AFR 1331%    IFR 18.5%    1YR 16,228    5YR 243,417    Max Repair 5000 MSP
Magazine 1,795   
Captain    Control Rating 2   BRG   ENG   
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Morale Check Required   

J42000(3-50) Alcubierre Drive     Max Ship Size 42000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP10000.00 (1)    Power 10000    Fuel Use 74.12%    Signature 10000    Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 6,000,000 Litres    Range 35.7 billion km (33 days at full power)

CIWS-320 (5x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 32,000 km/s     ROF 5       
Size 4.0 Missile Launcher (60.0% Reduction) (40)     Missile Size: 4    Rate of Fire 50
Missile Fire Control FC102-R20 (2)     Range 102.7m km    Resolution 20
Frunze Anti-Ship Missile (440)    Speed: 38,900 km/s    End: 43.2m     Range: 100.7m km    WH: 16    Size: 4    TH: 168/101/50

Active Search Sensor AS100-R20 (1)     GPS 4800     Range 100.7m km    Resolution 20
Thermal Sensor TH40-960 (1)     Sensitivity 960     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  244.9m km
EM Sensor EM40-720 (1)     Sensitivity 720     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  212.1m km

Compact ECCM-3 (2)         ECM 30

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 Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Thanks to advancements in higher dimensions physics and more experiments, first prototype of a quasi-hyperdrive successfully completed all required tests and is ready for industrial and military production. It's been casually referred to as a "jump drive" since it works by creating series of small, short-ranged wormholes that the ship jumps through along its journey and then immediately collapses them behind the spacecraft.
Despite this breakthrough, when asked about the possibility of using similar technology to collapse Void Wormholes, physicists claim for now it's pure science fiction with much more fiction and barely any science in it as the energy requirements are ridiculous even when considering harnessing power from antimatter reactors and black holes and on top of that even the mass of a jump drive required for such task is so big that it'd basically collapse under itself, forming a black hole.

15th July 2197, when one of the Orion teams arrives in LHS 288, next target for space exploration, first thing it discoveres is a small Void Wormhole haunting whoever dares to warp into this doomed system:











Government quickly issues increase in production of Plasma Interceptors to block this system too, before it's too late and Invaders will begin expanding.
In the meantime other explorers warp into Groombridge 34:





























Groombridge-34 B-IX first moon could potentially be inhabited by Precursors in the past as the conditions seem about right. Initial psionic scans and the feeling uneasy while orbiting it seem to confirm this hypothesis.
Boldly going where no man has ever gone before goes on and on. Explorers bring data from Beta Trianguli Australis system:









Marine life has found a way to evolve on almost completely oceanic world of Beta Trianguli Australis-A II. Its atmosphere has only traces of oxygen and what little lands exist there are barren, but numerous underwater rifts are bustling with life, some of which even resembles species naturally found on Earth.
Two stars that make for a binary system of FL Virginis keep each other a company in this otherwise empty patch of space where no other celestial bodies exist:



Gliese 445 doesn't have a planetary system either:



Just like WISE 0744+5628:



Government prepares to send military fleet to face Precursors in HIP 9786 as Astera stations arrive in Giclas 9-38 and begin shiponing fuel from local gas giants. A freshly assembled, small refuelling terminal is tugged into Luyten Palomar 914-54 near wormhole one can take to travel to Giclas 9-38 through TZ Arietis:

Code: [Select]

Aeon class Space Station      150,771 tons       10 Crew       2,700.6 BP       TCS 3,015    TH 0    EM 0
1 km/s      No Armour       Shields 0-0     HTK 17      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 11    Max Repair 2400 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months   
Refuelling Hub - Capable of refuelling multiple ships simultaneously

Fuel Capacity 50,000,000 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

To ease and speed up transportation, starships won't travel all the way to Giclas 9-38 to refuel, they'll stop at Luyten Palomar 914-54 instead. A small, but fast and agile fuel transit ship is proposed along Aeon Terminal that'll cruise through the wormholes back and forth, transporting fuel produced in Giclas 9-38 into the refuelling terminal:

Code: [Select]

Feeder class Tanker      9,915 tons       110 Crew       637.1 BP       TCS 198    TH 2,000    EM 0
10086 km/s      Armour 1-41       Shields 0-0       HTK 19      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 40    Max Repair 500 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months   

Commercial Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP2000.00 (1)    Power 2000    Fuel Use 1.33%    Signature 2000    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 1,369.3 billion km (1571 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 80,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 12 hours

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

After several boarding training manoeuvres, several pierced hulls of Strikers used for the task and hundreds of stranded marines rescue operations and one miracle of nobody dying during all these attempts, it stands clear that a new boarding philosophy is desperately needed if humanity is about to capture alive Invader. To increase survivability of boarding shuttles under fierce enemy fire, boarding attempt has been split into two stages: first stage is going to be about transporting boarding shuttles in hangars of carriers specifically designed for the task and the second will be about launching the shuttles when only about two hundred thousands kilometres away from the enemy. This allowed for the shuttles to be much faster due to completely disregarding engine fuel efficiency and fuel tonnage - these shuttles will start from the hangars, power up subluminal warp drive, catch up to the enemy, exit warp bubble, deploy marines and eventually, hopefully, get the hell out of the range of enemy lasers and Gauss turrets before their hulls are completely torn apart. Space combat experts across the worlds approve final designs of the vessels that'll be used for the task:

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Gauntlet MkII class Troop Shuttle      3,500 tons       116 Crew       1,648.2 BP       TCS 70    TH 2,400    EM 0
34288 km/s      Armour 18-20       Shields 0-0       HTK 11      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
Maint Life 1.25 Years     MSP 1,094    AFR 98%    IFR 1.4%    1YR 727    5YR 10,898    Max Repair 1200 MSP
Troop Capacity 500 tons     Boarding Capable   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months    Morale Check Required   

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP2400.00 (1)    Power 2400    Fuel Use 261.43%    Signature 2400    Explosion 30%
Fuel Capacity 3,000 Litres    Range 0.06 billion km (0 hours at full power)

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

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Patriot class Carrier      23,416 tons       471 Crew       6,556.2 BP       TCS 468    TH 8,050    EM 0
17189 km/s      Armour 20-72       Shields 0-0       HTK 74      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 7      PPV 0
Maint Life 0.56 Years     MSP 5,224    AFR 627%    IFR 8.7%    1YR 9,331    5YR 139,964    Max Repair 4025 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 7,000 tons     
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Flight Crew Berths 140    Morale Check Required   

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP8050.00 (1)    Power 8050    Fuel Use 64.32%    Signature 8050    Explosion 23%
Fuel Capacity 3,000,000 Litres    Range 35.9 billion km (24 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Each Patriot will carry two shuttles which will attack a single enemy ship which should be more than enough to overwhelm any onboard resistance space marines might face. Also, thanks to numerous combat simulations and extensive matrix training, composition of a boarding squad has been improved slightly:

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Space Marines Squad
Transport Size: 500 tons
Build Cost: 125 BP
1x Space Marines Squad Leader
2x Space Marine HMG Support
12x Space Marine LMG Support
51x Space Marine Assault Rifleman

During Struve Branch exploration a significant discovery is made. A wormhole in WISE 1647+5632 can be used to travel to HIP 22738. HIP 22738 system is more than an ordinary planetary system, though. It is even more than an ordinary life-bearing system. It's not even about one of the planets being almost perfect for hosting earthlike lifeforms. Deep space scans show more and more proof of numerous gigantic Invader-Mechi battles that once took place there:















Scientists compare the climate and properties of HIP 22738-A II with what data has once been recovered from Mechi data banks after conquest of GJ 1277 regarding some mysterious alien species. AI quickly confirms that the profile of these beings could as well be adapted to the conditions existing on the surface perfectly. This planet could either be a homeworld or an important colony of these aliens. How they're related to Mechi is still unknown and everyone could only guess, but finding a planet that could support them without any additional infrastructure in a system where kilotons of kilotons of debris speak for themselves sparks imagination of many.

These sparks turns into an all-out blazing fire once returning scientists file reports about their scanners picking up on distant space battle taking place right as they were flying towards HIP 22738-A II. They couldn't do any significant research in the system, it was too dangerous for them and on their way back they barely avoided Mechi garrison stationed on one of the asteroids suddenly opening fire.

One thing is certain: in one way or another, HIP 22738 is the key that can contain multiple answers to all kinds of questions related with Mechi and Invaders, possibly even Precursors as well.
Strategists try to come up with reasonable plans of surveying the system and uncovering its mysteries - Mechi and Invaders fighting each other in it could make this task significantly easier. Combat being easier there could also provide an invaluable opportunity to successfully board Invaders' vessels.

Despite the uncertain future one thing seems to be clear: the time has come for Mankind to strike back.









Numerous data gathered from humans who replaced their biological bodies for robotic ones show that in the course of years about 17% of the users had their ability of perceiving deep human emotions and empathy lowered dramatically. This is somewhat alarming as according to the standards produced cybernetic bodies have to raise up to before being given to the clients such thing should've never happened - all charts and graphs show hormone regulation maintained within normal parameters.

Concerned citizens living on Nibiru and working hard on making this planet a better place to live for future generations report numerous sightings of classical UFOs. SETI program and starships sent in to investigate do not confirm.

A veteran that took part in suppressing many anti-governmental protests and preventing several terrorist attacks, especially talented in psionic, gives a long speech about "thoughts no one will ever be able to put into words" and getting a taste of "things beyond this universe and any imagination of any being inhabiting it". Psychiatrists still divided on topic of a paradox where extremely potent psionic individuals would descend into madness despite being able to essentially fight any mental disorder or illness on their own, solely with power of their mind.

SETI team established on Kappa Tucanae-A II picks up a strange signal coming from "outer space". What exactly does "outer space" in this particular case mean, nobody really knows. Neither can anyone determine what the signal really is about.

Billions worth of software and hardware lost after Red Dot 2359 v 1.2.8 rejects patch fixing its hostile attitude and attempts to break into global network. AI in question had to be completely deleted and no single bit of code survived.

Entire human race in awe after Bidet Inc, largest interstellar company producing toilet utilities discovers the potential for mass production of toilet paper in Kappa Tucanae system. Despite hope long lost, it seems as if good old pre-COVID-19 times might return in all their glory. This is a cherry on top of in the context of finding proof that Kappa Tucanae is better than Solar System in every single way and that it is that system that should host the homeworld of mankind.

29th August 2197, linguistic team on Gaia manages to crack down the language of "Barnard's Army". The level of understanding is still very basic, but it's already more than enough to say that civilisation living on Barnard's Star-A I spent last thirty years in fear of a great danger that was coming to get them. According to data gathered, they expected an all-out alien invasion any time and when human scientific ship appeared on orbit they opened fire because they thought "it has begun".

Despite some radical groups proposing "revenge", government, fully aware what could possibly the danger that frightened "Barnard's Army" mean, decides that the best course of action is to try to communicate with the civilisation in question and learn as much about this threat as possible. Best scientists and human race representatives board a Diplomat that is supposed to keep itself away from their orbital lasers and attempt communication from inside their home system.

27th September, 2197, diplomatic mission shocked when they make an eerie, creepy discovery: the planet looks as if it's been switched off. Lights on the dark side no longer shine, EM signature dropped to almost zero and there are no traces of life on the surface. Taking a great risk, Diplomat raises shields and approaches the planet, but nobody opens fire on it. Initial scans don't show any traces of alien invasion taking place there, lush fauna and flora still thrives in this world, overall it looks as if the sentient race living there suddenly disappeared with a blink of an eye, together with any artificial product and construction they ever created.

Government immediately calls for an emergency meeting. Everyone remembered all those perfect planets for extraterrestrial sentience to develop on them discovered within Invaders' wormhole network. Despite numerous trials and gravitational survey missions, not a single wormhole has been discovered in Barnard's Star's proximity, but most government officials agree that what could have happened is the entire process of Invaders erasing entire civilisations without leaving a trace took place once again and maybe soon Barnard's Star will join their network as one of those planets.

Numerous military simulations based on the state of the Orion's wreck found still floating in orbit and data gathered from battles with Invaders that occurred so far, however, prove that it'd be impossible for Invaders to approach the planet without taking a single casualty, meanwhile there is no single wreck of theirs anywhere to be found nearby.
Accepting the version that Invaders might have somehow teleported directly to the ground from afar, bypassing orbital defence grid, government "calls to arms", praying that it was indeed overwhelming military force appearing suddenly on the ground that annihilated Barnard's Army and not something else for defence against which no amount of soldiers would be enough. This version is somewhat believable since the development level of discovered civilisation suggested they barely reached first laser cannons and their armies might have been still below the level of mass-produced energetic weapons and power armors in which case defeat was likely to happen for them.

Apart from space fleets and marines, this is the largest military project World Government attempted to tackle so far. New anti-Invaders army is based mainly on well-trained, elite infantry units and a mix of agile and heavily armored tanks, but not much in between these two types of vehicles. AA forces and orbital defence grids have been marginalised since Barnard's Army has fallen without being able to put theirs into good use against incoming danger.

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Standard Assault Trooper
Transport Size (tons) 5     Cost 0.45     Armour 27.0     Hit Points 18
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.056     Resupply Cost 1
LR-3000 pulse-continuous laser assault rifle:      Shots 1      Penetration 15      Damage 15

Standard-Issue Power Armour
Combat Cybernetic Implants
Bionic Bones
Basic Anti-Psionic Defence Training
Extreme Pressure Combat
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  0.15   
Development Cost  22

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Stanard LMG Support Trooper
Transport Size (tons) 12     Cost 1.08     Armour 27.0     Hit Points 18
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.14     Resupply Cost 6
SLR-3040LMG pulse laser LMG:      Shots 6      Penetration 15      Damage 15

Standard-Issue Power Armour
Combat Cybernetic Implants
Light Exoskeleton
Bionic Bones
Basic Anti-Psionic Defence Training
Extreme Pressure Combat
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  0.36   
Development Cost  54

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Stanard HMG Support Trooper
Transport Size (tons) 20     Cost 1.8     Armour 27.0     Hit Points 18
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.23     Resupply Cost 9
HL-40A2 heavy continuous laser machine gun:      Shots 6      Penetration 22      Damage 15

Standard-Issue Power Armour
Combat Cybernetic Implants
Heavy Exoskeleton
Bionic Bones
Basic Anti-Psionic Defence Training
Extreme Pressure Combat
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  0.6   
Development Cost  90

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Anti-Tank Shocktrooper
Transport Size (tons) 16     Cost 5.86     Armour 36     Hit Points 36
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.73     Resupply Cost 6
RR4500-AP railgun cannon:      Shots 1      Penetration 30      Damage 45

Heavy Power Armour
Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Advanced Cybernetic Implants
Combat Exoskeleton
Desert Warfare
Extreme Temperature Combat
Jungle Warfare
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare

Vendarite  0.64   
Development Cost  293

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AA Assault Support Trooper
Transport Size (tons) 20     Cost 2.2     Armour 27.0     Hit Points 18
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.28     Resupply Cost 2
AAL-15A2 continuous surface-to-orbit laser:      Shots 1      Penetration 15      Damage 30      AA Value 4

Standard-Issue Power Armour
Advanced Cybernetic Implants
Heavy Combat Exoskeleton
Bionic Eyes
Desert Warfare
Extreme Temperature Combat
Jungle Warfare
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare

Vendarite  0.6   
Development Cost  110

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Mortar Support Team
Transport Size (tons) 20     Cost 1.8     Armour 27.0     Hit Points 18
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.23     Resupply Cost 6
GGA3 Gauss mortar:      Shots 3      Penetration 15      Damage 30

Light Combat Power Armour
Advanced Cybernetic Implants
Basic Anti-Psionic Defence Training
Extreme Pressure Combat
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  0.6   
Development Cost  90

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Elite Assault Trooper
Transport Size (tons) 6     Cost 2.2     Armour 36     Hit Points 36
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.28     Resupply Cost 1.3
PLR-7000A2 particle beam heavy assault rifle:      Shots 1      Penetration 19      Damage 15

Heavy Power Armour
Advanced Cybernetic Implants
Heavy Combat Exoskeleton
Bionic Bones
Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Advanced Offensive And Defensive Psionic Skills
Desert Warfare
Extreme Temperature Combat
Jungle Warfare
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare

Vendarite  0.24   
Development Cost  110

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Infantry Commander
Transport Size (tons) 50     Cost 20     Armour 36     Hit Points 36
Annual Maintenance Cost 2.5     Resupply Cost 0
Headquarters:    Capacity 10,000

Elite Power Armour
Elite Cybernetic Implants
Bionic Bones
Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Synthetically Enriched Brain
Psionic Combat Hive Mind Leader
Non-Combat Class

Vendarite  8   
Development Cost  1,000

The bulk of foot infantry forces is going to be accompanied by mechanised infantry, several types of tanks, armored vehicles and assault or defensive platforms of all kinds:

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Standard Mechanized Infantry
Transport Size (tons) 42     Cost 3.15     Armour 36     Hit Points 72
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.39     Resupply Cost 12
SLR-3070LMG pulse laser LMG:      Shots 6      Penetration 15      Damage 15
SLR-3070LMG pulse laser LMG:      Shots 6      Penetration 15      Damage 15

Light Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Onboard AI Assistant
Basic Beam-Reflective Shields
Desert Warfare
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  1.68   
Development Cost  157

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Heavy Mechanized Infantry
Transport Size (tons) 58     Cost 4.35     Armour 36     Hit Points 72
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.54     Resupply Cost 18
SHLR-3050HMG pulse laser HMG:      Shots 6      Penetration 22      Damage 15
PLRMG-7050 particle beam HMG:      Shots 6      Penetration 22      Damage 15

Standard-Issue Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Light Anti-Shock Armour
Onboard AI Assistant
Basic Beam-Reflective Shields
Desert Warfare
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  2.32   
Development Cost  217

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Elite Mechanized Infantry
Transport Size (tons) 60     Cost 4.5     Armour 36     Hit Points 54
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.56     Resupply Cost 18
HPC-2000A2 automatic plasma carronade:      Shots 3      Penetration 45      Damage 30

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Light Anti-Shock Armour
Onboard AI Assistant
Standard-Issue Beam-Reflective Shields
Integrated Psionic Warfare System
Desert Warfare
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  2.4   
Development Cost  225

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APC
Transport Size (tons) 32     Cost 2.4     Armour 36     Hit Points 54
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.3     Resupply Cost 9
PLRMG-7050 particle beam HMG:      Shots 6      Penetration 22      Damage 15

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Light Anti-Shock Armour
Onboard AI Assistant
Basic Beam-Reflective Shields
Desert Warfare
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  1.28   
Development Cost  120

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Main Battle Tank
Transport Size (tons) 104     Cost 18.72     Armour 108     Hit Points 108
Annual Maintenance Cost 2.3     Resupply Cost 45
HE-RRA2 automatic explosive railgun:      Shots 1      Penetration 90      Damage 90
PLRMG-7050 particle beam HMG:      Shots 6      Penetration 22      Damage 15

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Standard-Issue Anti-Shock Armour
AI-Driven Retargeting System
Heavy Beam-Reflective Shields
Light Combat Anti-Explosives Shields
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  12.48   
Development Cost  936

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Heavy Battle Tank
Transport Size (tons) 340     Cost 114.75     Armour 162     Hit Points 216
Annual Maintenance Cost 14.3     Resupply Cost 192
PC-5000 overcharged plasma carronade:      Shots 1      Penetration 135      Damage 135
PBH-000 heavy phased particle beam cannon:      Shots 1      Penetration 135      Damage 135
HPC-3000 automatic plasma carronade:      Shots 3      Penetration 75      Damage 30

Heavily Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Heavy Anti-Shock Armour
AI-Driven Retargeting System
Heavy Beam-Reflective Shields
Heavy Combat Anti-Explosives Shields
Desert Warfare
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  61.2   
Development Cost  5,737

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Tank Destroyer
Transport Size (tons) 78     Cost 9.36     Armour 72     Hit Points 72
Annual Maintenance Cost 1.2     Resupply Cost 42
EMGG electromagnetic pulse gauss cannon:      Shots 1      Penetration 90      Damage 90
SLR-3070LMG pulse laser LMG:      Shots 6      Penetration 15      Damage 15

Standard-Issue Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
AI-Driven Retargeting System
Light Beam-Reflective Shields
Light Combat Anti-Explosives Shields
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  6.24   
Development Cost  468

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Mobile Anti-Tank Platform
Transport Size (tons) 188     Cost 22.56     Armour 72     Hit Points 216
Annual Maintenance Cost 2.8     Resupply Cost 48
HE-RRA2 automatic explosive railgun:      Shots 1      Penetration 90      Damage 90
PPC light plasma carronade:      Shots 1      Penetration 30      Damage 45
PPC light plasma carronade:      Shots 1      Penetration 30      Damage 45

Heavily Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Standard-Issue Anti-Shock Armour
AI-Driven Retargeting System
Reinforced Beam-Reflective Shields
Reinforced Combat Anti-Explosives Shields
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  15.04   
Development Cost  1,128

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All-Purpose Mobile Assault Platform
Transport Size (tons) 448     Cost 80.64     Armour 162     Hit Points 432
Annual Maintenance Cost 10.1     Resupply Cost 129
PBH-000 heavy phased particle beam cannon:      Shots 1      Penetration 135      Damage 135
HPC-3000 automatic plasma carronade:      Shots 3      Penetration 75      Damage 30
PLRMG-7050 particle beam HMG:      Shots 6      Penetration 22      Damage 15
SOL-2200A3 surface-to-orbit laser cannon:      Shots 1      Penetration 45      Damage 90      AA Value 16

Heavily Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Heavily Reinforced Anti-Shock Armour
Reactive Bionic Armour
Advanced AI-Driven Retargeting System
Heavily Reinforced Beam-Reflective Shields
Heavily Reinforced Anti-Explosives Shields

Vendarite  80.64   
Development Cost  4,032

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AA Support Team
Transport Size (tons) 118     Cost 17.7     Armour 72     Hit Points 72
Annual Maintenance Cost 2.2     Resupply Cost 26
SOL-2200A1 light surface-to-orbit laser cannon:      Shots 1      Penetration 30      Damage 60      AA Value 9
SOL-2200A3 surface-to-orbit laser cannon:      Shots 1      Penetration 45      Damage 90      AA Value 16

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Standard-Issue Anti-Shock Armour
Advanced AI-Driven Retargeting System
Light Combat Beam-Reflective Shields
Standard-Issue Anti-Explosives Shields
Desert Warfare
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  9.44   
Development Cost  885

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Mechanized AA Assault Support
Transport Size (tons) 138     Cost 8.28     Armour 36     Hit Points 72
Annual Maintenance Cost 1     Resupply Cost 36
SOL-2200A3 surface-to-orbit laser cannon:      Shots 1      Penetration 45      Damage 90      AA Value 16
SOL-2200A3 surface-to-orbit laser cannon:      Shots 1      Penetration 45      Damage 90      AA Value 16

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Reinforced Anti-Shock Armour
Advanced AI-Driven Retargeting System
Combat Beam-Reflective Shields
Standard-Issue Anti-Explosives Shields
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  5.52   
Development Cost  414

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Mechanized AA Defence Unit
Transport Size (tons) 248     Cost 29.76     Armour 108     Hit Points 216
Annual Maintenance Cost 3.7     Resupply Cost 34
SOL-2200A3 surface-to-orbit laser cannon:      Shots 1      Penetration 45      Damage 90      AA Value 16
SOL-2200A1 light surface-to-orbit laser cannon:      Shots 1      Penetration 30      Damage 60      AA Value 9
SOL-2200A1 light surface-to-orbit laser cannon:      Shots 1      Penetration 30      Damage 60      AA Value 9

Heavy Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Heavy Reinforced Anti-Shock Armour
Advanced AI-Driven Retargeting System
Combat Beam-Reflective Shields
Standard-Issue Anti-Explosives Shields

Vendarite  29.76   
Development Cost  1,488

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Heavy Tactical AA Defence Platform
Transport Size (tons) 72     Cost 4.32     Armour 54     Hit Points 54
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.54     Resupply Cost 18
SOL-2200A3 surface-to-orbit laser cannon:      Shots 1      Penetration 45      Damage 90      AA Value 16

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Reinforced Anti-Shock Armour
Advanced AI-Driven Retargeting System
Integrated Space Warfare Simulation Module
Combat Beam-Reflective Shields
Standard-Issue Anti-Explosives Shields

Vendarite  4.32   
Development Cost  216

Both foot and armored or mechanised forces are going to rely on artillery support, designed to be both mobile and able to hit even small targets over vast distances:

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Light Artillery Support Team
Transport Size (tons) 58     Cost 3.48     Armour 36     Hit Points 72
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.44     Resupply Cost 12
N-3000 plasma fragmentation cannon:      Shots 3      Penetration 15      Damage 30
N-3000 plasma fragmentation cannon:      Shots 3      Penetration 15      Damage 30

Standard-Issue Defensive Force Field
AI-Driven Retargeting System
Standard-Issue Recalibration Module
Short-Range Tracking System
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  2.32   
Development Cost  174

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Heavy Assault Artillery
Transport Size (tons) 436     Cost 78.48     Armour 108     Hit Points 432
Annual Maintenance Cost 9.8     Resupply Cost 108
AF-5000 heavy fusion cannon:      Shots 3      Penetration 30      Damage 90
AF-5000 heavy fusion cannon:      Shots 3      Penetration 30      Damage 90
ALF-5100 precise fusion railgun:      Shots 3      Penetration 22      Damage 60
ALF-5100 precise fusion railgun:      Shots 3      Penetration 22      Damage 60

Reinforced Combat Defensive Force Field
Advanced AI-Driven Retargeting System
Precise Recalibration Module
Advanced Long-Range Deep Tracking System
Advanced Missile Guidance System
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  52.32   
Development Cost  3,924

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Long Range Artillery Support Team
Transport Size (tons) 62     Cost 5.58     Armour 54     Hit Points 54
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.7     Resupply Cost 18
ALF-5150A3 automatic precise fusion railgun:      Shots 3      Penetration 22      Damage 60

Standard-Issue Combat Defensive Force Field
Advanced AI-Driven Retargeting System
Precise Recalibration Module
Advanced Long-Range Deep Tracking System
Advanced Missile Guidance System
Extreme Temperature Combat

Vendarite  3.72   
Development Cost  279

The proposed field HQ modules, command centers and logistics support present as follows:

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Supply Truck
Transport Size (tons) 62     Cost 2.48     Armour 36     Hit Points 54
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.31     Resupply Cost 0
Logistics Module:      Ground Supply Points 500
Non-Combat Class

Light Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Basic Beam-Reflective Shields

Vendarite  2.48   
Development Cost  124

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Combat Engineers Team
Transport Size (tons) 318     Cost 12.72     Armour 36     Hit Points 72
Annual Maintenance Cost 1.6     Resupply Cost 0
Construction Equipment:      Construction Factory Equivalent 0.05
Construction Equipment:      Construction Factory Equivalent 0.05
Non-Combat Class

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Reinforced Beam-Reflective Shields

Vendarite  12.72   
Development Cost  636

Code: [Select]

Mechanized HQ
Transport Size (tons) 293     Cost 53.44     Armour 72     Hit Points 72
Annual Maintenance Cost 6.7     Resupply Cost 0
Headquarters:    Capacity 25,000
Construction Equipment:      Construction Factory Equivalent 0.05
Non-Combat Class

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Light Anti-Shock Armour
AI Command Assistant
Standard-Issue Beam-Reflective Shields
Integrated Psionic Warfare System
Command Computing Grid
Basic Warfare Simulation Module

Vendarite  53.44   
Development Cost  2,672

Code: [Select]

Field HQ
Transport Size (tons) 262     Cost 60.72     Armour 54     Hit Points 54
Annual Maintenance Cost 7.6     Resupply Cost 0
Headquarters:    Capacity 50,000
Non-Combat Class

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Light Anti-Shock Armour
Advanced AI Command Assistant
Standard-Issue Beam-Reflective Shields
Integrated Psionic Warfare System
Combat Hive Mind Support Module
Command Computing Grid
Advanced Warfare Simulation Module

Vendarite  60.72   
Development Cost  3,036

Code: [Select]

Formation Headquarters
Transport Size (tons) 112     Cost 24.72     Armour 54     Hit Points 54
Annual Maintenance Cost 3.1     Resupply Cost 0
Headquarters:    Capacity 20,000
Non-Combat Class

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Light Anti-Shock Armour
AI Command Assistant
Light Beam-Reflective Shields
Integrated Psionic Warfare System
Command Computing Grid
Basic Warfare Simulation Module

Vendarite  24.72   
Development Cost  1,236

Code: [Select]

High Battle Command
Transport Size (tons) 262     Cost 120.72     Armour 54     Hit Points 54
Annual Maintenance Cost 15.1     Resupply Cost 0
Headquarters:    Capacity 100,000
Non-Combat Class

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Reinforced Anti-Shock Armour
Advanced AI Command Assistant
Reinforced Beam-Reflective Shields
Integrated Psionic Warfare System
Advanced Combat Hive Mind Support Module
Advanced Command Computing Grid
Advanced Warfare Simulation Module
AI-Driven Automated Strategic Analysis Module

Vendarite  120.72   
Development Cost  6,036

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General HQ
Transport Size (tons) 262     Cost 240.72     Armour 54     Hit Points 54
Annual Maintenance Cost 30     Resupply Cost 0
Headquarters:    Capacity 200,000
Non-Combat Class

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Reinforced Anti-Shock Armour
Elite AI Command Assistant
Reinforced Beam-Reflective Shields
Integrated Psionic Warfare System
High-Powered Combat Hive Mind Support Module
AI-Supported Command Computing Grid
Advanced Warfare Simulation Module
AI-Driven Automated Strategic Analysis Module
Matrix-Based Planetary Warfare Simulator
Autonomous AI Commander

Vendarite  240.72   
Development Cost  12,036

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Support Leader Team
Transport Size (tons) 162     Cost 36.72     Armour 54     Hit Points 54
Annual Maintenance Cost 4.6     Resupply Cost 0
Headquarters:    Capacity 30,000
Non-Combat Class

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Light Anti-Shock Armour
AI Command Assistant
Light Beam-Reflective Shields
Integrated Psionic Warfare System
Command Computing Grid
Basic Warfare Simulation Module

Vendarite  36.72   
Development Cost  1,836

Currently enlistment is voluntarily, however depending on the development of current strategic situation this might change any moment. Largest training complexes and barracks are assembled on Earth, however specialised training adapting soldiers for fighting on other planets, among hostile environments, has been made mandatory for every soldier successfully completing the basic one and will take place on all kinds of so far explored worlds.

Need for rapid deployment of this next-gen army across all inhabited worlds has significantly improved psionic-related sciences. As a result of progress made scientists on Kappa Tucanae-A II under the leadership of young prodigy responsible for long-range psionic implant development manages to come up with a first prototype of a neurotrainer. Such device would allow rapid learning and data processing. While it is only a slight improvement for accessing general knowledge as pulling large amounts of data from internet via brain implants in a matter of seconds has been around for decades already, main benefits of such device would be in quickly learning a particular skill, for example shooting.

As for now it is used only for military training purposes, but at some point it is supposed to arrive in industrial and civilian applications as well. Many fear that common usage of neurotrainers in the future will completely remove the differences between experts and specialists of any kind as with knowledge already being gained effortlessly by anyone who wants it skills were the last bastion to determine individuals talented in something. Many sociologists indeed admit this breakthrough could have an unforeseeable consequences.

As army building consumes huge amount of resources, Nylander Resources Corporation receives special funding and governmental contracts for expanding their mining complexes on Proxima Centauri c. Massive, rich planet is supposed to support resource-hungry machine for the years to come.

First Overseers leave Earth orbital shipbuilding station and head towards WISE 2359-7335 to enter Invaders' network and begin their deep space patrolling tasks to check for any rogue ships that might have remained undetected within commonly traversed systems, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Olympus City modules are almost finished, however transporting them into orbit of Kruger 60-A I and assembling them together once destination is reached is expected to take many years and will be the most space logistic operation up to date, surpassing even Dyson Sphere projects.

Due to rapid colonisation, population on Kappa Tucanae-A II crosses one hundred million people.

Scientists working in Cydonia research facility come up with a special design of spaceship shields - they don't protect the vessel from incoming fire, but are capable of reflecting emitted signatures and cheat outside radars up to a great degree by reflecting most of the signals coming from a ship using these shields.
Research into improved design, one that could enter military production, begins. Cloaking technology could provide an invaluable opportunity for espionage missions and being able to study Invader or Mechi ships from up close without them noticing.

2nd February 2198, 17:21:33, cargo fleet transporting supplies for NN 3009 Void Wormhole Blockade forces is fired upon as soon as it emerges from the wormhole. Escorting assault fleet quickly intervenes, allowing freighters to escape safely. One of the Pikes suffers severe engine damage which kills most of its crew and makes it unable to accelerate. Remaining survivors know what it means in the context of a battle that's about to begin.



Human ships attempt to quickly gain range and redirect all power into engines to accelerate as fast as possible while hundreds of flak missiles fired form enemy Gauss cannons bounce off shields:



Unfortunately the swarm eventually overcharges shielding of several ships and starts punching through the armor. First casualties are taken. Invaders accelerate faster and catch up to human forces:



2nd February 2198, 17:23:17, Pike squadron detaches from the main fleet and engages subluminal warp drive to quickly gain range once it becomes obvious it is the main target of the enemy fire. Before it encloses itself within warp bubble, Invaders cut one more Pike into pieces with their terrifying lasers:



Humanity retaliates and launches a "Gauss counterattack" of its own with Phalanx and Vanguard missile destroyers accompanying the fleet "just in case" even if up to date no missile usage has been noticed among Invaders. A ruthless firefight begins at a range so close that often it is possible to see the enemy with naked eye. Such battle has never happened before.
2nd February 2198, 17:27:02, one of the enemy ships accelerates rapidly and overtakes both fleets exchanging fire. Before it can turn around, open fire and escape flak range several Gauss projectiles dent its armor:



Firefight continues. In order to break such close contact with Invaders, humanity engages and disengages subluminal warp drives several times in a very short span of time in order to confuse enemy target tracking and sensor systems. Onboard fusion reactors are pushed to the bring of overheating, but the manoeuvre ends up being a huge success:



2nd February 2198, 17:28:14, Invaders eventually catch up again, but they take additional losses in the process. Meanwhile Pikes made U-turn and opened fire, providing long-range support. At least relatively long-range.



With the support of powerful particle beam guns provided by Pikes, humanity manages to quickly overwhelm enemy forces. As Pikes eventually close in, they help mop up all of the remaining enemy ships.





Despite ongoing war humanity still pushes forward, exploring nearby stars and visiting alien worlds in search for the answers, scientific knowledge and new potential colonisation targets. Next target has been chosen - binary system of HIP 15220:













Around Luyten's Star a single dwarf planet is found orbiting it closely:





A mission into main Mechi territory is launched. Explorers enter GJ 1151 system where Invaders have been spotted and chased during Mechi assault anf conquest of GJ 1277 system. Only two wormholes are found there in total: one being a wormhole leading there from GJ 1277 which explorers have used to arrive in the system and the second one links EG 165 system:





Only a single gas giant with a bunch of moons orbits the dead, cold white dwarf. No Invader or Mechi presence has been detected either in EG 165 or GJ 1151.
Simulatenously Struve Branch of Mechi territory is also being surveyed. Last unexplored wormhole in Struve 2398 connects to WISE 0350-5658:











An independent scientific mission brings data from Altair system:











Altair-A II hosts complex plant and fungus lifeforms the former of which appear to produce food for themselves similarly to how plants on Earth do it, however reactions taking place in their bodies aren't the same as photosynthesis since no oxygen is being produced in the process and it requires much higher amounts of CO2.
Several jungles and forests grow on the surface around sea shores, however most of the inner land is a dead, scorching desert closer to equator or a dead cold desert closer to the poles.
No fauna has been detected except some simple organisms consisting of only a few cells maximum.
After conducting initial research and sample gathering, scientific team warps into Ross 47 as a last stop before returning home. There isn't much for them to do here as it's a single, lonely star:



18th June 2199, SETI team located on Kappa Tucanae-A II picks up a signature of a single ship flying around the system. First feelings of fear mixed with excitement evolve into pure fear as comparing readings with entries in the database containing all alien vessels discovered so far reveals it is an Invader vessel.
Little to nothing is known about this ship as through all history of First and Second Bootes War it has been spotted only once, before even first shots were fired and Invader hostility was known to mankind. Panic ensues as the presence of the ship is deemed a direct threat to the Utopia, a system that is supposed to grow greater than Sol.

A small patrolling team of Overseers quickly reaches Kappa Tucanae to investigate, but the ship has disappeared from radars long before they arrived. Brief scans reveal a wormhole close to its last known position. It can be used to travel into NN 3684 system:

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

It doesn't even shock anybody anymore when yet another system linked by Invaders does contain habitable planets. Some are even surprised that this time it's only one world, NN 3684-A III and its submarine life growing deeply below thick ice sheets together with some microorganisms and simple plants found surviving on the surface or even floating in the sky.
No traces of the mysterious ships are found within the system, though.

One thing doesn't fit, though: coordinates of the detected wormhole and the last known position of the ship differ from each other, pointing at locations over half a million kilometers away from each other.
This is well above measurement error margin.
Wormhole in question is well within effective UFO tracking systems used on Kappa Tucanae-A II.
All data gathered so far and simulations ran dozens of millions of times confirm one simple fact: the ship did not leave the system via NN 3684 wormhole. No additional wormholes are detected close to its last location, either.
The ship has either activated some sort of cloaking technology, maybe similar to what scientists on Cydonia are working on, or left the system by using an FTL drive on its own, removing wormhole dependency for interstellar travel.
However, if it was the first case, the ship might have stayed out of detection for the entire time spent in Kappa Tucanae in the first place.
Many agree that this was indeed Invader ship using its own FTL drive to leave the system.

A solid proof is brought two days later when data scientists manage to pinpoint a single anomaly in the datasets gathered from that encounter. Physicists confirm it looks just like a small disturbance in the fabric of space should look like, one that is made by a starship going superluminal.

And so it was official that Invaders, apart from their wormholes, also had dedicated FTL drives mounted on at least some of their ships.
This means that naval blockades set around known Void Wormholes won't be enough to contain the threat.
A call for rapid militarisation of space in Kappa Tucanae system is announced as a first response. Soon after leakage of the true reason behind this step to the public another wave of mass panic sweeps over humanity. Government promises to "present a detailed response plan" and on top of that do it "soon".

As if Invaders showing off their superluminal travel methods wasn't enough, workers on space stations providing support for military fleets in GJ 1277 spot several Mechi ships flying back and forth through the WISE 1150+6302 wormhole.
It is still very likely that Mechi wage war with Invaders as well, however their surprising comeback into systems that were quiet for so long might suggest them gaining an upper hand. Military officers suggest this might be a result of naval blockade set around Void Wormholes, but on the other hand there was no larger battle involving plasma interceptors so far, not counting the first one that happened right after setting up first prototype fleet in NN 3009 that required main force intervention.
Mechi possibly getting some wins against Invaders is as good news as it is bad news. Both are hostile to humanity either way.

Last module of Olympus orbital city gets finished. A long and exhuasting process of transporting all of them into orbit of Kruger 60-A I begins. It is estimated it'll take well over decade before the process is finished and the city will become habitable, unless more tugging ships are assembed to speed this up.

Mars sees rapid industrial development. Scientists estimate the planet won't be able to support much more people in the future yet former Red Planet still faces worker shortages.
As a solution to the problem, some experts suggest converting all planetary ecosystems into equivalents with genetically-engineered organisms providing far more nutrients for more humans to be able to self-sustain themselves.

A special matrix module is released, allowing everyone to take part in a long-term simulation of living in Martian environment after undergoing these changes.
Initial results are promising, however government hesitates. Shall the experiment go wrong, billions of people would find themselves in a deteriorating environment, not being able to sustain themselves. Even in case of such catastrophe all citizens in theory could be safely evacuated into other planets that are in desperate need of more colonists, but whether it could be done quickly enough to not have anyone die is a different question. And even if it could be done in such a way, mass panic and hard to contain riots are a guarantee under the circumstances of planetary cataclysm.

Further investigation into the problem more and more robotic body users are facing brings cybernetics industries at the edge of crisis. Newest research reveals that even though on paper everything looks fine, through the course of many years synthetic hormones aren't as good for the brain as the normal ones.
But that alone wasn't the most creepy discovery made - a test group have had natural hormones injected into their synthetic bodies rather than relying on artificial production, yet their mental condition did not improve in the slightest. There must be something more into it.

According to all scientific knowledge about human body gathered so far, there's no place for such error, yet such error occurred. At that point everyone, believer or not, had to admit that human beings do possess "soul". What that exactly meant was a subject of heated discussions between believers and atheists, but something yet unknown existed within human body that was essential for one's sanity.
Something that could handle cybernetic implants, genetic enhancements and psionic powers just fine, even if one had more metal inside than flesh, but completely replacing biological body appears to be a whole different affair.
Cybernetics corporations lose profits as clients massively step back from enclosing their brains in robots and cancel already scheduled transfer operations. Standard implanting proceeds as usual, though.

15th October 2199, World Government eventually approves basic income law. From now on, each citizen will be paid 2 virtual toilet paper rolls per month which is enough to live somewhat bearable existence on a Core World and even save up for a car, a bunch of basic cybernetic implants and a few holiday trips into other solar systems.
In order to encourage people to get jobs either way, government plans to introduce a very high minimum wage for particularly hard jobs like surveying heavy industry on backwater industrial planets. However it quickly turns out it doesn't even need to do so as corporations do it voluntarily in fear of losing too much personnel and potential candidates to fill their vacancies.
As a result of the change, made possible by heavy automation and AI usage in everyday life, average standard of life increases.

Toilet paper industries grow exponentially on Kappa Tucanae-A II. Now the richest can afford to use this precious luxury product again, compared to it being available exclusively for the richest of the richest before.

Xenoarcheologists explore a large cavern system found during mining operations in the area of Whispering Summit, highest mountain on Nibiru. Density of minerals is even higher here than in other popular mining spots on the planet.
Despite life finding a way to survive on the surface thanks to the planetary heaters consuming massive amounts of power to keep this world warm enough, the underground complex has not been colonised by any lifeform so far and it must have been completely sealed off from the surface.

Tentacles, flying saucers, giant robots... All those shapes on the walls, floors and ceilings... But it's all just imagination of the explorers, apparently, as psionic tests reveal high interference and distress occurring in their brains. Many people who've looked at the pictures taken from there confirm that certain rock formations indeed resemble tentacles, flying saucers and giant robots.

This alone wouldn't even be that unusual given what is already known about Nibiru and Precursors, however as population on Tau Ceti-A IV grows, its inhabitants, all implanted with psionic chips and well-trained in their usage, are capable of forming bigger hive minds, unlocking more "computing power" for their brains.
It was during one of the "hive mind sessions" that a small mistake in Precursors' language translations has been found: a sign that was supposed to mean "path to the sky", initially considered referring to their space programs or something, actually means "path to ascension".
Soon it is discovered that the entire section of the complex was dedicated not to research directed towards "path to the sky", as opposed to the rest of the complex being focused on space propulsion technology, but rather focused on the "path to ascension".
Whether it was just Precursors being extremely religious or them being up to something technologically- and scientifically-wise is hard to tell at this point, but when combined with what is already known about this ancient, powerful and majestic civilisation, the latter doesn't appear as unlikely.

2200s

Government announces beginning of "Utopia Grid Defence" project that's supposed to establish strong, permanent defensive layer around Kappa Tucanae system. Developing fleet support logistics in the system would take too long, so the defending Sol++ is going to initially be based around planetary defence platforms, placed on the surface of various celestial bodies:

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AS CQB Final Defece Cannon
Transport Size (tons) 757     Cost 669.9     Armour 54     Hit Points 54
Annual Maintenance Cost 84     Resupply Cost 0

40 cm C8 Plasma Carronade
Range 400,000 km      Tracking 8,000 km/s      Damage 40 / 1     Shots 1     Rate of Fire 25
Maximum Fire Control Range 750,000km      Chance to Hit at Max Range 47%
Maximum Sensor Range 5,244,226km      Max Range vs Missile 471,980 km
ECCM  40

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Reinforced Anti-Shock Armour
Advanced AI Command Assistant
Reinforced Beam-Reflective Shields
AI-Driven Automated Strategic Analysis Module
Matrix-Based Planetary Defence Simulator
Reinforced Combat Defensive Force Field
Advanced AI-Driven Retargeting System
Precise Recalibration Module
Advanced Space Sensors
Advanced Multi-Target Orbital Tracking System
Desert Warfare

Duranium  10.1    Corbomite  25    Boronide  37.7    Vendarite  0.72    Uridium  124.8    Corundium  30.4   
Development Cost  6,699

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AS Laser Cannon
Transport Size (tons) 642     Cost 843     Armour 54     Hit Points 54
Annual Maintenance Cost 105     Resupply Cost 0

31.250cm C4 Soft X-ray Laser
Range 750,000 km      Tracking 8,000 km/s      Damage 26 / 2     Shots 1     Rate of Fire 35
Maximum Fire Control Range 750,000km      Chance to Hit at Max Range 0%
Maximum Sensor Range 5,244,226km      Max Range vs Missile 471,980 km
ECCM  40

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Reinforced Anti-Shock Armour
Advanced AI Command Assistant
Reinforced Beam-Reflective Shields
AI-Driven Automated Strategic Analysis Module
Matrix-Based Planetary Defence Simulator
Reinforced Combat Defensive Force Field
Advanced AI-Driven Retargeting System
Precise Recalibration Module
Advanced Space Sensors
Advanced Multi-Target Orbital Tracking System
Desert Warfare

Duranium  24.5    Corbomite  25    Boronide  38    Vendarite  0.72    Uridium  124.8    Corundium  73.4   
Development Cost  8,430

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AS Laser Defence Grid
Transport Size (tons) 1,765     Cost 1,313.7     Armour 54     Hit Points 54
Annual Maintenance Cost 164     Resupply Cost 0

Quad 15.0cm C4 Ultraviolet Laser Turret
Range 240,000 km      Tracking 8,000 km/s      Damage 6 / 1     Shots 4     Rate of Fire 10
Maximum Fire Control Range 750,000km      Chance to Hit at Max Range 68%
Maximum Sensor Range 5,244,226km      Max Range vs Missile 471,980 km
ECCM  40

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Reinforced Anti-Shock Armour
Advanced AI Command Assistant
Reinforced Beam-Reflective Shields
AI-Driven Automated Strategic Analysis Module
Matrix-Based Planetary Defence Simulator
Reinforced Combat Defensive Force Field
Advanced AI-Driven Retargeting System
Precise Recalibration Module
Advanced Space Sensors
Advanced Multi-Target Orbital Tracking System
Desert Warfare

Duranium  63.2    Neutronium  53.6    Corbomite  25    Boronide  81.6    Vendarite  0.72    Uridium  124.8    Corundium  94   
Development Cost  13,137

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AS Long Range Particle Artillery
Transport Size (tons) 1,057     Cost 2,428.8     Armour 54     Hit Points 54
Annual Maintenance Cost 304     Resupply Cost 0

Particle Lance-18-2
Range 320,000 km      Tracking 8,000 km/s      Damage 18 / 18     Shots 1     Rate of Fire 35
Maximum Fire Control Range 750,000km      Chance to Hit at Max Range 57%
Maximum Sensor Range 5,244,226km      Max Range vs Missile 471,980 km
ECCM  40

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Reinforced Anti-Shock Armour
Advanced AI Command Assistant
Reinforced Beam-Reflective Shields
AI-Driven Automated Strategic Analysis Module
Matrix-Based Planetary Defence Simulator
Reinforced Combat Defensive Force Field
Advanced AI-Driven Retargeting System
Precise Recalibration Module
Advanced Space Sensors
Advanced Multi-Target Orbital Tracking System
Desert Warfare

Duranium  127.4    Corbomite  25    Boronide  155    Vendarite  0.72    Uridium  124.8    Corundium  382.1   
Development Cost  24,288

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AS Planetary Missile Defence Cannon
Transport Size (tons) 2,306     Cost 1,633.5     Armour 54     Hit Points 54
Annual Maintenance Cost 204     Resupply Cost 0

Quad Gauss Cannon R500-100 Turret
Range 50,000 km      Tracking 25,000 km/s      Damage 1 / 1     Shots 20     Rate of Fire 5
Maximum Fire Control Range 187,500km      Chance to Hit at Max Range 73%
Maximum Sensor Range 5,244,226km      Max Range vs Missile 471,980 km
ECCM  40

Reinforced Nanocomposite Defensive Layer
Reinforced Anti-Shock Armour
Advanced AI Command Assistant
Reinforced Beam-Reflective Shields
AI-Driven Automated Strategic Analysis Module
Matrix-Based Planetary Defence Simulator
Reinforced Combat Defensive Force Field
Advanced AI-Driven Retargeting System
Precise Recalibration Module
Advanced Space Sensors
Advanced Multi-Target Orbital Tracking System
Desert Warfare

Duranium  38.4    Neutronium  121    Corbomite  25    Vendarite  240.72    Uridium  124.8   
Development Cost  16,335

11th February 2200, 5:20:50, NN 3009 Void Wormhole Defence Fleet detects a total of 6 Invader spaceships attempting to cross the wormhole into NN 3815 and immediately locks their plasma guns onto the target:



This small squadron is no match for the swarm of Anarchists, Devastators and Dragons. Particle beams cut through their armor and endless stream of heated plasma pours directly into their boards, tearing them apart within seconds. Everyone except one among surviving ships has troubles accelerating as plasma interceptors score several critical hits on the engines:



As the fleet is busy finishing off surviving Invaders before they could open fire, sole Invader vessel boosts its engines, accelerating ridiculously fast and speeding away from humans, passing remnants of other Invaders' ships who once dared to enter NN 3815. As it escapes, pursuing forces consistently land shots on its hull:







11th February 2200, 5:21:20, last enemy ship goes with a bang before its crew could do as much as open fire once:



Debris piles up. Designs of the interceptors might have been flawed and several technological improvements are required, but with enough numbers they do a decent job at keeping enemy at bay. At least those enemies that don't have FTL drives installed.



While this might have only been a small skirmish, there's no doubt that Invaders are up to something bigger this time, especially with their independent scouting mission in Kappa Tucanane.

In light of the recent extraterrestrial incursion, the World Government has convened to approve the activation of the XCOM Project.

These elite squads, best out of the best, wielding the power of their guns and the power of their minds alike, are to be deployed soon to tackle any threat that might come down to whatever planet humanity lives on.

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XCOM Assault Unit
Transport Size (tons) 6     Cost 3.96     Armour 36     Hit Points 18
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.5     Resupply Cost 1.3
PLCR-1999A4 heavy plasma assault rifle:      Shots 1      Penetration 19      Damage 15

Experimental Personalised Power Armour
Elite Cybernetic Implants
Elite Combat Exoskeleton
Bionic Bones
Synthetic Regenerative Organs
Elite Psionic Training
Psi-Resistant Mind Shield
Decentralised Hive Mind Module
Desert Warfare
Extreme Pressure Combat
Extreme Temperature Combat
High Gravity Combat
Jungle Warfare
Low Gravity Combat
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare

Vendarite  0.24   
Development Cost  198

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XCOM Squad Leader
Transport Size (tons) 10     Cost 7.91     Armour 36     Hit Points 18
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.99     Resupply Cost 1.3
PLCR-1999A4 heavy plasma assault rifle:      Shots 1      Penetration 19      Damage 15
Headquarters:    Capacity 600

Experimental Smart Power Armour
Elite Cybernetic Implants
Elite Combat Exoskeleton
Bionic Bones
Synthetic Regenerative Organs
Elite Psionic Training
Perosnality-Adjusted Psi-Resistant Mind Shield
Hive Mind Multi-Command Module
Desert Warfare
Extreme Pressure Combat
Extreme Temperature Combat
High Gravity Combat
Jungle Warfare
Low Gravity Combat
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare

Vendarite  0.48   
Development Cost  395

Government begins execution of the troipcal paradise of GJ 1279-A II's as well as GJ 1279-A III's terraforming plans. What once was only a dream since first explorers warped into GJ 1279 now was about to become reality given the recent militarisation of inhabited worlds and securing Invaders' wormhole network. In some way, similarily to Kappa Tucanae, GJ 1279 was supposed to become another system "taken back" from Invaders, helping to raise morale of a society still afraid of them.

Advancements in Food Cloning Program could help Mars with closing in to the self-sustaining population limit. Extensive tests are being made and so far the cloned food doesn't appear to be any less nutritious or have any side effects compared to the original.

31th August 2200, first successful superluminal test flight of an Orion starship from Mars to Earth and back using a prototype of a jump drive is completed. Dynamically created chain of wormholes is almost three times faster than travel within warp bubble for Orion in particular, but the larger the ship, the more of a benefit using a jump drive will grant. Alcubierre Drives are still here to stay for smaller ships and as a subluminal intra-system travel time cutter. A new era of interstellar travel begins.

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

2nd September 2200, 15:41:11, Wormhole Defence Swarm located at NN 3815-NN 3009 wormhole detects rather large Invader fleet concentrating on the other side. Government sends main assault fleet as well as 9 patriot Carriers, each of them filled with two Gauntlets MkII boarding shuttles. The time to bring the fight into Invaders' ships directly has come.
7th September 2200, 1:47:25, space fleet crosses the wormhole into NN 3009 and is greeted by an unvorgiving barrage of laser and flak gun fire. Several ships are blown out of the vacuum:



Patriots launch Gauntlets MkII. The latter engage warp drives, reaching an effective speed of over 34000km/s and emerge from warp bubble right on top of Adroits, scariest Invader laser ships up to date, within seconds and launch boarding pods with Space Marines:



Combat is brutal and bloody. Before marines have a chance to touch targets' hulls, Gauss cannons of the enemy puncture several of them, killing dozens of troops and raising fear among the others. Due to evasive manoeuvres of Adroits, many more miss their target, ending up stranded in deep space, all alone, several other smash against enemy ships at a speed so high that even their heavy power armors can't protect them, dying from shock damage, having their internal organs splattered and their bodies turned into a mess. Over half of the forces thrown in total died in the process of gluing themselves to the hull, many more await rescue floating outside.

7th September 2200, 1:47:31, surviving marines successfully detonate plasma charges that melt through the hulls, granting them entrance inside. Final stage of the battle is about to begin.
And so humanity took a look at the interior of alien vessel for the first time. The atmosphere inside is dense and extremely toxic, with a pressure of over 3 atm, full of sulphur dioxide, chlorine and carbon monoxide and some nitrogen as well, but not a single particle of oxygen.
Marines position themselves across the corridors and halls, gunning down crewmembers who weren't fast enough to prepare themselves. Plasma splashes over the walls and mysterious devices, damaging some of them. Marines tremble in terror when they discover that Invaders are so cold they don't appear on their thermal vision as anything different than the ship itself and the entire vessel is plunged within darkness so thick that even the latest noctovision implants struggle to fully penetrate it. Onboard temperature readings show over -100 degrees.
Armors of defenders fit their bodies closely and resemble reptile scales, however bear little to zero organic materials. Alloys used for their construction are unknown to mankind, but they melt under streams of hot plasma just fine. It is clear these units weren't meant to be tough combatants, but they come in greater and greater numbers as marines barricade themselves across rooms whose intended usage remains a mystery.
Initial firefight seems to be going well - Invaders, armed with some sort of laser rifles, aren't most accurate soldiers and die one by one as marines empty more and more mags for their plasma rifles.
However, this quickly changes when they begin using their very long tongues to spit toxic substances that splash over marine armors while making unpleasant sound.



Most of the time the substance fails to do any meaningful damage, but a few soldiers had weaker spots of their armors cowered in it. Their plates melt and the poison enters their internal life support systems, where it quickly evaporates, leading to quick yet horribly painful death from suffocation once their oxygen supplies get contaminated. Morale drops but the battle must proceed.
Chaos ensues as soldiers try to move towards what is perceived to be a bridge. Plasma splashes, grenades, laser retaliation fire and burning acid light up the darkness, allowing for quick reorientation and targeting systems adjustments. Soon the battle grinds to a halt when surviving Invaders entrench themselves behind an energetic shield, blocking the entrance to the bridge. Just like demonstrated during ship to ship combat, they'll fight to the bitter end, to the last one alive.
Plasma isn't very effective against this new obstacle and breaching through it would require far more ammo than human soldiers carry with them. As a desperate measure, squad leader gives order to switch to secondary. P800 laser pistols should deal with shields much quicker.

To achieve a breakthrough, space marines establish mind links in groups of five and launch psionic attacks. But causing beings that are afraid of nothing to tremble in gets as tough as expected. Not knowing how exactly their brain works and what are exact values and thought processes of these aliens doesn't help either.
All initial attacks fail. In response to their attempts, in minds of fighting humans dark visions start to appear. As they struggle to push into Invaders' minds, one nerve after another, trying to pull something useful out of the deepest pits of their mind, they find only darkness, devoid of anything. For whatever reasons, their minds are obsessed with it, focused on it.
Visions of stars shining bright, then flaring one by one can disturb even the most powerful of human minds.
More marines die as they lose it when laser beams cut over their heads or bounce off their armors while they're staring into the abyss of Invader's brain and the abyss stares back at them at the same time.
As morale begins to wither, an immediate order to cut off any psionic connection is given. Instead, a diversion group is tasked with breaching several holes in the walls and essentially digging an alternate path towards the bridge.

But this all turns into a disaster. All psionic contact has been successfully broken, but visions remained inside the heads of boarding squads. Invaders possessed psionic powers, too, and they've just moved in to counterattack. Individuals start to fall back, finding themselves stranded in the prison of their own minds once mind links between their brothers in arms ceased to exist.
Humanity seemed to be on the losing side.

Until one certain individual on one of the boarded ships had enough of it. Inside him, his blood started to boil. His face turned red, although nobody else could see it in the heat of battle.
He charged at Invaders, screaming violently. Fifteen laser beams cut his path. Twelve reflected off his power armor, but three cut right through it, making his blood splatter all over the place, now literally boiling. But he did not fell, he ran a few more meters, emptying mag in his P800 and killing two enemies on the spot. Before he died, he did one thing. He reestablished psionic linkage with the commander, essentially infecting him with his mad rage.
Marines, now all united in a fury that grew bigger and bigger, created a small yet powerful hive mind and directness all their thoughts onto one, randomly chosen, Invader.
The alien in question took two steps back, as if the force that smashed against him was physical. Half a second later lasers fried his brain. Several other Invaders stepped back too, confused.
Marines pulled out grenades and threw a swarm of them at the Invaders. Alien blood, sickly yellow like human urine, poured everywhere, with several chunks of green flesh marking floors and walls.
Humanity, all united in the form of one marine squad assaulting one Invader spaceship, pushed forward, causing confusion among the Invaders. Soon the bridge has been reached and a first Invader vessel fell prey to the human hands on 7th September 2200, 2:12:59. Maybe Invaders were powerful psychic warriors, but it turns out they don't handle the unpredictable nature of human emotions well.

Onboard firefights keep on raging on the other ships. Meanwhile first victorious squad, thanks to the extensive research performed on dismantled wrecks, figures out enough of the controls to pull the captured ship through the wormhole into NN 3815 before other ships in Invaders' fleet can react.
One of the other Adroits attempts to follow captured vessel, but as soon as it discovers Void Wormhole Defence Squadron on the other side as well as the entire human fleet that broke contact to avoid taking fire once marines proceeded with hull breaching, it fires all its engines and attempts to flee. Space marines inside keep on fighting its crew, though.



7th September 2200, 2:15:41, Void Wormhole Defenders positioned at NN 3009 wormhole in Gliese 483 spot a single enemy ship warping into the system:



The ship goes back through the wormhole before plasma interceptors manage to acquire target locking, though.
7th September 2200, 2:20:07, after successfully capturing seven enemy vessels and the unfortunate extermination of marines fighting for the eight one, assault fleets warps into NN 3009 for the second time to pour second wave of troops and run away again. More causalities are taken, but with seven of their most powerful ships less Invaders' volleys aren't as impactful anymore:



This time even more marines die during boarding attempts, apparently Invaders took some small lessons from their initial mistakes.
7th September 2200, 2:24:50, a small squadron of Invaders warps into Gliese 483, ready to engage local blockade forces:



They attempt to gain distance from the deadly plasma, but interceptors are faster and fly right on top of them, allowing them to score perfect, devastating hits:



Realising their mistake two seconds too late, Invaders split into two fleets. One attempts to gain distance while the other is sacrificied.



Human forces engage warp drives for a brief moment to prevent target locking and position themselves in between two remaining ships, firing at both of them simultaneously:



Soon the last bits of Invaders are turned into space debris:





7th September 2200, 2:27:15, Space Marines successfully take over another ship, however this time Invaders are ready. They concentrate their fire and before marines can flee through a wormhole, conquered ship flashes in fire before turning into dead and dark debris, just like all the stars once did in Bootes Void:



Second conquered ship ends up in a similar way. Meanwhile, Invaders fall back from the wormhole, which allows Strikers and Blades to detach themselves from the main fleet, safely enter NN 3009 and begin the chase.



Morale drops significantly across remaining troops fighting onboard, but when the next ship gets captured, it survives the initial volley, but the second one never lands as Invaders attempt to retreat, plotting course towards Void Wormhole, leaving the ship behind. Next captured ships face similar fate and those who survived the combat inside survived to tell the tale back on Core Worlds:





Strikes and Blades continue the chase:



7th September 2200, 2:45:10, surviving enemy forces suddenly disappear from the radar. It has happened again. Gravitational scan and data analysis, this time much quicker because everyone knew what to look for, confirm FTL drive usage.

Captured ships travel to Mars and scientists put their hands on them, trying to determine purpose of all the devices, systems and construction solutions used.
But that's not the most important part.
The most important part is that three Invaders survivied.

Through the months that followed linguistics managed to translate a lot of words, sentences and language concepts of the Invaders and engineers determined exact designs of several Invader ships.
According to the findings of the former, "Adroit" expresses the concept of a Phoenix raising from the ashes and hawk that flies proudly across the sky, "Adopt" expresses the concept of an Excalibur in a sense of a glorious tool for defence and "Adamant" could be translated into "Scarabus" in human alphabet.
On an important meeting with the government officials, engineers presented exact designs of those three Invader vessels:

Code: [Select]

Phoenix Hawk class Battlecruiser      48,294 tons       1,347 Crew       12,930.4 BP       TCS 966    TH 10,650    EM 0
11026 km/s      Armour 11-118       Shields 0-0       HTK 273      Sensors 28/42/0/0      DCR 18      PPV 225
Maint Life 0.60 Years     MSP 3,012    AFR 1037%    IFR 14.4%    1YR 5,001    5YR 75,014    Max Repair 887.5 MSP
Captain    Control Rating 4   BRG   AUX   ENG   CIC   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP1775 (6)    Power 10650    Fuel Use 37.53%    Signature 1775    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 4,400,000 Litres    Range 43.7 billion km (45 days at full power)

45.0cm C6 Soft X-ray Laser (1)    Range 384,000km     TS: 11,026 km/s     Power 53-6     RM 60,000 km    ROF 45       
30cm C6 Soft X-ray Laser (21)    Range 384,000km     TS: 11,026 km/s     Power 24-6     RM 60,000 km    ROF 20       
CIWS-250 (1x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 25,000 km/s     ROF 5       
Beam Fire Control R384-TS6250 (3)     Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 6,250 km/s     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Magnetic Confinement Fusion Reactor R7 (22)     Total Power Output 158.4    Exp 5%

Active Search Sensor AS156-R101 (1)     GPS 25452     Range 156.1m km    Resolution 101
Thermal Sensor TH2-28 (1)     Sensitivity 28     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  41.8m km
EM Sensor EM3-42 (1)     Sensitivity 42     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  51.2m km

ECCM-3 (1)         ECM 30

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Code: [Select]

Excalibur class Destroyer Escort      16,093 tons       305 Crew       3,734.8 BP       TCS 322    TH 3,550    EM 0
11029 km/s      Armour 10-56       Shields 0-0       HTK 66      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 6      PPV 75
Maint Life 0.51 Years     MSP 870    AFR 345%    IFR 4.8%    1YR 1,705    5YR 25,578    Max Repair 887.5 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP1775 (2)    Power 3550    Fuel Use 37.53%    Signature 1775    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 1,500,000 Litres    Range 44.7 billion km (46 days at full power)

Twin Gauss Cannon R400-100 Turret (4x10)    Range 40,000km     TS: 25000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 40,000 km    ROF 5       
Beam Fire Control R96-TS25000 (2)     Max Range: 96,000 km   TS: 25,000 km/s     90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0

Active Search Sensor AS33-R1 (1)     GPS 252     Range 33.5m km    MCR 3m km    Resolution 1

ECM 30

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Code: [Select]

Scarabus class Heavy Cruiser      31,705 tons       882 Crew       8,495.4 BP       TCS 634    TH 7,100    EM 0
11197 km/s      Armour 10-89       Shields 0-0       HTK 180      Sensors 28/14/0/0      DCR 12      PPV 145
Maint Life 0.61 Years     MSP 2,009    AFR 670%    IFR 9.3%    1YR 3,275    5YR 49,118    Max Repair 887.5 MSP
Captain    Control Rating 3   BRG   AUX   CIC   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP1775 (4)    Power 7100    Fuel Use 37.53%    Signature 1775    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 2,900,000 Litres    Range 43.9 billion km (45 days at full power)

45.0cm C6 Soft X-ray Laser (1)    Range 384,000km     TS: 11,197 km/s     Power 53-6     RM 60,000 km    ROF 45       
30cm C6 Soft X-ray Laser (13)    Range 384,000km     TS: 11,197 km/s     Power 24-6     RM 60,000 km    ROF 20       
Beam Fire Control R384-TS6250 (2)     Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 6,250 km/s     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Magnetic Confinement Fusion Reactor R7 (14)     Total Power Output 100.8    Exp 5%

Active Search Sensor AS127-R101 (1)     GPS 16968     Range 127.4m km    Resolution 101
Thermal Sensor TH2-28 (1)     Sensitivity 28     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  41.8m km
EM Sensor EM1-14 (1)     Sensitivity 14     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  29.6m km

ECCM-3 (1)         ECM 30

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Interrogation of the three prisoners begins. It is soon determined that it's much easier to establish communication using psionic rather than conventional talking methods, however Invaders minds are more powerful than those of humans. More predictable, which allowed marines to eventually win battles that happened, but more powerful.
Every interrogation session sooner or later devours into Invader contaminating human mind with visions of stars flaring one by one. What happens after is something that can't be determined, though. But there must be more, because a solar flare, no matter how powerful, is not gonna make all matter form a solar system disappear.
Future attempts at pulling information out of Invaders stop once one of them dies during tortures and the other two are determined too valuable for the time being to just let them die like this, without getting anything useful.
Data about the death of a fellow war prisoners accidentally leaks into the public. Many shocked when some raise concerns about the way Invaders are treated. A potentially dangerous and for sure harmful organisation "Earth-Invaders Organization" is founded. So far they don't do anything besides spitting outrageous propaganda, but government attempts to monitor EIO and their actions as close as possible.

16th December 2200, 17:45:14, probes launched by plasma interceptors guarding wormholes leading to NN 3009 to scan whether Invaders attempted to create new ones from within the system detect another large fleet concentrating on the other side of the NN 3815-NN 3009 wormhole. Restless assault fleet quickly picks up fresh space marines and fuel and instantly sets course to the space in which so many battles took place once again.
22th December 2200, 1:59:21, main human forces arrive at wormhole leading into NN 3009.
22th December 2200, 2:02:34, Invaders make a preemptive strike and warp into NN 3815. Plasma Interceptors, supported by the bulk of human navy, arm their guns, but before any shots are fired, Invaders pull back into the wormhole.



22th December 2200, 2:03:57, human fleet decides to chase the enemy down and enters NN 3009, unfortunately losing one of the ships in the process. In addition to the chased fleet, another squadron of hostile ships is detected at some distance from the wormhole and a lonely ship floating further away. Patriots open their hangars and soon 14 Gauntlets MkII, carrying 14 space marines squads, engage subluminal warp drives and attempt to board Phoenix Hawks, the most dangerous ships out of the entire fleet:



Severe casualties are taken among marines who miss the target or splatter on the hull, but this time the boarding goes smoother and more troops survive the "attachment phase" compared to first boarding attempt. Assault fleet follows the enemy, keeping its distance just outside of the effective range of enemy lasers. Some beams still connect to their targets, though, but the shields absorb all the heat without an issue.



22th December 2200, 2:15:11, some of the hostile ships suffer some sort of engine failure or don't have enough fuel, because they generate far less thrust than expected, lagging behind. None of the boarded ships is among them, so humanity can unleash all the fire it can. Enemies turn around while maintaining course and try to land their shots as well, but their efforts are futile due to the excellent work of energetic shields:







In a desperate attempt to save themselves, Invaders split their formation and some of the ships suddenly decelerate. This proves to be a challenge for targeting systems to keep track of and human forces miss many shots as a result:



In order to stop enemy from disrupting assault fleet, large amount of fuel is burned to turn around and destroy one of the more dangerous ships which came to a full stop on purpose, making humans pass it and end up in a crossfire:



Despite all these attempts, the small squadron of Invaders is doomed and eventually evaporates under heavy laser and meson fire of combined forces of Strikers and Blades:







In the meantime, on boards of seven assaulted Phoenix Hawks, literal hell has been let loose. Toxic fluids from Invader bodies mix with plasma and laser gunfire and dark, thick, toxic air in which Invaders breathe. Psionic attacks are launched back and forth and defenders and attackers of the ships alike go insane at an exponential rate.
On several ships Invaders attempt to pull off their trick with energetic shields to block bridge access, but this time marines are better prepared - prolonged studies of Invaders' bodies allowed XCOM-affiliated xenobiologists to prepare a mixture of oxygen, nitrogen and bromine in proportions that make the breathing organs of the enemy rapidly deteriorate. After successful contamination of onboard life support systems many Invaders die before they manage to switch to the internal air supply in their power armors, allowing for quick capture of several ships.



22th December 2200, 2:26:20, Strikers and Blades accelerate a bit too much and need to rapidly change course to avoid taking more serious fire as one of Phoenix Hawks slows down and opens fire before marines can take control of it:



Enemy concentrates fire of the ships captured by marines, but it weakens as more vessels are captured and pulled out of the effective range of enemy lasers:





22th December 2200, 2:29:48, alarm is raised as a squadron of enemy forces pops out of nowhere into the battlespace and gravitational disturbance is detected at the place in which they appeared on radars, however no wormhole has been detected. For whatever reason Invaders suddenly felt confident to demonstrate their alternate FTL travel means once more. Assault fleet plots interception course:





22th December 2200, 2:35:37, coldness of space mixes with heat of plasma projectiles, laser beams and toxic air onboard when Invaders on one of attacked vessels sabotage their own ship, blowing up several holes in the hull, sucking everyone, friend and foe alike, outside. Soon after the entire ship disintegrates and over one hundred brave space marines and over half a thousand Invaders are no more:



22th December 2200, 2:36:25, another Invader reinforcements warp into the system, apparently attempting to surround human navy in a crossfire:



It is observed that for the time being, ships that dropped out of whatever-method-Invaders-use-to-go-superluminal seem to be in general "weakened" and struggle to gain enough thrust. To take advantage of this, squadron of Pikes, so far waiting in near the NN 3815-NN 3009 wormhole, is sent after the freshly arrived fleet. For as long as enemy struggles with acceleration, Pikes will outpace Invaders over five times.

22th December 2200, 2:47:31, assault squadron catches up to the first FTL-capable fleet that arrived earlier, successfully performs evasive manoeuvres at almost maximum effective range of enemy guns and then accelerates rapidly, bringing its crew on the bring of ending up crushed, eventually firing volleys from up close. Casualties are taken, but Invaders seem to be completely surprised by this sudden furious attack and their ships fall apart, metaphorically and literally.







22th December 2200, 3:14:11, giving their warp drives all their got and far more, Strikers and Blades manage to catch up to the originally detected enemy fleet that began this battle and begin to blast it into oblivion... Or into Bootes Void, how many soldiers like to describe it. Brutal CQB firefight doesn't come without a price, though.



Fleet admiral suddenly decides to reverse thrusters and slow down, gaining some range between the enemy and attack from a safer spot. This proves to be highly effective and soon Invaders are no more:





22th December 2200, 3:39:56, Pikes eventually catch up to their prey, dodge incoming fire, making use of the low acceleration of their targets, wait for the right moment, and pierce enemy hulls with particle beams while taking only minimal casualties:



22th December 2200, 3:45:30, human forces catch up to the last surviving enemy ship and blow it up, ending the longest space battle in human history up to date:



The results are outstanding - human space fleet didn't allow to get encircled and catch itself in a crossfire, defeating an overall larger enemy forces. Five Phoenix Hawks have been captured, alongside 15 alive prisoners, bringing up the total number of alive Invaders in human hands to 17. Thanks to the lessons learned, onboard combat is expected to be further improved.
Elite of the psionic scientists working for XCOM project can't wait to get down to study and Invader mind and finally uncover what lies beneath the dark visions of all the stars flaring one by one. Some of them fear what they might see, but XCOM commander made sure to select the most iron-willed, the best of the best for this psychologically risky task.

Physicists specialising in higher dimensions, string theory and quantum mechanics accompany heavily-escorted salvage fleet to hopefully learn about the FTL drive Invaders use. Some express hope for achieving even as much as gaining ability to track them down inside Bootes Void.

For some surviving marines the battle has proven to be too much and they ended up severely terrified or depressed, requiring immediate psionic therapy. What is worrying is that the most severe cases are more serious than after first boarding attempt, as if Invaders learned more about human psychology and directed their minds in a more effective way during mental combat.

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

15th February 2201, first significant breakthrough is achieved - XCOM scientists pulled off data about one solar system straight out of Invader's mind - it's the ternary system of 36 Ophiuchi. Nothing useful can be brought out of the psi-interrogated Invader besides that, however one thing that is certain is that for some reason this system was determined as important in his/her/its/whatever/screwgenderidenityofhostilealiens head.
It is initially expected that it's one of the system within wormhole network of the enemy and an exploration ship is sent directly there to confirm this:



















The almost-oceanic world of 36 Ophiuchi-B II and cold world of 36 Ophiuchi-B III appear to be life-friendly and indeed biological matter is discovered there. However, something is very wrong. The two planets appear to be going through ecological disaster and all organisms seem to be dying, even though there are no obvious hints as to why.
Extended scans reveal no wormholes at all - 36 Ophiuchi does not belong to Invaders' network. Maybe it is going to be connected in the future, maybe a wormhole is already being built from the other system, but for now it is completely cut off, yet Invaders must have already reached it.
What is also intriguing is that, unlike in case of EZ-Aquarii, the three suns are in stable configuration, so there's no imminent risk for life to die because the planets will land in an unfavourable configuration in between the three bodies.
And yet on both planets ecological disaster seems to be picking up pace, which doesn't match with Invader behaviour discovered or at least theorised so far, with many of the planets bearing non-sentient life thriving among their wormholes.
Something is very wrong, but nobody is able to tell as to exactly why so far.

Another fleet of plasma interceptors and all the support infrastructure it requires launches from Gaia, heading towards LHS 288, where latest Void Wormhole has been discovered.
1st March 2201, a terrifying discovery is made: interceptors took one final stop in HH Andromedae before warping into LHS 288, only to be greeted by a Void Wormhole staring at them from a distance:



What appeared to be a simple, almost routine job at this point has grown into a complex military and logistical operation.
A total of four wormholes that definitely didn't exist before appeared. Three of them were leading to LHS 288, Gliese 674 and L 145-141, meanwhile the fourth one, according to brief scans, didn't lead to any of the so far explored stars. As if that wasn't bad enough, from HH Andromedae it was possible to use the fifth, this time man-made (or actually woman-made given at that time the crew of the Chronos that did the job happened to be almost exclusively female), wormhole to cover all the way to refuelling terminal at Luyten Palomar 914-54 and Astera stations shiponing fuel in Giclas 9-38, and on top of that reach Gliese 504, last stop from where assault fleet was expected to power up warp drives and cruise towards Precuror-infested HIP 9786.

Further exploration of this sudden Invaders' activity has proven to extend deeper: long-range gravitational scans detected anomalies near Sigma Draconis as well, pointing out that a Sigma Draconis-L 145-141 wormhole was being established as World Government was organising an emergency meeting to prepare for this sudden shift in Second Bootes War.
Somewhat fortunately, it took only two more days for Overseer class deep space patrolling cruisers to finish latest tests and be officially deployed. Two squadrons of them, each consisting of three vessels, have been sent, not as initially expected, into the NN 3009 region (after humanity concentrated forces to block existing wormholes it became somewhat more stable and safe, though given recent FTL drive demonstrations of the enemy fleets it might as well be silence before storm), but one of them was supposed to scan HH Andromedae and new Void Wormhole itself and the second one was supposed to travel directly into Sigma Draconis and prevent Invaders from creating yet another wormhole.

Scientific community points out that this is an invaluable opportunity to study Invaders working on their web in realtime, which on top of having potential to cause a breakthrough in science, could provide a significant advantage during ongoing conflict. As a result, each Overseer hosted a team of physicists onboard during its mission.
The current state of operation presents itself as follows:



Due to the rapid, scary, kinda infectious spread of Invaders in a new region of known space, the operation has been designated simply as "COVID-19". Almost two hundreds years old demons from the dark age and end of the Old World have awakened. As a consequence, before departure Overseers as well as 4th Centauri Wormhole Defence Squadron (named as such since it was the 4th squadron of Plasma Interceptors assembled on Gaia) have been stocked with one hundred toilet paper rolls per crewmember each, pulled out straight from Bidet Inc assembly lines on Kappa Tucanae A-II. This helped with morale dramatically since it was the first time since pre-apocalypse days someone that wasn't very rich was going to wipe their ass with toilet paper.

17th March 2201, 16:50:36, a lonely Invader ship is spotted in Gliese 674, still apparently working on not yet fully stable wormhole leading to the system. Since it appears mostly harmless, squadron commander grants the request of physicists to take a look and study the ship before blasting it to where it came from with missiles.



While not much can be recovered by observing the ship from a distance, the gravitational waves bending around the ship as it goes on with its task are inspiring for some scientists. So far Chronos ships were doing the work more "remotely", staying away from the influence of forming wormhole due to safety protocols, but Invaders presented different approach which could be, with a bit of luck, successfully adapted into the next generation of wormhole building fleet.
Due to increasing risk Overseers quickly destroy the target and after a few more brief deep space scans leave Gliese 674, continuing their patrol.



An "emergency exploration mission" is sent to check out remaining unknown wormhole in HH Andromedae and on 26th March 2201 Orion starships crosses the wormhole with a help of its warp drive since apparently it's still work in progress and emerges near two stars making up Procyon system:







Similarily to Gliese 674, there's a wormhole stabilisation ship performing its task. Scientists quickly accelerate away from it and call for Overseers to mop it up:



Before the patrol can react, it first needs to deal with another Invader vessel that popped up in LHS 288:





26th March 2201, 22:41:56, Overseers appear in Procyon, but the Invader spaceship is gone. It also disappeared from the radars of Orion operating within the system which tries to detect any possible additional wormholes built by Invaders as quickly as possible. Initial hypothesis suggests FTL emergency escape, although no one on board of Orion has time for this as identifying any other wormholes is a priority that absorbs all the personnel and equipment on the ship.

Despite numerous patrols and scanning attempts, no more Invaders have been detected in HH Andromedae or systems Invaders tried to link with it. For now COVID-19 appears to be contaminated, but nobody knows for sure and shipbuilders on Gaia work day and night to assemble next fleets of plasma interceptors to block all the semi-stable wormholes created.
Soon one of those fleets reaches Sigma Draconis and blocks access from L 145-141 Invaders tried to establish.

After studying Invaders wormhole-related behaviour and combining results with what interrogators could get out of war prisoners, physicists make advancements in wormhole building, which allows a next-gen wormhole establishment starship to appear:

Code: [Select]

Frontier class Wormhole Creation Platform      94,057 tons       412 Crew       3,401.3 BP       TCS 1,881    TH 6,000    EM 0
3189 km/s    JR 2-25(C)      Armour 1-184       Shields 0-0       HTK 68      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 22    Max Repair 1400 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months   
Wormhole Deployment Module: 120 days

JC98K Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 97500 tons    Distance 25k km     Squadron Size 2

Commercial Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP2000.00 (3)    Power 6000    Fuel Use 1.33%    Signature 2000    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 72.2 billion km (261 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

It is also the first industrial-grade starship utilising the new Jump Drive. Its mass significantly favours it over Alcubierre Drive.

Food cloning program on Mars progresses according to the plan and an increase in population growth is expected to happen soon.

Psychologists and Psychiatrists still helpless when it comes to therapy for people already stuck within robotic bodies. An alternate idea is born - artificially growing bodies in laboratories and then transplanting brains of affected citizens into them, allowing them to live in a "biological shell" once again. World Government approves the project, but it sparks a lot of controversy.

Earth-Invaders Organisation is responsible for growing unrest in the Solar System. On several manifestations army had to intervene. 137 EIO members were killed and 1763 wounded. This only fuels EIO propaganda - "Invaders would never turn at their own kind", say leaders of the organisation.
Heavy industries on Proxima Centauri experience boom when many companies from Mars move there after EIO members managed to successfully blow up one of the factories specialising in manufacturing conventional spaceship engines. While it was still a small-scale, insignificant attack, citziens blame government for failing to stop terrorists from wreaking havoc. Total causalities include 37 dead workers and 168 injured. EIO is officially banned and declared a terrorist organisation and shoot-on-sight protocol is now valid when dealing with its members, accused of Crime Against Entire Human Race.

Physicists on Epsilon Eridani-A II make great progress in quantum mechanics research and their research into practical applications of quantum entanglement foreshadows a new era for FTL communication technologies.

Neurotrainers industry grows significantly since team behind quantum entanglement research used them to boost capabilities of their brains.

After months of extensive psi interrogation sessions XCOM psionic warriors successfully decipher Invader language. Soon they present a list of so far discovered Invaders' spaceships with their proper names translated into human language:



With understanding of their language at hand, further attempts to break down Invaders and force them to speak should progress quicker.

17th August 2201, terraformers finish their work in GJ 1279 system, preparing GJ 1279-A II and GJ 1279-A III for easy colonisation. It'll take a while before first inhabitants will arrive, though, because currently all colonisation fleets are focused on rapid development of Utopia and also Epsilon Eridani-A II since the planet gained popularity after recent quantum physics breakthroughs that happened there, alongside with it already being a pinnacle of terraforming art.

Government officially announces terraformation of Venus is picking up pace and the biggest terraforming project in history could be finished not later than in 23 years. Morale raises as this is yet another marvellous accomplishment of a space-faring civilisation humanity has become.

Missile production slows down once thorium sources begin to run dry. An autonomous mining colony run by fixed, human-friendly version of Red Dot is established beneath the surface of Tau Ceti-A IX 17th moon which helps industry to recover.

SETI groups scattered around Alpha Centauri pick up strange, unintelligible signals coming from Barnard's Star. Military experts suggest to send in strong fleet to investigate.
With three armies consisting of millions of soldiers concentrating on Earth, most valued generals begin to plan invasion of the mysterious world of Barnard's Star-A I, preparing for war with "Barnard's Army" in whatever way it exists now. No one is able to actually explain how come that not so long ago deserted planet expresses signs of intelligent life once again.

3rd October 2201, 12:50:12, high command instantly forgets about Barnard's Star and its members struggle to keep emotions at bay when physicists on Epsilon Eridani-A II detect an Invader starship warping into the system while toying with quantum entanglement-based communication tools.



10th October 2201, 7:07:49, a squadron of Patriots, escorted by another squadron of Strikers, crosses man-made wormhole into Epsilon Eridani and prepares to intercept the lone vessel:





It is soon confirmed the ship is unarmed. An order to capture it intact is given.
10th October 2201, 7:19:26, bodies of space marines paint the Invader hull red once again. A fierce firefight begins, but less numerous crew compared to Phoenix Hawks, facing over two hundred furious combatants quickly breaks under heavy plasma fire and combat gasses poisoning onboard atmosphere.
After successful interception human vessels head back to Martian dock, but three hours later another vessel enters the system:



Everyone holds breath when the starship, before anyone is able to catch up to it, heads straight towards Epsilon Eridanit-A II and achieves stable orbit:



10th October 2201, 11:47:21, fleeing from incoming human reinforcements, Invaders flee to Epsilon Eridani-A I and attempt to pull of a slingshot manoeuvre:



Marines once again attempt to perform successful boarding and die one by one in vastness of space, this time with a supermassive gas giant below them. Its size is spooky as the interior of Invader spaceship and blood that splatters within it. "We all pee like Invaders bleed" - comment shocked soldiers when heading into battle for the second time in the same day. Soon humans gain control over all important systems on board. Both caught ships are tugged to Earth. Additional 3 Invaders are successfully captured alive.
This time determining purpose and design of the ships goes much smoother, thanks to the already gathered knowledge of alien tech and language paired with neurotrainer usage and the ships being less complex, non-military variants.

Code: [Select]

Patton class Scout      32,170 tons       442 Crew       5,696.8 BP       TCS 643    TH 8,875    EM 0
13794 km/s      Armour 1-90       Shields 0-0       HTK 121      Sensors 84/84/0/0      DCR 2      PPV 0
Maint Life 0.01 Years     MSP 221    AFR 4139%    IFR 57.5%    1YR 20,902    5YR 313,534    Max Repair 887.5 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Morale Check Required   

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP1775 (5)    Power 8875    Fuel Use 37.53%    Signature 1775    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 10,450,000 Litres    Range 155.8 billion km (130 days at full power)

CIWS-250 (2x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 25,000 km/s     ROF 5       
Active Search Sensor AS180-R101 (1)     GPS 33936     Range 180.2m km    Resolution 101
Thermal Sensor TH6-84 (1)     Sensitivity 84     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  72.5m km
EM Sensor EM6-84 (1)     Sensitivity 84     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  72.5m km

ECM 30

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Code: [Select]

Rakshasa class Military Tanker      32,193 tons       390 Crew       4,421.7 BP       TCS 644    TH 7,100    EM 0
11027 km/s      Armour 1-90       Shields 0-0       HTK 131      Sensors 14/14/0/0      DCR 12      PPV 0
Maint Life 0.37 Years     MSP 1,030    AFR 691%    IFR 9.6%    1YR 2,754    5YR 41,305    Max Repair 887.5 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP1775 (4)    Power 7100    Fuel Use 37.53%    Signature 1775    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 14,900,000 Litres    Range 222 billion km (232 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 60,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 248 hours

CIWS-250 (1x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 25,000 km/s     ROF 5       
Active Search Sensor AS52-R101 (1)     GPS 2828     Range 52m km    Resolution 101
Thermal Sensor TH1-14 (1)     Sensitivity 14     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  29.6m km
EM Sensor EM1-14 (1)     Sensitivity 14     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  29.6m km

ECM 30

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Xenobiologists tremble in fear when they discover the true purpose of "Rakshasa" ship, especially given it spent a while orbiting human-inhabited planet.
What appeared to be a simpel tanker for refuelling Invader ships turned out to be much more sinister. The substance floating in its tanks... There was something wrong with it.
It was composed out of biological matter.
It all made a horrific sense when coupled with the name of the ship class. "Rakshasa", a large-sized demon described in Hinduism-related sources. Often called a man-eater, believed to drink blood directly from human skulls. That was the term that fit best to express the intention of the ones that gave this series of spaceships name.

Numerous experiments and tests have been conducted in the following days. One of them involved matching the samples collected from deteriorating ecosystems found in 36 Ophiuchi system with the Substance. The similarity has been estimated at roughly 36,8%.
According to the documentation found onboard, the ship was nothing but a tanker for refuelling dry warships. Yet in the heads of Invaders information of the true purpose behind it could be found.
Comparison with human DNA showed compatibility at 11,4%. World Government did its best to hide this from the already terrified society. It was at best interest of everyone for broader public to never learn what happened with the bodies of the ones that died from Invaders' guns and were not evacuated in time. Especially in the context of tragic events of colony fleet destruction from many years ago that still echoed in the consciousness of older citizens.
Invaders turned darker and darker with every discovery made.

Meanwhile "Patton" ship was apparently named after a famous Invader psionic scientist from ancient times working on improving their mental capability, laying foundations for the fearless army humanity was facing today, always retreating only tactically and fighting to the bitter end, not caring to even launch escape shuttles from burning spaceship, let alone surrender. According to data gathered, said scientist was also a military commander and on several occasions directly psi-attacked own troops when they showed signs of fear, somewhat similar to general Patton from over two and a half centuries ago, the latter being accused on beating soldiers in hospitals who suffered from severe shell shock.

Government had to admit, at least in front of itself, that it failed at containing "COVID-19" for the second time, although this time it was not on purpose to directly take control of the human race. Pushed against the wall with numerous naval blockades of their wormholes, they gave up on keeping their FTL drives a secret anymore and began skipping blockades by cruising freely among the stars with the help of their other means of skipping interstellar space.

But them actually making it to a planet's orbit was a whole different league.
A detailed investigation had been launched and soon Epsilon Eridani-A II faced announcement of martial law, similarly to the entire Epsilon Eridani system in general.
Torn by the war and militaristic propaganda and intrusive investigations by law enforcement forces, quality of life turned into misery of life and less and less colonists dared to settle there volountairly.
But the brutal methods ended up having fruitful results. Thanks to the heroism and valor of XCOM, a secret cell of Earth-Invaders Organisation has been compromised and unmasked.
What was most disturbing is that somehow they successfully communicated with Invaders. On top of that it happened even before Invaded Orbit event took place which is how enemy knew to travel to Epsilon Eridani in the first place.
They used quantum entanglement research for that purpose. But what the fuss is about is not how they talked with Invaders tech-wise, but how they made them respond to their calls. What could they tell a race that seeks nothing but death and destruction that made them respond to someone that is probably a mere bug for them?

Another sign of the uncertain future was the data brought, or rather lack of it, from further exploration of Mechi space. Luyten 49-19, system reached via wormhole from Struve 1280, was empty and didn't have any other wormholes inside, indicating a local end of Mechi web:













No life signs have been detected, sentient or not. Or signs of sentient robots, for that matter.
A wormhole from WISE 1647+5632 leads to 82 Eridani system:













Again, no signs of Mechis, but signs of 82 Eridani-A III undergoing an ecological catastrophe instead. What was once probably a lush planet has now deteriorated to a greyish goo covering most of the surface, barely any fauna left and toxins floating across the vast oceans. Event the sky was literally brown from all the contamination and corruption happening around. A truly depressing look.
A mandatory test had to be made in such situation - the results were disturbing. Samples from dying, engulfed in grey goo, world, matched the Substance composition in 47,5%.

A task force to investigate recently discovered phenomena has been assembled. Using SETI data showing 57,97% decrease in signals coming from Mechi space, sensors picking up literally nothing during exploration missions and the increase of Invader activity in recent years, they programmed a simulation of possible events. According to it, Mechi fell prey to Invaders and, not being able to hold them on for much longer, scattered around, trying to escape the inevitable destruction. 82 Eridani must have been a recent conquest of the Invaders.

One thing didn't make sense, though: a total of three planets with rapidly deteriorating, non-sentient, flora and fauna have been found, all known about by the Invaders, yet their obsession focused mostly about stars themselves and eradication of everything intelligent, but natural environments they left intact. Did they change strategy? What was so special about these three planets that all life had to be destroyed? And why not do so via conventional planetary bombardment?

Gliese 617, reached from the last unexplored wormhole in Zeta(2) Reticuli, was an empty binary system, somewhat stressing the recent emptiness of Mechi-explored stars out:



Next stages of Project Olympus go on according to the plan, announces government when first 16 habitat modules arrive at Kruger 60-A I's orbit. The undertaking picks up pace as citizens of Tau Ceti-A IV still lack the means to understand, let alone use, the mighty Precursor anti-Invaders weapon sleeping deep inside their facilities. Accessing this legendary weapon might as well be the only way to stop Invader menace from making entire Milky Way disappear and move on with their plan to speed up the death of universe.

28th November 2202, 15:13:25, Guidance ship stationed in Kruger 60 as part of the logistics support for Project Olympus is attacked and destroyed by unknown forces, but decades of warfare were more than enough to use damage pattern retrieved from the wreck to confirm it was the work of Invaders:



There is no doubt left it was a precise strike. Invaders knew where to hit so that it hurts the most. All personnel working in the City of Olympus had to be evacuated and further transit of orbital city modules had to be stopped till safety in the system could be guaranteed. And it won't happen anytime soon given the space industry works extra hours for decades by now and space forces begin to spread thinner and thinner to counter Invader threat.
Invaders were actively fighting to stop humans from uncovering the secret of Precursor-made weapon.

29th November 2202, 8:56:02, a small Invader force arrives at NN 3815:



This is an excellent occasion to test latest jamming software, wrote to disrupt Invaders' targeting systems while taking into account all their technology that has been studied so far. Wormhole Defence Squadron emits jamming sequence and opens fire:



Invaders attempt to split and retreat, but humans fly their spaceships in parallel to them, constantly burning holes in their hulls:









Upon destroying the ship that covered the biggest distance, taking advantage of Invaders still not being able to lock their guns, human forces simply turn around and fly towards surviving ships that were left behind. Soon all enemies are dead:







An independent exploration starship crosses a wormhole in Kappa Tucanae and flies into HD 128642 system. The views are indeed HD:

















Life has found a way to evolve on HD 128642-A II, a terrestrial planet floating in the "System of Gas Giants". While it's complexity leaves a lot to be desired, it's a life-bearing planet nevertheless. And it's nice to discover a life evolving rather than dying after recent sinister discoveries.
On top of that its existence just one wormhole away from Kappa Tucanae only strengthens the status of Utopia for the latter.

In spite of recent events, an independent, but very ambitious project is launched by a small team living in the jungles of freshly-colonised Kappa Tucanae-B II. Its purpose is to form "Extraterrestrial Alliance" with other civilisations possibly existing in Milky Way in order to fend off Invaders together. Many remain sceptical about the results.

Not longer than two weeks after the official start of the project, a professor of sociology, ironically living in isolation, publishes paper titled "Art of survival in Dark Forest" in which he posts the results of his recent research focusing on interactions between alien civilisations inhabiting the universe.
According to it, universe is a truly dark place to exist in - he doesn't seem to be surprised that all sentience discovered up to date ended up being hostile.

The differences and distances separating aliens are too large to allow easy communication, meanwhile once a particular race reaches interstellar era allowing for ease of messages flow, destroying life on a planet inhabited by pre-interstellar civilisation is a piece of cake and is a safer option than letting less developed civilisation survive, thrive and expand to the stars.
Alliances are not possible, because even if both races knowing about existence of each other had good will, there's too much uncertainty and suspicion involved, far more than what could exist between any two members of the same society, inevitably leading to war on a cosmic scale.

It's a disturbing vision, but the evidence gathered from the past century seems to confirm this theory. Many people don't want to believe this, but they lack necessary arguments. For many others it's just nothing but confirmation of how cruel, cold and uncaring the entire universe happens to be, nothing they couldn't see themselves.
With the recent fiasco of COVID-19 operation as Invaders began to spread rapidly humanity found itself surrounded in a Dark Forest.

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

A small fleet of Strikers is sent to Kruger 60 to investigate Invader activity and intercept any hostile contacts within the system. Once at destination, it cannot detect anything but the debris from Olympus modules Invaders must have blasted to hell shortly before evacuation. Its commander then decides to check on the borders of Struve Branch of Mechi space. Guidance vessel escorting Strikers to their destination engages warp drive and escorts them to WD 1142-645 (Invaders started working on stabilisation of the wormhole between WD 1142-645 and Kruger 60), then waits for them to return at a distance as they proceed to the wormhole linking Struve 2398.
23th February 2203, 15:48:23, Strikers arrive at the wormhole just in time to witness a fleet of Invaders emerging from it:



Human forces emit jamming sequence and open fire, blasting one of the Phoenix Hawks into oblivion within seconds:



23th February 2203, 15:48:29, morale of the crews drops once it is discovered Invaders managed to purge their systems out of the virus and slowly begin charging their weapons. Strikers distance themselves from the enemy, but Invaders follow. One of their ships is left behind since critical engine hit severely disrupted its ability to accelerate:



Human fleet turns to face the pursuers while maintaining course and opens fire. Soon enemy retaliates:





Ships attempt numerous evasive manoeuvres, but the targeting systems of Phoenix Hawks are way too accurate. As a result, some ships detach from the main formation, only to sustain severe damage in the process.











23th February 2203, 15:57:14, human forces fire one more volley until squadron commander gives an order to retreat. Firefight at closer range with Phoenix Hawks without support of the main fleet proves too deadly:





23th February 2203, 16:01:05, situation worsens with each second. Not equipped with interstellar warp drives, Strikers cannot jump out of the system without help of Guidance, or at least any other ship capable of establishing warp bubble large enough for a Striker to fit in. Not being able to attempt to cross the wormhole into Struve 2398, they attempt to gain enough distance from the enemy to escape back to the Guidance vessel awaiting them. Further casualties are taken:





Strikers are only barely faster than enemy, however they slowly gain more space. It negatively impacts enemy lasers, but so does it hurt retaliation volleys damage:



23th February 2203, 16:12:34, barely any ships are left functioning. Enemy fire loses power with each kilometre of extra distance gained, but survivors are severely damaged and Invaders just keep on firing. There's nothing that can be done. Soon the last vessel of human forces falls apart. Last humans serving on those ships are fully aware they were so close to making it out alive.





Humanity doesn't even have the time to recover from the shocking news of defeat and destruction of what was already established on Kruger 60-A I's orbit. On 25th February 2203, 0:04:07 undetected attackers successfully destroy entire freighter fleet of Beholders heading towards Kappa Tucanae:



The most terrifying part of this massacre is the place it happened at. Beholders were destroyed in NN 3815, right before entering a wormhole into WISE 2343-7418.
There was no way for Invaders to appear in NN 3815, given the wormhole connecting it with NN 3009 was guarded by plasma interceptors.
Unless they simply used FTL drives to skip the blockade and strike from behind the defence lines.
An entire fleet of freighters have been destroyed while travelling through a route that was deemed stable after successful quarantine of NN 3009 Void Wormhole and despite the war remained as such. It was a serious blow for morale of human soldiers and civilians alike. For the first time the interest expressed in moving to Kappa Tucanae dropped.
As soon as the news reached naval headquarters on Mars, main assault fleet has been sent to intercept and annihilate the new threat.

1st March 2203, 14:57:12, assault fleet picks up signatures of an impressive enemy fleet remaining in 3815, a few million kilometres away from the WISE 2343-7418 wormhole:



Tomahawks open fire, attempting to swarm the enemy from a distance with missiles:





Unfortunately, point defence of the enemy is way too strong, successfully detonating all the missiles long before they can reach their targets:



1st March 2203, 16:36:10, humanity accelerates towards enemy head-on. Invaders do the exact same thing and are the first to open fire:



1st March 2203, 16:38:41, Gauntlets MkII leave hangars of their Patriots, engage warp drives and prepare to drop marines onto the hulls of Phoenix Hawks. Before boarding even takes place, one of the Phoenix Hawks disintegrates under heavy laser and particle beam fire. A total of three boarding shuttles don't reach destination as their armors can't stand swarm of metallic debris launched from enemy Gauss cannons, but the rest successfully drop marines onto enemy hulls:



Screams of terror, travelling through the vacuum of space encapsulated in radio waves, reach ears of captains coordinating the largest boarding action up to date and frighten them. Hundreds of marines dying on the burning wrecks of three unlucky Gauntlets or suddenly left all alone in the middle of nowhere after missing the target, so close yet so far away from raging battle, floating among nothingness. Once again brave marines prepare breaching charges right next to their dead brothers in arms spilling blood through damaged power armors forming a sinister red nebulae around them, with their dead bodies move at the same speed as the targeted ships, haunting their alive friends.
In an overall mess two squads miss their targets and instead of Phoenix Hawks somehow land on Excaliburs.

Main forces attempt to distance from the lethal fire of enemy ships for the time marines need to take over invaded ships. For reasons unknown, two small squadrons of Osiris, armed with only Gauss cannons, separate from the bulk of their forces and stay behind them while the main fleet accelerates, moving in parallel to human navy:



Invaders confused everyone when the main fleet suddenly decelerates a bit, allowing Osiris to catch up and regroup. Two Pikes are destroyed by concentrated fire when their squadron separates form assault fleet and flees the other direction, both getting hit when slowing down to almost full stop in order to change course:



Two squadrons of Osiris-class ships separate once again from the main forces and attempt to chase Pikes. Before they gain enough accelerators, they are damaged by a volley of particle beams fired from a distance:



In the meantime Tomahawks plot course as far away from the enemy as possible and Strikers exchange fire with Invaders, constantly accelerating to gain more space between them and Invaders:





Pikes can't fly too close to Osiris ships to avoid Gauss cannon barrages and are forced to maintain current velocity, flying in the opposite direction than rest of the forces:



1st March 2203, 16:52:13, bulk of human forces damages several Invader spaceships until finally distancing enough for Invaders' lasers to become harmless:



In the same moment Osiris on Pikes' tails sudenly split and rapidly accelerate in different directions, confusing onboard AI of human ships. A few of them manage to close in enough for their guns to be accurate enough and open fire:





Soon crews of Pikes realise enemy attempts to encircle them in the most dangerous formation of space combat - one that'd allow them to circle rapidly around the target, staying on the flank and scoring hit after hit, preventing said target for rotating fast enough to lock its weapons and retaliate. Pikes give up on keeping distance short enough for firing accurately and, with the help of subluminal warp drives, pull away from Invaders while denting several of their ships:



1st March 2203, 17:00:06, bulk of human forces stopped accelerating a bit too early and Invaders caught up to them. Several volleys have been exchanged and humanity suffers further losses:



Osiris formation splits into many independently operating groups, but this time it was not caused by their tactical plan, but rather by highly accelerated particles messing with their navigation systems, causing some of them to possibly lose targets they were pursuing:



Pikes quickly increase their advantage by scoring additional hits. Soon they slow down for a bit and begin circling around scattered enemies, moping them up:





1st March 2203, 17:05:40, when the last Osiris is torn apart by particle beams, admiral of the entire fleet sees the true damage done by Osiris ships - they successfully pulled Pikes away from main battle and now the distance between two parts of the fleet is huge:



As main assault fleet attempts to turn around, hoping to bring Invaders closer to the Pikes to allow merging and regrouping while staying outside of the effective range of their deadly lasers, horror on boards of Phoenix Hawks continues. Since the last boarding combat, Invaders came up with special filters to jettison any oxygen, nitrogen and bromine finding its way to the life support systems, severely limiting usage of XCOM-made combat gasses.

Many squads struggling on several ships, stuck in prolonged firefights, with ammo for their plasma rifles running low, attempt a desperate psionic attack. Under heavy enemy fire they try to link minds with soldiers fighting over different ships, creating one powerful hive mind capable of (almost) literally frying Invaders' brains.
Despite combat psionic implants focusing on intensity rather than effective range of psionic waves, the new hive mind works rather well and soon united minds of many squads speak in one voice inside Invaders' heads, confusing and terrifying them, making an easy prey out of them. Soon first ship falls prey to humans and another two suddenly change trajectory, running away from the main fleet when toughest among the marines manage to mind-control pilots themselves:



Strikers and Blades making for a bulk of human forces attempt to turn around, but struggle to generate enough thrust and soon find themselves being shot at and forced to quickly drop all manoeuvres and return to previous flight path. Marines manage to capture another ship:



Assault fleet burns fuel excessively, fighting for every additional kilometre per second it can get and helps itself with subluminal warp drives whenever possible to jump as far away from the enemy as possible:



1st March 2203, 17:27:48, many space marines squads start to emerge victorious, but one fails to pull the conquered spaceship outside of enemy formation and faces annihilation in the form of lasers and Gauss projectiles:





To prevent this from happening, assault fleet turns around and blasts engines in the opposite direction, slowing down and coming closer to their enemies. It takes only seconds before targets are acquired. Lasers tear hulls on both sides:





Suddenly enemy fleets begins to decelerate, increasing the speed at which human ships close in, and attempts to take a turn. Some ships fire their engines a bit later, sweeping out wider than their main forces:



1st March 2203, 17:31:19, humans time their fire just right and severely damage many ships when they pass in front of them. Unfortunately, their velocity is too high for easy change of course and before they can pull away from Invaders and increase range to a bit more safe levels, Invaders finish their manoeuvre and strike mercilessly when Strikers are most vulnerable:





Severe casualties and weariness caused by the longest space battle up to date make it clear that this time humanity has to retreat. Assault fleet eventually breaks contact without losing more ships along the way and plots course towards NN 3009 wormhole, attempting to bait enemy into the heated plasma fired by interceptors stationing there. After a while enemy ships disappear from radars.

1st March 2203, 17:45:58, Tomahawks flying towards rendezvous point to regroup with rest of human spaceships detect a lonely Phoenix Hawk crusing through the void. Without much thought into it, they launch missiles, blowing it out of the space:







1st March 2203, 17:57:55, similar to Tomahawks before, Pikes also spot "their" lonely vessel and turn it into space debris:





Nearest future of NN 3815 remains uncertain. For whatever reason Invaders stopped chasing human vessels, but withdrawing from the system is the last thing they could do. On top of that on the other side of the system several Gaia colonisation ships bringing millions of people towards Utopia were flying, now turned around back to the Earth for obvious reasons.

Analysis of the flight parameters of the Invaders' fleet through the span of last minutes before its disappearance from radars show that, if it doesn't engage any engines, it should arrive at the end of Invaders' network, near wormhole leading to WISE 2359-7335. It is theorised Invaders will attempt to cross it to progress further into human-controlled space, which brings traumatic memories of all the massacres of civilian ships that happened in the proximity of WISE 2359-7335 already. On top of that, intentionally or not, their fleet ended up on an interception course for colonisation ships.

To prepare a final defence line, high command takes risk and orders plasma interceptors to leave their current position and secure WISE 2359-7335 wormhole until further notice. Surviving ships from the assault fleet are expected to proceed towards NN 3009 wormhole just like they ended up doing and take the interceptors' posts till they return from their critical mission, acting as a temporary sentry.

And so the first part of the battle that from that memorable day was referred to as the Battle of Dark Forest, came to an end.
Casualties on both sides were insane yet Invaders still held well together. Battle of Dark Forest marked an end to a doctrine of Strikers, Pikes and Blades. New, improved, more efficient ships were desperately needed if humanity wanted to survive the Second Bootes War.

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

1st March 2203, 21:45:37, on their way to rendezvous point with main fleet, Pikes pick up a single Phoenix Hawk on their radar. Hostile ship opens fire from a distance, but Pikes have enough time to react and dodge, their shields tanking what little damage has been dealt, and retaliate, destroying the ship.





2nd March 2203, 20:00:45, patrolling squadron of Overseers warps into the system and immediately detects two stranded Phoenix Hawks, heading straight towards evacuated colonisation fleets. Nearby Pikes catch up to one of them, meanwhile Overseers monitor the course of the other:





After a brief exchange of fire, Pikes destroy their target without a problem and move in to eliminate the second one, which also goes smoothly:











2nd March 2203, 23:31:18, Overseers spot two enemy ships and quickly annihilate them with their missiles:







Human forces concentrate around NN 3009 and WISE 2359-7335 wormholes, regrouping, undergoing field repairs and preparing to hold the line. Government mobilises additional reinforcements from Mars and forces engineers to work extra hours to prepare captured Invaders' spaceships for proper handling by human crews, wanting to give Invaders a taste of their own steel.

5th March 2203, 14:56:28, A huge fleet, consisting of well over one hundred ships, enters NN 3753 from NN 3009. Their numbers are too high, so Anarchists, Devastators and Dragons stationed to guard this wormhole fire a couple times, doing some damage and evacuate through the wormhole.





Once in NN 3009, four unarmed vessels belonging to the enemy are discovered and quickly dealt with:





Void Wormhole Defence Squadron spends an entire day positioned around wormhole to NN 3753, waiting for the enemy to go through and perform hit and run once again, but the enemy never comes, stationed on the other side of the wormhole as indicated by the destruction of launched scout probes. Human forces are too weak to take on the challenge as of now and it is decided that ships guarding NN 3753-NN 3009 wormhole will join forces guarding NN 3815-NN 3009 wormhole. Morale suffers from giving up on one of the three blockades established.

10th March 2203, 5:52:48, a cargo fleet returning from Kappa Tucanae gets shredded into pieces in GI 85 system. Forces from NN 3753 are redirected to investigate the problem. They position themselves near WISE 1519+7009, at a wormhole connecting this start with GI 85 system, hoping to catch the Invaders if they'll push further with their offensive.
12th March 2203, 15:48:16, the plan ends up being a success and plasma interceptors unleash their fire once the enemy arrives:







Invaders recover from the initial surprise and prepare to defend themselves from the ambush, but the admiral of interceptor fleet orders to power up engines and escape through a wormhole just in time, ending up in GI 85. Invaders don't dare to follow.

What is unsettling is that according to the hostile fleet composition, the ships that showed up could possibly be the fleet that disappeared from sensors in NN 3815 after the Battle of Dark Forest, but reinforced with 15 fresh Phoenix Hawks. They must have known about the second fleet of freighters and they used this knowledge to travel to GI 85 directly with help of their FTL drives and attacked Beholders.
It remains a mystery why they didn't choose to attack colonisation ships, but soon it is concluded that hurting logistics is more beneficial for them because at this stage it'll hurt development of Kappa Tucanae more than a few million people moving there not reaching their destination.

12th March 2203, 15:59:39, a lone Phoenix Hawk, possibly acting as a scout, enters GI 85 and before it can react, hot plasma melts through its hull:





12th March 2203, 17:04:48, a small squadron of Phoenix Hawks enters NN 3815, but retreats back to NN 3815 before any of the interceptors detecting it can do anything. Humanity decides to chase it down, bringing the battle to the dreaded NN 3009 system:





Plasma guns aren't effective at longer range, but Invader lasers aren't either, so the fleet is ordered to keep its distance and the main work of actually dealing damage rests at shoulders of Devastators, armed with particle lances:



Unfortunately, eventually enemy manages to land a shot directly at a reactor, making a small star out one of the ships for a while:



Firefight continues and it isn't very difficult for human forces to maintain distance and pierce holes in enemy's hulls, but more casualties are taken in the process:









12th March 2203, 17:14:20, eventually last Invader ships are destroyed. Plasma interceptors return to their designated position in NN 3815.





To every officer commanding anything from a crew handling a single weapon to a whole space fleet it is clear that Invaders are successfully regaining control in a sector that once was made safe for civilian traffic, allowing rapid conquest of Paradise and plans for colonising GJ 1279, not to mention all the other colonisation-friendly worlds discovered within the network of Invaders.
As a response, World Government passes a new law, coming into effect immediately on every celestial body in Kappa Tucanae System. According to the latest Dark Forest Decree, citizens on Kappa Tucanae are on their own now and all communications with the rest of humanity are strictly prohibited with the exception of reports for the government and reception of technological, scientific and military updates from the rest of humanity so that the system doesn't stay outdated.

In order to make communication with Kappa Tucanae as well as other systems as safe as possible, Space VPN project is launched. Its purpose is to create a web of beacons in random places around randomly chosen stars that'll receive signals and pass them further, maximising the difficulty of identifying their source or destination. Route of the packets will be selected randomly for each message and beacons themselves are going to be reshuffled and moved to different systems periodically as well.
The project is meant to be used as a temporary solution until the process of using quantum entanglement to replace current means of communication is finished.

The decision hurts morale of the human society and causes severe unrest because Kappa Tucanae Wall means no more toilet paper shipments. Many look at the operation COVID-19 as a proof humanity learned nothing during the past two centuries, because the similarities between current situation and rapid spread, countries crossing borders and no toilet paper from the pandemic times are clearly visible.



16th March 2203, 14:35:22, a huge fleet that once made a breach into NN 3753 arrives in NN 3815 via wormhole from NN 3009. Two Wormhole Defence Squadrons combine forces and strike at the enemy, slowly but steadily chewing through their ships. After unloading a few volleys they jump to NN 3009 to avoid deadly retaliation.



17th March 2203, 4:56:02, three Overseers arrive in NN 3815 and scan the system for hostile activity. They detect both the Large Fleet (after two wormhole ambushes a little less large) and two Phoenix Hawks flying through deep space:





Apparently the ships move closer to each other to regroup. Overseers attempt to ruin this attempt by blowing up the two ships that lack anti-missile capability. Plasma interceptors warp into NN 3009 once again, after receiving reports from Overseers about Large Fleet moving away. Upon their return a few damaged, left behind ships are spotted and quickly destroyed:







17th March 2203, 5:15:09, Overseers open fire and successfully destroy two Phoenix Hawks:







17th March 2203, 5:19:29, Overseers detect another Phoenix Hawk and move in to evaporate the target:



As the patrolling ships close in, several additional squadrons are detected:



Once close enough, Overseers open fire and mop up spaceship after spaceship:









As human forces cruise towards WISE 2343-7418, more and more ships are discovered:





Missiles keep on flying, blowing up those additional targets, defenceless without main fleet support:









17th March 2203, 5:38:14, an additional squadron of Phoenix Hawks is detected near WISE 2343-7418 wormhole, right on top of plasma interceptors that returned from WISE 1519+7009 to strengthen defence of NN 3815. Ships in question, together with tugs tractoring space stations that help keep them supplied and maintained, reverse engines and attempt to flee from the enemy:



Overseers attempt to distract the enemy and begin transmitting various signals, making themselves visible to the enemy. Invaders take the bait, allowing plasma interceptors to escape, having successfully escorted space stations which wouldn't be able to escape easily given their lack of warp drives. Technically this wasn't necessary, but should the firefight happen, Anarchists and Dragons would need to close in, allowing Invaders to deal a few severe blows before facing annihilation.



Having fired almost all of their missiles, Overseers head on to resupply, but before engaging their warp drives they fly through NN 3815 once more to get updates about enemy activity:





17th March 2203, 7:12:41, Phoenix Hawks decide to risk it and chase plasma interceptors through WISE 2343-7418 wormhole, however human forces are prepared for this and quickly destroy all targets. At the same time another squadron attempts to breach blockade at NN 3009-Gliese 483 wormhole, but fleet stationed there holds the line and neutralises the threat without much problems.

In spite of recent events, Government puts NN 3815 under quarantine and concentrates bulk of human space navy, including several refitted Invader vessels, adapted to easy handling by human crewmembers, preparing to defeat key Invader forces in the system before they retreat, or worse, further weaken fleets participating in the war.

22th March 2203, 19:20:46, remaining ships from the Huge Fleet of Invaders (still being huge despite casualties taken) warps into NN 3815 from NN 3009. Combined forces of two fleets defending wormhole keep on pounding the enemy, but after firing a few volleys and destroying a few more ships, they do the same old trick and retreat, not wanting to risk additional casualties. Assault fleet, stationed at WISE 2359-7335 wormhole sets to catch up to the enemy.

23th March 2203, 1:45:24, fleet consisting of captured and fixed Phoenix Hawks detects a strong gravitational interference next to WISE 2359-7335, just outside the wormhole. "Invaders" have to intervene immediately, because a group of ships tugging space stations for fleet support in NN 3815 is located there and won't be able to escape from the enemies:



"Invaders" catch up to Invaders without much trouble and soon the enemy gets a taste of its own weapons as Phoenix Hawks concentrate fire on a Phoenix Hawk:





Both fleets are armed with exact same guns, the only advantage of humanity being that Scarabus ships have less guns than Phoenix Hawks, meaning that Invaders are as deadly for "Invaders" as "Invaders" are for Invaders. To minimise risk of taking casualties, especially given how bled out is humanity making each ship very precious, damaged ships have to turn around and attempt to get to the NN 3815 rather than stay in a formation and risk imminent destruction.
So thanks to skilled, experienced pilots and smart captains, humanity scores hits while staying on enemy's tail and dodges most of incoming fire:



23th March 2203, 1:50:44, Invaders suddenly turn around and decelerate, accepting additional damage taken while their fleet slows down, becoming more vulnerable. As a result, before anyone could react, "Invaders" found themselves too close to their evil counterpart, which allowed enemy forces to blow up two ships without a problem. In order to gain distance, captains give orders to turn around, otherwise entire fleet will pass very close to the enemy and with their ships having exact same acceleration and fuel amount, they'll be able to gain velocity again and travel in parallel, firing at point blank. The latter is especially scary considering their Gauss cannons humanity managed to stay away from as of now, with their projectiles being very easy to avoid at range, but extremely deadly from up close.





23th March 2203, 2:00:28, after tanking more shots and losing some crew on some ships, humanity splits its ships, making it harder for the enemy to chase them down. Invaders appear to have lost most of their significant ships and humanity prepares to finish them off:



In order to speed up the process, "Invaders" change trajectory and begin to circle rapidly around the enemy, "orbiting" them. The initial advantage makes it almost impossible  for Invaders to rotate fast enough to align their guns with the targets, because same ships means same rotation speed, so in despair enemy begins circling, too, dodging some shots. Ultimately it doesn't matter and soon the entire fleet is defeated:

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

During the following days, after numerous patrols and extensive hit and run tactics, humanity eventually destroyed surviving enemy ships concentrated in NN 3815, but at an overall great cost. Reorganisation of all the fleets has been assigned the highest priority in the incoming months and years. After latest defeat, Invaders gave up for a while, allowing humanity to catch breath, but Kappa Tucanae isolationism has been maintained.

A new generation of Guidance system ships has appeared, however Jump Drive technology is still in more or less experimental phase and wormholes it creates are far too small for the ship using it to escort additional vessels through them, hence the new designs still had to use Alcubierre Drives:

Code: [Select]

Guidance MkII class Jump Tender      171,981 tons       1,246 Crew       8,925.6 BP       TCS 3,440    TH 24,000    EM 0
6977 km/s    JR 2-25(C)      Armour 1-275       Shields 0-0       HTK 257      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 32    Max Repair 1777.1 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months   

JC621K Alcubierre Drive     Max Ship Size 621000 tons    Distance 25k km     Squadron Size 2

Commercial Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP2000.00 (12)    Power 24000    Fuel Use 1.33%    Signature 2000    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 2,000,000 Litres    Range 157.9 billion km (261 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Code: [Select]

Star Finder class Jump Tender      28,466 tons       570 Crew       4,960.7 BP       TCS 569    TH 4,000    EM 0
7026 km/s    JR 3-50      Armour 1-83       Shields 0-0       HTK 104      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 108    Max Repair 3465.7 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months   

J120000(3-50) Alcubierre Drive     Max Ship Size 120000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3

Commercial Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP2000.00 (2)    Power 4000    Fuel Use 1.33%    Signature 2000    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range 119.2 billion km (196 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Alongside an updated basic Guidance starship, a new class has been prototyped, built specifically with military operations in mind. Star Finders being much smaller than Guidance MkII ships could rapidly transport military fleets across the stars and could even become a part of them if protected well from dangers, making military operations way smoother, without having to use the Behemoths of Guidance MkII starships themselves.
To test these vessels out, a fleet of them will be responsible for deployment of Space VPN infrastructure.

An Orion starship exploring systems linked to Kappa Tucanae, now stuck there, unable to return to Core Worlds, continues its mission around its forcefully changed mother system. It manages to find out that last of the unexplored wormholes from Kappa Tucanae leads directly to already discovered HIP 65530, providing an alternative route for reaching Kappa Tucanae without an FTL drive. Also, to a slight relief of local population, HD 128642 doesn't contain any wormholes besides the one connecting it to Kappa Tucanae, making it somewhat safer spot for local colonisation. That safety is mostly illusional, though, because there's nothing preventing Invaders to warp into the system directly from any other place. Having finished exploration of the "close neighbourhood", after brief holidays on Kappa Tucanae B-II, scientists head towards NN 3891 to check possible routes Invaders might still want to use and pick a random wormhole to go through. They reach GJ 1049 system:







No complex life forms are detected on GJ 1049-A III, however the ocean beneath ice sheets is full of unicellular microorganisms, mostly residing on the sweet spot between eternal day and eternal night, where the temperatures are high enough for the ice to melt and cool enough for the water not to boil. It is discovered that they are capable of photosynthesis and produce oxygen that slowly builts in the atmosphere, which resembles processes that once took place on Earth.
Also the water that boils on the bright side often travels across the planet into the dark side where it falls down in the form of snow and ice, making the weather rather extreme, with frequent storms, but at the same time the water causes rock erosion and maybe at some point in the future, unless humanity colonises and terraforms this world, this will be the foundation for soil buildup, allowing life to evolve further.




AGE OF DARK FOREST


Government approves Operation Reseed, a proposition to unload the last group of colonists supposed to reach Kappa Tucanae in GJ 1279-A II and II instead. A few million people that are about to inhabit these two planets will be tasked with establishing themselves on the planet while maintaining low profile and not letting their population grow too big until they're prepared for independent anti-Invaders defence or better times arrive. The idea behind this operation is to setup a human colony that'll remain unknown to the enemy, serving as a backup securing survival of humanity and serve as a future base of operations against the threat of Invasion.

Epsilon Eridani-A II follows rapid militarisation. After recent incidents with Earth-Invaders Organisation and Invaders appearing in Epsilon Eridani, each person out of over 150 million people living there so far is forced to serve in the army for at least 5 years upon reaching adulthood, no exceptions, so this includes all women, too.
World Government plans to use the planet for military experiments on technological, psychological and societal levels. It was long theorised that common usage of cybernetic implants, guns made out of very light materials, power armors, synthetic organs, exoskeletons and rapidly growing industry and science of genetic engineering should make it possible for literally everyone to serve in the military without any trouble, making physical fitness and strength evaluation a relic of the past, however so far most of the soldiers and law enforcement officers have been recruited out of fit men, mostly for cultural conditioning and differences in male and female psychology.

The time has come to finally change this. Even psychological barriers can be easily overthrown using psionic technology, and because of that, psychologists, psychiatrists and psi scientists began working on Amazons Program, which goal was to alter personality of women living on Kappa Tucanae-A II to make them, on average, more competitive and combative. Only the minority of those who were like that naturally have been excluded from the program to offload some work since the undertaking was huge.

Of course it didn't take long for literally everyone to start revolting against these decisions that effectively turned the whole world into one giant barracks and army HQ, but of course it didn't take long for the government to use significant forces, originally meant to be sent to Barnard's Star A-I, to suppress the unrest. Unrest was increasing, not only on Epsilon Eridani-A II, but on literally every other world, ranging from a Core World through a mining colony to an asteroid outpost, though.

After rethinking everything given the scale of the entire operation, government decided that the population of Epsilon Eridani-A VIII's eight moon will be redirected to administrative and logistic support for the founded army. This will allow to further offload work from Amazon Program staff, as in general "non-combative" citizens from Epsilon Eridani-A II will be, to the extent possible, replaced with "combative" citizens living on Eridani-A VIII's eight moon.
Despite harsher conditions on mentioned moon, people try hard to end up there instead of being forced to serve in the army. Ironically, there are many cases where people fought so hard for this they were classified as "combative" and could not escape the service.
Some of the men that ended up classified as "non-combative" but did not manage to evacuate to the moon, outraged they have to take part in a program that's called "Amazons" and is mostly for women, but government just doesn't care.

Since military service means having psionic implants installed, further indoctrination and personality altering is planned to ensure full compliance. Over 150 million people bonding together as one powerful mind could be dangerous, especially if those people aren't happy with their lives.
Following stick and carrot method, a promise is made that those who will excel at their service will be granted an unlimited access to the Matrix, including 24 hours per week access to illegal modules, including full realistic family simulation module, to compensate for the tough life of a soldier.

To help get more soldiers out of the "Military Planet", a team of biologists and genetic engineers working in genetic modification centers on Gaia, largest facilities of that type built by humans, propose to modify and enhance population of Epsilon-Eridani systems. Development of SuperBreeder Genome assumes adapting female bodies to be able to have more children more frequently and human mind to handle taking care of, on average, more kids easier.
The initial idea doesn't find much approval, though, because adapting human mind is a job for psi scientists, already having more than enough work with implementation of Amazons Program, and increasing the capability of human species to make children is pointless as of now because the main reasons for stagnated population growth are purely psychological, societal and economical and even without genetic improvements people don't create offspring as quickly as they technically could from biological point of view.

With the recent damage done by Invaders and their spread across many stars, branch of SETI program responsible for actively sending signals to outer space is suspended until further notice and in general all interstellar communication is supposed to be as reduced as possible.
Further restrictions apply and government passes some limited forms of censorship of mainstream media and culture after a movie "Equal even before Death", technically depicting a high-fantasy world, but in reality being a commentary to the militarisation projects of Epsilon Eridani system, hits the top charts and is extensively discussed. Instead, government promotes art and culture revolving around all those battles fought with Invaders.

3rd October 2203, engineers and military technicians on Kappa Tucanae-A II complete work on the Kappa Defence Grid, tasked with detecting and shooting down any hostile spaceships closing in to Kappa Tucanae system. The project in this system was started much earlier, but it is expected that Epsilon Eridani soon will follow.

Human Bureau of Investigation eventually manages to figure out the truth behind latest encounters with Invaders. According to clues and proofs collected, Invaders knew exactly where to strike because EIO members have provided them with necessary information, including for example most popular transit routes to Kappa Tucanae or the plan to build orbital city of Olympus.
Society is shocked when results of the investigation hit the news, but not even by all the harm caused by EIO, but rather by the fact that there are humans who successfully communicated with Invaders, something that hasn't been achieved before.
Best of the best among interrogators are hired to get the details out of EIO members' heads, because simply pinpointing a few strategic targets isn't something Invaders would've cared about to the point of actually talking with humans.

Neurotrainers prove to be a huge success, vastly increasing the pace of technological progress. Engineers on Epsilon Eridani-A II successfully manage to create improved accelerators, making particle beams stay consistent and thus deadly at longer ranges. The project is supposed to find applications in military industry soon.

First rebellions begin on Epsilon Eridani-A II, but all are quickly suppressed, showing the entire human race how disobedience will be punished in these harsh times.

Rapid development of Amazons Program is, along increased matrix usage and reintroduction of illegal modules for it, a major factor contributing to the family structure decay on the planet, say sociologists. They warn the entire project will have disastrous long-term consequences and will lead to societal instability for generations to come.

Terraformers are sent to the dwarf planet of Altair-A III and prepare it for rapid colonisation. With the current terraformation tech, the task will is expected to be very easy and it won't take more than a few years to prepare Earth-like atmosphere and introduce flora and fauna to populate the world, allowing for humans to arrive. The colony is supposed to serve mainly as another mineral source for military industry expanding in Epsilon Eridani system. Altair has not been chosen by an accident, though, since some fungus and plants growing on Altair-A II have been proven to work as strong psychedelics when consumed in small quantities by humans. Government plans to hire chemists and biologists to invent new military drugs formulae based on the native biosphere of Altair-A II. The planet itself will not be terraformed and colonised, though, since xenobiologists have proven that adapting the world for humans would ruin the ecosystem and the necessary species would face extinction.
Setting up a population on Altair-A III is also supposed to serve as a part of Operation Reseed and testing grounds for advancements in genetic engineering aimed at making humans better suited for low gravity environments.

Humanity pushes further into Invader-controlled space, exploring wormhole after wormhole. The one in NN 3891 leads to Gliese 143:







Gliese 143-A IV is found to host alien life, mostly consisting of animals feeding on colonies of algae-like biological matter spanning across vast plains on the planet and the ones preying on them. Life is rather scarce, though, dead snow and dead ice fills most of the planet's surface.

However, upon closer examination and a couple of manned missions to the surface, it is discovered that some portions of the snow isn't in fact frozen water, but frozen carbon dioxide and dirty atmospheric ash. Simulations confirm what scientists have already realised - Gliese 143-A IV is a post-apocalypse planet, once possibly resembling Earth itself, but now suspended in a state of nuclear winter.
Further research conducted in a system revals that Gliese 143-A II as well as the moon of Gliese 143-A IV host colonies of microorganisms surviving on the post-nuclear planet. One of the theories speaks about this being a proof of early terraformation attempts done by the civilisation that once lived there.

During one of the geological missions on Gliese 143-A IV members of the exploration mission discover something that definitely wasn't made by mother nature. At least a few decades old, ruins of an alien city are discovered.
XAT teams that later arrived on the site couldn't find much of anything at least remotely useful - the civilisation once inhabiting this world has been long extinct and wiped out from the history of the universe except for the fact that it existed at all. For many it serves as a proof of Dark Forest Theory, lowering the already low morale of human society even further.

A wormhole from WISE 1457+5815 connects Chi Eridani binary system:





















An interesting discovery is made when an Orion-class starship traverses through a wormhole in GJ 1049 and arrives near the lonely star of HIP 76315. Data about this star has been pulled out from Mechi databases back in the day, however it was not known where in the Mechi network it belongs. To have discovered a wormhole to it while exploring Invaders' network is simply scary, even if the the Invaders attacking Mechi space is a long-known fact.

Meanwhile another team operating in Mechi-controlled (or possibly not really controlled anymore) space travels through a wormhole in 82 Eridani, landing in Xi Bootis system:



















Xi Bootis-A doesn't have any celestial bodies orbiting it, but Xi Bootis-B is a rich planetary system, including life on Xi Bootis-B II. The planet's surface doesn't contain water (or any other liquid for that matter), yet oxygen-breathing life starts to take this world over. Xenobiologists find it hard to classify the alien species sparsely populating the cold, rocky surface. They appear as plants, but more like dead, dried plants. Their biology is so bizarre many begin referring to them as "living rocks". They are completely static and don't react to outside stimulation, but they need oxygen to keep themselves "alive". It is suggested that maybe once the planet contained water, but for whatever reason now it doesn't and the "living rocks" are the last organisms that adapted to this harsh environment, clinging to life despite their existence barely resembling it.

The situation is different on the hellish seventh moon of Xi Bootis-B IV. This moon is the size of a large planet and despite scorching temperatures and severe atmospheric pressure, methane-breathers concentrate around the ice sheets on the poles. These lifeforms are not complex, mostly being unicellular organisms, but a few species of moss are found as well. Initially believed to breathe methane, however it is revealed that the process actually resembles consuming it directly as food, meanwhile they don't need to breathe at all.

Spaceship-building corporations on Mars are contracted by the government to design a new missile destroyer, replacing the old Phalanx and Vanguard ships. In order to gain the upper hand government decides to risk it and, using the brief peace period achieved after latest repulsion of Invaders, send part of the forces into HIP 9786 to defeat Precursors guarding HIP 9786-A III and gain access to their technology. Soon the best prototype is picked up and enters production:

Code: [Select]

Woodpecker class Missile Destroyer      27,489 tons       657 Crew       8,319.7 BP       TCS 550    TH 8,050    EM 6,240
14642 km/s      Armour 20-81       Shields 208-520       HTK 152      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 15      PPV 158.4
Maint Life 1.19 Years     MSP 6,837    AFR 403%    IFR 5.6%    1YR 4,988    5YR 74,814    Max Repair 4025 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP8050.00 (1)    Power 8050    Fuel Use 64.32%    Signature 8050    Explosion 23%
Fuel Capacity 4,000,000 Litres    Range 40.7 billion km (32 days at full power)
Theta S208 / R520 Shields (1)     Recharge Time 520 seconds (0.4 per second)

Quad Gauss Cannon R500-25.00 Turret (20x20)    Range 50,000km     TS: 32000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 50,000 km    ROF 5       
Beam Fire Control R150-TS32000 (1)     Max Range: 150,000 km   TS: 32,000 km/s     93 87 80 73 67 60 53 47 40 33

Active Search Sensor AS23-R1 (1)     GPS 96     Range 23.5m km    MCR 2.1m km    Resolution 1

Compact ECCM-3 (1)         ECM 30

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Not having an FTL drive, it requires assistance of FTL-capable ships in a fleet, but this choice has saved more space for Gauss turrets and allowed it to maintain decent thrust, making it able to outrun Invaders without much trouble. On top of that new missile destroyer has been fitted with newest subluminal Alcubierre Drive, granting it the capability to reach the effective speed of over 14 thousands kilometres per second.

15th January 2207, 10:50:29, human forces warp into HIP 9786 and set course to "Precursors' planet". Upon closing in to the destination, an impressive fleet is spotted:



Enemy opens fire and sends hundreds of missiles at incoming human ships, but Woodpeckers pass their test just like in the simulations, nullifying the threat:







15th January 2207, 10:56:14, when assault fleet arrives closer, up to a distance from which the planet becomes visible with a naked eye, radars pick up, in addition to the large fleet, EM signature on the surface:



Soon after this discovery enemy begins to bombard the incoming fleet with a swarm of weaker, but faster and more numerous missiles. Woodpeckers don't have any problems with them either, though:



15th January 2207, 11:01:18, HIP 9786-A III is discovered to have a planetary defence grid, similar in concept to the one on Kappa Tucanae-A II. Before the fleet manages to change course, laser beams punch through the shields and hulls of many ships, destroying one Tomahawk:





Tomahawks open counter fire, trying to target the planetary defence grid, but the enemy launches counter-missiles that intercepts some of them, and what was not intercepted in that phase got picked up by HIP 9786-A III's point defence systems.





15th January 2207, 11:10:18, after numerous missile bombardment attempts, all repelled by Woodpeckers, enemy appears to have run out of ammo. After successfully retreating from the effective range of defence grid, Tomahawks open fire once again. This time Precursors can't intercept every missile and orbital defence systems blow up one by one:





Enemy ships are seen fleeing from the planet, only static orbital platforms remain:



After obliterating orbital lasers, assault fleet closes in and Pikes begin shooting at the defenceless platforms, damaging some of them:



However, soon cease fire order is given - it is decided that these platforms, as well as remaining ships, are too valuable to be destroyed like that and they'll be boarded and captured. On top of that, apart from planetary defence systems, EM signatures from surface suggest presence of more machines and installations.
Whether they're armed or not, remains unknown, but they don't resemble anything found on Tau Ceti-A IV or Kruger 60-A I. The safest approach is to send military forces to investigate, many of which will come from Epsilon Eridani-A II, possibly serving as a great training opportunity for the new soldiers.

How to transfer large armies over vast distances quickly turns out to be a huge logistical undertaking and quite a problem. Initial prototype of a starships capable of doing that is proposed, however it is subject to change as government thinks about sending more ships, but each containing less soldiers while having better acceleration, manoeuvrability and more armor layers.

Code: [Select]

Starhunter class Assault Transport      118,233 tons       1,240 Crew       17,909.3 BP       TCS 2,365    TH 10,000    EM 0
4228 km/s    JR 3-50      Armour 30-214       Shields 0-0       HTK 251      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 51      PPV 0
Maint Life 0.27 Years     MSP 11,988    AFR 5325%    IFR 74.0%    1YR 45,123    5YR 676,842    Max Repair 5000 MSP
Troop Capacity 50,000 tons     Drop Capable   
Captain    Control Rating 2   BRG   ENG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Morale Check Required   

J120000(3-50) Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 120000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP10000.00 (1)    Power 10000    Fuel Use 74.12%    Signature 10000    Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 20,000,000 Litres    Range 41.1 billion km (112 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

The ship is equipped with hundreds of drop pods with extremely resistant heatshields, allowing for rapid atmospheric entry and landing on the attacked world, as well as small engines for choosing the best landing spot and helping avoiding potential AA cannons.
A Jump Drive has been used, instead of Alcubierre Drive, which in case of this huge beast significantly improves interstellar travel times.

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

31st August 2207, with the help of what was once recovered from captured Mechi robots, physicists discover new ways of antimatter production. Humanity is now able to get enough anti-particles to build first reactors. Apart from being a new power source and potentially a new weapon, these reactors foreshadow a revolution in spaceship propulsion systems.

Assembling together artificial, brainless bodies, initially meant to allow those who transplanted their brains into robots to go back to the biological form and recover from Mechanical Insanity Syndrome, are so successful that there's now a huge market for them and potential customer base is growing from day to day. Many people dream of swapping their bodies for a "better one", in addition to all the cybernetic and genetic modifications already available in civilian sector.

Large-scale augmentation of Martian environment via genetic modifications and food cloning allows once red, but for long time blue planet to sustain larger population, resolving overcrowding crisis that'd have happened in the near future.

SETI linguists and astronomers manage to crack down the meaning of new signals that have been coming from Barnard's Star for a while. What they contain is simply a map pointing out to V1216 Sagittarii star, with a few dozens of nearby stars surrounding it, acting as reference and allowing easy identification.
A mission to this star is launched, however it doesn't discover anything of significant meaning:







It's just a dead system, not even a single microorganisms, nor is it particularly rich in natural resources.
One thing that could be somehow interesting is planet V1216 Sagittarii-A III. This large planet even for gas giant standards has very violent weather and suffers from frequent, large cyclones and storms, more severe than on any other gas giant discovered so far. This has caught scientists' attention especially when a more in-depth study of incoming signals revealed that they specifically pinpoint this gas giant, not V1216 Sagittarii in general. Further studies of the planet didn't lead to discovering anything meaningful, though.

Earth-Invaders Organisation has prepared an assault on the facility in which alive Invaders are kept imprisoned. It wasn't hard for local garrison to defend the facility, however what is concerning is that members of EIO have managed to communicate with Invaders via illegally obtained psionic implants and coordinate their attempt with them.
However, the good side is that this trial provided an excellent opportunity to study Invader's mind in more detail. Results were quickly put to use and soon it was known what EIO members have broadcast to Invader vessel once operating in Epsilon Eridani that convinced them to establish communication.

Many attempts were made, but the message that did the job was related to the discovery of caverns in the area of Whispering Summit on Nibiru. For some reason patterns resembling flying saucers and giant robots uncovered there were of great interest for Invaders. They requested more data and terrorists from EIO provided them with what they could gather about Tau Ceti-A IV as well, which was even more valuable for Invaders.

Programmers were tasked with preparing special modelling AI that would be capable of creating a realistic model and study of a particular machine based on only vague pictures and descriptions. After first early access programs appeared, they were used to create a model of a flying saucer and robot based on the data EIO gave to the Invaders.
"Find them" was the one and only order given to all SETI teams scattered among colonised space.

In the following weeks government hired many sociologists and psychologists for extensive research into Dark Forest Theory. A case of primitive civilisation living on NN 4079-A III that was once discovered has been brought up. According to the theory, humanity should destroy this civilisation before it develops and reaches a point in which its technology will start to grow rapidly, posing a threat to human existence. This point seems even more valid given high intelligence of these species. However, because the civilisation obviously is completely harmless as of now, some sociologists, refusing to accept this dark and pessimistic vision of the universe, propose an alternative solution. Since pessimism of Dark Forest comes mainly from now knowing the intentions of other civilisation, they point out that the huge technological gap provides an invaluable chance to study these species in detail and learn about their motivations, philosophy and morals long before they'll develop technology necessary for threatening existence of humanity.

Eventually it is agreed that in case of a race stuck on the tribal age for now such approach could be a good attempt at breaking the Curse of a Dark Forest. The worst that could happen is that in case of either finding out the civilisation in question is hostile or insufficient and imprecise results by the time they'll enter the era of rapid scientific and technological development, they can always be wiped out, but if their intentions will be good, humanity in the far future will have a basic reason to communicate with them and form an alliance, strengthening itself against hostile aliens.

And so after receiving an official greenlight, Project Eye for an Eye has entered realisation stage. A special colony was to be set on NN 4079-A II, serving as a main base of operations and terraformers have been sent there. Abundant natural resources of the planet should be more than enough for the colony to sustain itself and then expand further. Gas giants orbiting HIP 15220 were designated as a main fuel source for the new colony and making it so that tugs dragging Terraria stations into their destination could refuel without having to travel all the way back to Core Worlds. In the future Beta Trianguli Australis could be colonised as well.

To help with transport around those three stars serving as a main area of operation for Project Eye for an Eye, a small network of wormholes has been created, linking Gliese 762, Gliese 322, NN 4079, Beta Trianguli Australis and HIP 15220 together:



These routes were calculated to be optimal for interstellar travels via wormholes in the area and are foundation for the future conquest and development of the worlds connected with them.
Facing the recent inactivity of Invaders, government reactivates Project Olympus. Orbital city modules will be transferred to Kruger 60 once again, this time under heavy escort of military forces.
Despite a mess Operation COVID-19 has been so far, a new hope arrives in the form of a blueprint for a new combat spaceship armed with, thanks to latest scientific advancements, particle beam weapons, powered with an experimental antimatter reactor:

Code: [Select]

Vaccine class Strike Cruiser      25,000 tons       758 Crew       13,795.5 BP       TCS 500    TH 7,000    EM 0
14000 km/s      Armour 28-76       Shields 0-0       HTK 147      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 40      PPV 114
Maint Life 1.38 Years     MSP 7,448    AFR 500%    IFR 6.9%    1YR 4,250    5YR 63,745    Max Repair 1750 MSP
Captain    Control Rating 3   BRG   ENG   CIC   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP3500.00 (2)    Power 7000    Fuel Use 64.14%    Signature 3500    Explosion 20%
Fuel Capacity 3,247,000 Litres    Range 36.4 billion km (30 days at full power)

Particle Lance-18-3 (3)    Range 500,000km     TS: 14,000 km/s     Power 55-12    ROF 25       
Particle Beam-16 (5)    Range 500,000km     TS: 14,000 km/s     Power 40-10    ROF 20       
Beam Fire Control R800-TS14000 (2)     Max Range: 800,000 km   TS: 14,000 km/s     99 98 96 95 94 92 91 90 89 88
Solid-core Anti-matter Power Plant R87 (1)     Total Power Output 87.3    Exp 5%

Active Search Sensor AS76-R100 (1)     GPS 4800     Range 77m km    Resolution 100

Compact ECCM-3 (2)         ECM 30

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Named Vaccine as a sign of COVID-19 getting contained for the second time, this vessel features excellent thrust and power generation, fuel-efficient engines, thin but very durable armor thanks to the advanced particle structure used in its design, a lot of spare parts and automated diagnostic and repair systems, decent subluminal warp drive and latest instalments of anti-Invader software.
And all this packed together with its two most important assets: accurate, powerful weapons outranging Invaders' lasers and stronger engines producing more thrust than enemy's designs. These two features make it nearly invincible in battles with Invaders and if the enemy doesn't deploy a new generation of its fleet, victory will belong to the humanity.

When first Vaccines are produced, government begins to push Project Olympus more aggressively. Within next year all planned modules are connected in orbit and the city is ready to host first inhabitants.
1st February 2209, first colonists land in Olympus and begin populating the orbital habitats.
10th March 2209, population of Olympus crosses 10 millions, but the hive mind is still too weak to uncover the secrets of complex on Kruger 60-A I.
20th March 2209, after the arrival of over 20 millions of people in total, finally they are able to connect their minds together and form a key to the gate of the complex. Olympians could finally begin their work.

The complex is far larger than the one found on Tau Ceti-A IV. It contains a lot of information about Precursors' space programs, data about billions of stars and planets across millions of galaxies as well as technical details about their FTL communication arrays and sensors. According to them, quantum entanglement is really the way to go for instant communication between people separated by many light years.

But one of the more valuable findings is a huge database of Precursor colonies within Milky Way. Reading and cataloguing all the entries is going to be a huge undertaking. The usefulness of this database is questionable, because no traces of Precursor civilisation is left on their planets after all the eons that passed since their extinction and it is not known whether some entries refer to positions of their automated outposts or is it all only about the worlds they once personally inhabited.

The key to the victory with Invaders is still hidden where human eyes and mind can not yet reach. The mysterious weapon Precursors talked about is nothing but pure magic for humanity at this stage of development.
What little could be pieced together talks about concepts so alien to the current human understanding of a concept of "weapon". Data found talks about manipulating multidimensional space as well as multidimensional time on a cosmic scale. These ideas and science behind them are so alien for even the brightest human minds that all the spacetime manipulation achieved by humanity so far in the form of warp drives, jump drives, wormhole building and FTL communication arrays is as primitive compared to this as mining with an ancient pickaxe is primitive compared with the modern technologies of asteroid mining. It could be related to Void Wormholes, though, since it is still unknown how Invaders are capable of building wormholes as large as planetary systems themselves, let alone keeping them stable and safe to travel through.

2210s

While working on improving Starhunter's prototype, physicists manage to grasp a better understanding of wormholes and multidimensional space. Now, using the same amount of energy as before, microwormholes made by a Jump Drive can skip longer distances and still be safely destroyed after ship leaves them. Alternatively every parameter of new Jump Drives could stay the same, but its work will consume less power and the engine itself can be made much lighter.

Deep analysis of damage dealt by planetary defence grid to the fleet assaulting HIP 9786-A III resulted in a decision to cut down some armor layers as not really crucial for the ship. All this resulted in a new project that is about to enter serial production:

Code: [Select]

Starhunter class Assault Transport      94,997 tons       943 Crew       11,818.2 BP       TCS 1,900    TH 8,050    EM 0
4237 km/s    JR 3-50      Armour 20-185       Shields 0-0       HTK 200      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 10      PPV 0
Maint Life 0.16 Years     MSP 6,777    AFR 7219%    IFR 100.3%    1YR 42,547    5YR 638,198    Max Repair 4025 MSP
Troop Capacity 50,000 tons     Drop Capable   
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Morale Check Required   

J97500(3-50) Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 97500 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3

Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP8050.00 (1)    Power 8050    Fuel Use 64.32%    Signature 8050    Explosion 23%
Fuel Capacity 10,000,000 Litres    Range 29.5 billion km (80 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

More and more "alive robots" get a chance to return back to biological form and become true human again when scientists successfully test a new method of growing bodies straight out of DNA stored inside a brain of their patients. Many customers aren't satisfied with this solution, because they wanted to swap their bodies for a new one, but for those stuck in cybernetic insanity it's a chance like no other, being much more affordable for an average citizen.

14th June 2211, terraforming of NN 4079-A III is completed. The planet is fully prepared for hosting colonists that'll study the primitive civilisation in a system.
18th July 2211, terraforming of Altair-A III is completed. First inhabitants arrive and strike the earth (or rather strike the Altair-A III, and not necessarily by themselves, but rather with all the machinery they brought with themselves), all to satisfy never-satisfied need for heavy industry on Epsilon Eridani-A II.

31th July 2211, remaining Terraria stations complete terraforming of Kappa Tucanae-A V. The last of the three planets designated for direct conquest in Paradise has been prepared for human arrival. Kappa Tucanae is still quarantined, though, but three habitable planets (two of which already settled) in a binary system should be enough of a kickstart for them.

Advancements in quantum teleportation allow for a transfer of small items to occur. This finds limited applications in cargo shuttles as of now, but soon it could become the main method of cargo transport, possibly even at interstellar distances.

Taking advantage of recent cease of fire, humanity explores Invaders' wormholes while it still safely can. Numerous wormholes are detected in Gliese 143. One of them connects already explored HIP 76315, but the other one HIP 73734:











Numerous planets could be friendly for methane-breathing lifeforms, but there are none within entire system. The celestial bodies explored are all dead and silent.
Explorers who arrived in HIP 76315, mapping a connection from Gliese 143, went further and crossed another wormhole from HIP 76315 into HIP 19233:





Chi Eridani, apart from the wormhole used by explorers to enter the system from WISE 1457+5815, has only one other wormhole. It allows to travel near NN 3750, which is a white dwarf without planetary system:



Next explored wormhole positioned in Gliese 143 connects to Gliese 556:















Gliese 556-A III turns out to be a very interesting planet. Obviously, laying within Invaders' wormholes it is untouched by sentience, however one species is special: a "spider with dozens of legs" without a central neural system. Scientists soon notice that this animal is, despite initial hypothesis, very intelligent. On top of that their neurons are directly exposed to the outside environment and the "legs" aren't in fact legs since these beings move by crawling on their abdomen - they are essentially different parts of a brain. In the centre of their bodies resides an organ that is very sensitive for electromagnetic waves, which each of the "legs" is capable of emitting. These lifeforms essentially communicate by emitting and receiving waves directly via their neural system.
The discovery is very significant, because it's the first extraterrestrial lifeform (and any lifeform, really) discovered that possesses something that could be called "natural psionic powers" since its representatives essentially transfer their thoughts directly to each other. Genetic engineers are very interested in adapting these mechanisms into human DNA, taking next step of evolution into their own hands and breed psionic-capable humans, removing the need for psi implants.

In the meantime an independent exploration mission checks out the binary system of 70 Ophiuchi:









It contains only one planet, however so far it proves to be the richest gas giant discovered, able to provide tons of fuel for entire fleets for the generations to come.

5th September 2211, 17:54:43, scientific vessel performing detailed research mission in Xi Bootis detects a small EM signature on the surface of an 18th moon of Xi Bootis-B IV:



Comparsion checks quickly confirm it's a Mechi structure.
Under normal circumstances it'd have been a bad sign - seeing enemy presence, but given all that happened during Second Bootes War, everyone was relieved to see Mechi weren't completely wiped out yet. It meant Invaders could still possibly need to waste a bit more time and resources to wipe them out.

Experts specialising in military operations and extraterrestrial wars claim Invaders might be simply too powerful and too busy to bother with finding and blowing up every backwater outpost in the entire Milky Way.
But contrary to these opinions, experts in Black Forest Theory point out that according to the basic laws of interactions between interstellar civilisations they should make sure all traces of Mechi are removed from existence.

Tensions are on the rise as certain people boycott research of NN 4079 civilisation, arguing they should be wiped out before they'll rise to become a threat like Mechi or Invaders already are.
As of now government hesitates and sticks to the original plan, but some powerful individuals attempt to communicate with EIO to convince them to reveal coordinates of NN 4079 for Invaders so that the nemesis of humanity would do the dirty work for them, leaving them without suspicion.
Public opinion outraged when XCOM tracks down conspirators and the government decides to reveal all the information to the public.

Data pulled out from Kruger 60-A I leads scientist into building a prototype of a so-called HyperSensor. At first glance only a rather primitive gravitational deep space sensor, but it quickly turns out it is capable of detecting multidimensional signatures and energy outbursts as well.
First tests revolved around wormhole detection and it was confirmed that wormholes, being multidimensional objects themselves, shine bright on the HyperSensor, making their detection and monitoring a piece of cake. Another advantage was that each time a ship travelled through them, strength of the wormhole's signature increased. This spike granted an easy way to oversee the traffic, spotting enemies earlier than before.

That alone was enough to make this new device useful enough to be worthy of mass production, but the benefits didn't end at that. Soon it was confirmed that both Alcubierre Drives and Jump Drives emit strong signals easily picked by HyperSensor both when engaged and disengaged as well through the entire superluminal flight.
Scientists propose to scan Void Wormholes themselves and soon the third mission into Bootes Void is launched.

6th April 2212, 19:35:39, Orion starship equipped with HyperSensor crosses Void Wormhole in NN 3009. A dark, dead and scary void with some galaxies in the distance is all that can be seen at first, just like during first two missions, but as soon as HyperSensor is turned on, everything changes. "We woke Bootes Void up" - comment mission members, staring in awe at the patterns and outbursts of multidimensional traces left by an advanced civilisation.

Onboard navigation systems try to plot a course or at least track one of the many detected signatures, but it's all in vain - even if a lot of them appear to be close, not further than a few light years away, in reality the nearest ones are millions of light years away, a distance current FTL propulsion systems don't allow to cross quickly enough and even unmanned probes are out of a question since even the latest antimatter reactors can't generate enough power to sustain FTL drive during such a long voyage.
Several other missions are launched through the remaining known Void Wormholes, but their results and data they bring back are roughly the same.

Government doesn't give up and in the same year a few dozens unmanned probes are launched into Bootes Void, each equipped with multiple redundant HyperSensors serving as a backup for each other and a small Alcubierre Drive, which, given the size of the spacecraft, will allow it to reach an effective speed of a light year per week. Thanks to the boom in FTL communication industry it won't be a problem for the probes to transfer their recordings back to the Milky Way in realtime.

After a lot of intense discussions, government finally approved another experiments, proposed by a group of psi officers from Epsilon Eridani-A II: the goal is to send a group of captured Invaders into Bootes Void, show them readings coming from a HyperSensor and interrogate them in such scenery. The officers suggest exposure to Bootes Void and one of the secrets it covers will trigger certain connection within prisoners' brains, which will then be easily pinned by the interrogators, opening easier access into their minds.

And so, under the escort of first built Vaccines, Invaders travel right from where they came from. To further increase chances of success, it was decided that the interrogation will take place on one of the captured Phoenix Hawks. On top of that for the duration of the experiment the original Invader-friendly ecosystem has been restored onboard.
And so the battle on a mental plane between humans and Invaders began.

The enemy fought surprisingly well and scientists monitoring the experiment started to lose hope, but even Invaders couldn't maintain their mental guard with full efficiency all the time.
What was recovered wasn't resembling anything coherent, but it was a series of pictures and terms that could provide some hints.
The loose thoughts of the Invaders, triggered by the exposure to certain sights, revolved around interstellar and intergalactic distances, travel times, wormholes - entire networks of them, crossing the barriers of three-dimensional universe and expanding further, Precursors and even the concept of Dark Forest.

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

THIRD BOOTES WAR

The peace might have been short-lived, but when Invaders sent next batch of fleets, humanity was more ready to greet them than ever, with a first fleet of Vaccines built and ready for the fight. However, Invaders managed to pull off yet another surprise. A Void Wormhole opened in WD 1142-645 and Invaders started the Third Bootes War on 14th May 2212, 15:20:47 with destruction of a Guidance ship stationed in the system, tasked with transit of FTL-incapable ships from Core Worlds to Kruger 60 and back. The ship managed to power up FTL drive and escape to Groombridge 34, however enemies followed it there and blew up before its crew realised they're still being chased.

22th May 2212, 2:27:05, a squadron of Vaccines travels through a series of human-made wormholes into Groombridge 34 and prepares to investigate the area around the wreck and rescue survivors.
22th May 2212, 2:38:07, on the eyes of every crewmember, space bends in two places and soon two squadrons of Invader vessels emerge from them:



22th May 2212, 2:40:25, Vaccines catch up to the smaller one and destroy it almost instantly, meanwhile the second one disappears from the radars.



Vaccines pick up survivors and turn away, going back home, but as soon as they close in towards Luyten 726-8 wormhole, their radars detect a second squadron of Invaders, waiting for them in ambush:



The ambush is somewhat successful in a sense that Vaccines were flying at too high speed and managed to get within enemy's range before slowing down, but apart from that enemy lasers barely scratched their hulls before Vaccines accelerated in the opposite directions, increased distance and blasted the enemy into oblivion:









22th May 2212, 3:16:15, Vaccines are about to leave the system when a huge fleet of Invaders warps in out of a sudden. Vaccines plot an interception course and with their insane propulsion rater they quickly fly over the enemy... Or below them, depending on the relative perspective in space:



Human forces turn around, slow down to match the speed of the enemy and open fire while staying at a range from which lasers of Invaders can't do anything:







22th May 2212, 3:33:40, most of enemy fleet is defeated without managing to hit Vaccines even once. A rather small squadron of these ships has managed to defeat a fleet the size of the ones that made the entire human race tremble near the end of Second Bootes War. The source of great pride for every space commander quickly mops up remaining survivors before they can escape.



Vaccines seem to be working well and  "COVID-19" is expected to be contained soon, however government warns before early celebration. There are still not that many Vaccines produced and the enemy has just began another offensive.

In spite of the recent, yet another, Invasion, governments speeds up the preparations and sends an invasion fleet into HIP 9786 system, attempting to take over and study the discovered robots on the surface and board any Precursor craft the fleet comes across.

13th July 2212, 17:14:58, due to a small failure of a Jump Drive in one of the Starhunters, invasion fleet had to drop out of superluminal speeds near Gliese 526. Unfortunately, before the broken parts can be replaced, a squadron of Invaders appeared through local Void Wormhole. Fortunately, plasma interceptors reacted quickly and cut the enemy off from Starhunters, which could then escape with the help of conventional engines and fix their problems in peace.



Plasma interceptors end up distancing themselves from the enemy during initial evasive manoeuvres, but they quickly reverse engines and face the enemy, opening fire. Sadly the critical moment of slowing down got used ruthlessly by Invaders who dealt some casualties to the slow, exposed ships:





Having to fight at range optimal for enemy lasers, but certainly not optimal (to express it euphemistically) for plasma guns of the Anarchists, Dragons and Devastators, human forces increase their velocity in a direction perpendicular to enemy, trying to circle around hostile ships rapidly to disturb target locking:



13th July 2212, 17:26:15, the attempt ends up being rather dangerous for the Invaders and giving the impression they can't help themselves, suddenly they set their engines to maximum thrust and speed away in a different direction. Not without taking casualties, though:



Luckily for the humans, they were preparing to change velocity once again anyways to maintain the encirclement and all this sudden attempt of the Invaders changed was the direction of next turn. Plasma interceptors quickly caught up to the enemy and melted through its hulls at point blank range with minimal casualties. Invasion fleet was free to repair broken Jump Drive and go on with their cruise to the HIP 9786-A III. They were both unlucky for being forced to take a stop at a system with Void Wormhole and lucky for plasma interceptors being nearby to save the day and tons of troops onboard.



20th July 2212, 14:56:39, the Invasion begins - human troops land on the hills of HIP 9786-A III near the entrance to the Precursor complex, now plunged in radiation and atmospheric dust after orbital nuclear strike that destroyed laser defence grid of the planet. Precursor spaceships or orbital platforms detected the last time humanity entered the system were nowhere to be seen, though. It is theorised after firing all the missiles and failing to protect the planet they simply evacuated from a system. It's a pity humanity didn't manage to capture and study them.



As soon as the soldiers landed, multiple robots and strange installations scattered around instantly opened fire. Their armors were tough enough to resist and landing on a high ground gave them an advantage, however still some initial causalities were taken among the heavy bombardment of fusion warheads.
Combat engineers attempted to create a huge EM blast, however Precursors turned out to be well-adapted to it and resisted. Further increase of power would damage the own electronics of human forces, so the trials were quickly dropped.

Under the protection of energetic shields, with minds connected via psionic implants, officers began drawing a sketch of the Invasion. Fusion-powered long-range railguns and particle beam cannons opened fire, raining death (or, in this case, more like shutdown) at near light speed at the bunkers and installations below them, but, to much surprise of every soldier fighting in that battle, barely any damage has been done.
Barely seeing any result, a decision to conserve ammo and power has been made. Under the energy shields Precursor machines could barely scratch, resulting in a death of maybe one platoon or destruction of one light tank every once a few thousands missiles, combat engineers began building improvised line of trenches and bunkers around the attacked complex, serving as a temporary base of operations.

Suddenly something very unexpected happens: several new holes open in the ground and hundreds of infantry-style troops start to pour out of them. Humanity prepares to make a stand:



Artillery and tanks begin bombing the counterattack machines, giving infantrymen time to entrench themselves:



Brutal firefight ensues. This time lasers, plasma and railguns are at least effective to some extent. So far humanity manages to fend them off given the advantage in terrain and even in weapons, but sitting on these hills under heavy fire won't work forever. Generals organise an emergency meeting in one of the mobile command centers, running numerous simulations based on the data about enemies onboard AI gathers in realtime to test out possible moves in a safe way:



After running exactly 165 of them, decisions are made: heavy tanks, accompanied by shock troopers, will move in an assault formations, down the hills, straight into the fire, meanwhile the rest of the army will encircle the entire complex. Combat engineers do their best, digging tunnels with the help of missiles, some even being the ones fired by the enemy. Battle picks up on pace and heat alike. As most of the energy shields were deployed to protect the engineers, Counter-Counter-Assault Formation starts to take casualties. Strengthened by the psionic, they methodically push in, blasting holes in enemy armor with heavy phased particle beam cannons and then pour heated plasma straight into them, melting many machines on their way.



First shock troopers begin jump into closest enemy bunkers after tanks ripped enough holes through them and the battle begins to be slowly going in humanity's favour. Roughly four hours have passed since the initial landing and thanks to latest matter manipulation technology construction of an improvised bunker system progresses rapidly. However, suddenly one of engineering teams unearths a passage to an alien underground system. Within seconds they're swarmed by another type of Precursors' miracle of science and engineering:



Elite infantry is sent to immediately support the engineers, but they ended up caught in a firefight on a surface, slowly pushing through fire, flames, smoke and dust:





To humanity's despair, enemy seems to be taking advantage of the sudden discovery made by engineers and throws more forces into that fragment of the trenches. Mechanised infantry arrives to save the day:





Most of human vehicles are useless in a tight underground corridors and just bombarding them from a distance is not an option with the amount of soldiers inside or at least close to them. Because of this, Precursors begin to swarm the line that not too long ago was meant to serve for the advantage of humanity.
High Command gives an order to fall back and calls for Starhunters to take them away from this hell. Epsilon Eridani-A II corps, one of the first to finish training, are tasked with covering the retreat:





Morale drops when the battlefield begins too dangerous for the Starhunters to evacuate forces operating on the ground while Precursors send in heavier machines of theirs:



Unfortunately Precursors manage to cut off the heavy tanks and shock troopers fighting on the most foremost frontlines. Artillery concentrates fire on the created Precursor-filled gap between two bulks of retreating soldiers.
Whether it was a glitch in their programming or a glitch caused by the damage already done remains unknown, however the Precursors charged too much and once all of the surviving forces distanced themselves from the complex, the "gap" has found itself surrounded by humanity, taken into crossfire and soon eliminated.

Survivors of the first planetary invasion in the history of mankind decided to fall back to the nearby mountains, regroup and come up with a better battle plan or await reinforcements, preferably both.
First phase of the battle has come to an end.



Hiding in the mountains, scientists teams accompanying the army had an opportunity to study some of the captured wrecks of enemy machines.
One of them stood out.
The one that attacked engineers that were digging too deep.
The big, reddish muscles sticking out of its core were thought to be of bionic or cybernetic origins.
But they were not.
They were made out of pure biological matter. Its properties were beyond understandings of current xenobiology, but that didn't change the simple fact that what has been recovered from the battlefield might as well be a sample of a species long extinct that once practically ruled over the whole big Universe.

[Stormtrooper (OP)]

During an exploration of Invaders' wormhole web it is discovered that the last unexplored one from Gliese 143 links to NN 3684, making Kappa Tucanae only two wormhole transits away from it. This will prove to be useful once traffic between Kappa Tucanae and Core Worlds is restored, but even now it doesn't mean it makes the situation any more dangerous - since Invaders started openly using FTL drives it is obvious they can reach Kappa Tucanae directly from whatever place in the universe they wish.



The captain of the ship that was the first human vessel to use this wormhole decides he and his crew gambled in Invaders space for long enough and decides to launch a first manned mission into Sirius.
So far nobody bothered since astronomers couldn't find any planets orbiting Sirius A or B, but, to surprise of the captain himself and the entire crew, a planet has been found in between these two stars. It's a gas giant.





A revolution in conventional propulsion begins when first prototypes of an engine using matter-antimatter annihilation to generate thrust are published. For now they're still rather weak because antimatter production capacity leaves a lot to be desired, preventing construction of engines powerful enough to meet the criteria for combat spaceships, but even the ones that can be produced are much more powerful than their fusion counterparts.
Thanks to the progress made Fuel Rats are expected to be given a brand new type of vessel:

Code: [Select]

Star Opal class Tanker      59,755 tons       362 Crew       3,485 BP       TCS 1,195    TH 12,000    EM 0
10041 km/s    JR 2-25(C)      Armour 1-136       Shields 0-0       HTK 68      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 36    Max Repair 1000 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months   

JC60K Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 60000 tons    Distance 25k km     Squadron Size 2

Commercial Solid Core AM Drive  EP4000.00 (3)    Power 12000    Fuel Use 0.99%    Signature 4000    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 20,000,000 Litres    Range 6,096.5 billion km (7027 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 80,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 250 hours

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

And a new ship for easy transportation of large amounts of soldiers at once within controlled space also appears, easing the logistics of recent military operations and regrouping of soldiers before sending them into hostile territory to battle:

Code: [Select]

Imperial class Troop Transport      144,013 tons       730 Crew       6,190.7 BP       TCS 2,880    TH 16,000    EM 0
5555 km/s      Armour 1-244       Shields 0-0       HTK 287      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 26    Max Repair 1000 MSP
Troop Capacity 100,000 tons     Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 10   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months   

Commercial Solid Core AM Drive  EP4000.00 (4)    Power 16000    Fuel Use 0.99%    Signature 4000    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 126.5 billion km (263 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

It requires Guidance system or already built wormholes to travel between stars, but within controlled space it won't be a problem at all.

20th November 2212, 9:35:47, large forces of Invaders are spotted warping into deep space of NN 3815 while skipping naval blockade. Plasma interceptors temporarily evacuate into NN 3009 to avoid being blasted from a distance while Vaccines are escorted by Guidance ships to WISE 2359-7335 from where they use Invader-made wormholes to quickly make contact with enemy.

21th November 2212, 14:40:56, Vaccines intercept the fleet heading towards NN 3815-NN 3009 wormhole, probably with intention of turning naval blockade into space dust, and a firefight begins. Everyone knows enemy stands no chance.





21th November 2212, 14:52:15, discovering its Vaccines again, Invaders give up on engaging the target, however they don't attempt to completely turn tails either.
Suddenly they spread out and begin to fly more or less perpendicular to Vaccines. Such sight has never been observed before:









21th November 2212, 15:08:39, most of Invaders are already turned into ashes. Vaccines continue the cleanup. Soon the universe is completely purged from this particular Invaders' fleet:





21th November 2212, 17:15:09, a second fleet is spotted in NN 3815. Vaccines prepare for the purge:



Due to one careless manoeuvre human forces ended up a bit too close to the enemy, but nothing more serious than a few small dents on the outside layers of armor happened:



Strangely enough, when admiral of this fleet realised all the ships are doomed, just like its predecessor ordered all the ships to spread and cruise perpendicular to the Vaccines, embracing the inevitable:





Vaccines turn around and fly alongside the enemy, picking up remnants of once threatening fleet:







Soon all the ships are annihilated without an issue and a single Vaccine lost.

After those two battles, or more like after those two executions in fact, nobody is able to explain the motives of Invaders behind their "Silent Parade of Death" as their strange formation was named.
However, this could indicate they begin to acknowledge humanity now is on the winning edge and developed ships that their fleets can do nothing against. This could be the turning point in the war and a chance for humanity to end their Invasion once and for all.

21th November 2212, 23:50:01, first volleys from long-range heavy particle beam artillery mark the moment an army deployed in HIP 9786-A III, after a few months of trench warfare and only a few minor skirmishes launches a second assault on Precursors' positons.
Under support of constant artillery strikes, several smaller spec ops unit move through the valleys, attmepting to sneak past the robots, access the tunnels directly, plant bombs, lure the robots and blow them all up.



However, Precursors detect the intruders and send their infantry-sized machines to deal with them. Humanity has an advantage of defending in a mountainous terrain, and overall has an initiative:



After a few fierce firefights humanity pushes the enemy out of the valleys and gains access to the tunnels:



So far everything was going well, but out of a blue many doors to the complex open and a huge army starts pouring out of them, together with what must be enemy command center: it is much bigger than any of the human tanks, mechs and support vessels brought into this fight:



Spec ops sent into battle first end up caught between many squads of robots too powerful to be defeated by them. Infantry requests an immediate support of main armored forces.





Many casualties are taken, but soon heavy tanks join the battle. All kinds of heavy weaponry in the form of plasma carronades, explosive railguns, phased particle beam cannons, lasers and pulse Gauss cannons join the battle.





Humanity slowly begins to push through the enemy territory. Infantry swarms underground sections while a battle between heavy machines rages on the surface with full force. Blood mixes with fried circuits, brains with quantum processors, bodies with metal.





Enemy command center is well-suited for combat and can withstand lots of punishment, disrupting human lines. But the soldiers push through, even though tank wrecks, all fried by heavy lasers, scatter around the ground.
Eventually elite infantry from Epsilon Eridani-A II establishes control over most sections of the tunnels and uses them to safely get close to the command centre and plant fusion bombs directly onto its legs. One last violent explosion melts through its armor, tearing it apart in a mini supernova:



The battle is finally over and humanity establishes full control over the Precursors' complex. Soon terraformers will be able to arrive to clean up the radiation from orbital nuclear strikes and first colonists will settle down on the planet, opening access to the Precursor mysteries buried in these installations.



After the victory, as a reward for the valiant effort of elite units from Epsilon Eridani-A II, despite some criteria still not fulfilled, World Government grants the planet a Core World status. Following the tradition established back when Gaia was the first exoplanet to receive it, the world of Epsilon Eridani-A II from now on will be referred by a unique name - "Ender", coming from the end its soldiers brought upon hostile Precursor AI guarding the knowledge and technology necessary to defeat Invaders.
Morale on Ender rises for the firs time since the militarisation of the entire Epsilon Eridani system. Sceptics from other colonies claim it's all governmental mind-control and the horrible consequences of Amazons Program, protesting about abusing psionic technology to suppress any citizen resistance compared to admitting to mistakes made and fixing them.

Computer scientists immediately begin work on accessing and reverse-engineering code extracted from surviving electronics. This should bring AI, especially combat-capable AI, onto the next level. Fear about "rise of the machines" increases slightly as the research is carried on.

XAT teams are sent to HIP 9786-A III to initially secure and check the complex out, before the planet will be suitable for colonisation.

An interesting experiment is proposed by XCOM scientists: they want to put some of the imprisoned Invaders into one cell together with a few Mechi robots still being kept after the incursion into their territory and GJ 1277 conquest.
Initially Invaders don't seem to be willing to cooperate, however Mechi, being just robots, upon detecting a threat, attempt to defend themselves with bare hands since they were obviously not given any weapons.
Invaders have no choice but to participate in combat, however the acid they spit is too weak to damage Mechi armor and they find themselves on the losing side of this sudden fist fight.
Before the fight is interrupted, best psi warriors from the entire XCOM organisation take the presented opportunity and attempt to overwhelm Invaders' minds right when they are most vulnerable because being in an active and a bit unexpected melee battle they can't focus on repelling the attack properly.

Results are shocking: one of the warriors managed to pull out a rather clean imagination of a flying saucer that quickly flashed in Invader's brain for half a second when its eyes met with the Mechi's mechanical fist.
An expertise prepared later by psychoanalysts and psi scientists has proven that the image of a flying saucer was associated with a feeling of anxiety. Not necessarily fear, since Invaders were unable to feel it for generations by now after several mind-altering projects in which their whole race participated, but more like anxiety mixed with tension.

The idea of an alien race so scary that even Invaders become anxious when thinking about it is deeply unsettling, since according to the Dark Forest Theory the result of a potential contact is trivial to predict. Vaccines cleaning up the mess COVID-19 operation has turned into might be enough to fend off Invaders, but chances are humanity will end up standing up to even greater foe in some undefined future.

Some scientists find it ironic and even hilarious that after a century of FTL travel and interstellar exploration humanity might end up facing a cliche alien invasion just like in the movies and conspiracy theories from the ancient past.

16th January 2213, 11:05:36, radars on Kappa Tucanae-A II flare in red when a small squadron of Invaders is detected in the system, staying well outside the range of a planetary defence grid:



16th January 2213, 11:41:05, everyone in the system feels relieved when the squadron disappears in an NN 3684 wormhole, completely ignoring any human presence. The policy of isolationism and laying low Sol++ has been placed under, while inconvenient for citizens, passes the test.

Breakthrough in antimatter production and applications finally allows generating enough energy for a true Hyperdrive to become a possibility more realistic than ever. To conduct further research, a specialised particle accelerator is built directly in orbit of Epsilon Eridani.
Early experiments with a modified version of a Jump Drive are promising: with the energy generated by an antimatter reactor, wormholes created by the Jump Drive in question, despite their small size, could be made larger and cover bigger distances, allowing tested particles to stay in four-dimensional space for much longer than it happens with classical jump drives currently used in newest starships.
Revolution in interstellar travel aside, successful development of a Hyperdrive would open up the possibility to investigate signatures discovered in Bootes Void by a HyperSensor from up close, directly in hyperspace.

Observation of primitive civilisation living on NN 4079-A III, now called "Groax" thanks to the characteristic sound their bodies make when releasing purple gasses they use for communication, continues according to the plan.
Apart from the already known fact about their high intelligence, it is also noticed that despite their primitive technology and societal structures, war is something rather uncommon among them. They are keen hunters, but not necessarily warriors, as if that wasn't enough they also seem to be disgusted in killing each other.
A dark purple haze floating above each battlefield, initially believed to come out of dead bodies as a form of either their blood or post-mortem gasses, actually has been proven to be a special message warriors of hostile armies exchange.
Its colours and shapes express an utter disgust and helplessness.
When numerous xenosociologists publish their findings about mostly pacifistic nature of Groaxians, a small glimpse of hope for breaking the Curse of the Dark Forest lightens minds and hearts of many concerned humans.

Enhancements and fine-tuning of antimatter-based propulsion technology and Jump Drives empowers engineers to modernise the entire civilian and commercial sector of space industry. New logistic ships for transporting resources, building components or helping colonists arrive at their destination are successfully prototyped:

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Big Boy class Freighter      169,000 tons       610 Crew       5,955.5 BP       TCS 3,380    TH 20,000    EM 0
5917 km/s    JR 2-25(C)      Armour 1-272       Shields 0-0       HTK 116      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 22    Max Repair 1000 MSP
Cargo 100,000    Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 10   
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months   

JC169K Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 169000 tons    Distance 25k km     Squadron Size 2

Commercial Solid Core AM Drive  EP4000.00 (5)    Power 20000    Fuel Use 0.99%    Signature 4000    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 851,000 Litres    Range 91.7 billion km (179 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

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Pioneer class Colony Ship      200,000 tons       1,123 Crew       11,017.7 BP       TCS 4,000    TH 20,000    EM 0
5000 km/s    JR 2-25(C)      Armour 1-304       Shields 0-0       HTK 179      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 34    Max Repair 1000 MSP
Cryogenic Berths 500,000    Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 20   
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months   

JC206K Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 205500 tons    Distance 25k km     Squadron Size 2

Commercial Solid Core AM Drive  EP4000.00 (5)    Power 20000    Fuel Use 0.99%    Signature 4000    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 1,879,000 Litres    Range 171.1 billion km (396 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Terraformers and technicians working on their logistics support agree that with the current spread of humanity across nearby stars and new plans to colonise further being discussed by the government Terraria stations shall become a thing of the past. A huge logistical hustle and insane amount of fuel being burned when transporting Terraria 1.4 stations could be reduced by building a mobile fleet of terraformers. Terraforming technology is advanced enough so that modules used could be compressed, occupying less space and weight for the same output and antimatter engines shall allow these new terraforming installations to travel on their own.
And so, after numerous debates and scientific conferences, a blueprint of a first terraforming spaceship appears:

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Pandora class Terraformer      168,974 tons       970 Crew       7,871.3 BP       TCS 3,379    TH 20,000    EM 0
5918 km/s    JR 2-25(C)      Armour 1-272       Shields 0-0       HTK 163      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 29    Max Repair 1000 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months   
Terraformer: 4 modules producing 0.006 atm per annum

JC169K Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 169000 tons    Distance 25k km     Squadron Size 2

Commercial Solid Core AM Drive  EP4000.00 (5)    Power 20000    Fuel Use 0.99%    Signature 4000    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 107.8 billion km (210 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Government prepares a plan to colonise Beta Trainguli Australis since it's a good candidate for expansion and the system is one of the points linking refuelling stations in HIP 15220 and a Groaxians-observing colony in NN 4079.
Initially Beta Trianguli Australis-A II, III and V are chosen for terraforming. Trianguli Australis-A II is expected to take least amount of time out of those 3 planets thanks to it rich marine flora and fauna - bulk of the work only requires creating enough oxygen in its atmosphere and seeding life on its landmasses.

Quantum teleportation enters testing on livestock stage. Teleportation of a dog, cat, pig and cow across Gaia are successfully completed. Biologists try to come up with a way to come up with a test that'd tell whether the animals arriving at destination are the exact same that have been sent for the journey or are only perfect copies of the now dead originals. Until this issue will be resolved, human experiments are strictly prohibited. Animal rights activists organise a demonstration shortly after the tests, but fail to gather much support. Not that government would've cared even if they did.

An engineer tinkering with ideas regarding weapons of mass destruction publishes a research paper studying the case of a V1216 Sagittarii-A III.
According to the gist of the paper, the gas giant pointed out in the transmission picked up from Barnard's Star couldn't have such a violent weather conditions appear naturally, which many astronomers agree with.
The proposed explanation is that it's a result of a weapon of a mass destruction usage.

Enough bombs detonating at various spots within the atmosphere of a gas giant could've caused the storms and winds to be formed like that, at least according to the simulations.
It is hard to predict what type of weapon was used, but more and more scientists agreed that it was indeed an attack of a space-faring civilisation. Why did they attack a gas giant, though? Life existing on one was long theorised, but so far no evidence was found, and even if some organisms could exist there, they would lack resources to develop a civilisation to justify attacking their homeworld.
But for whatever reason whoever sent the coordinates from Bardnard's Star pointed out this planet and it has been attacked by an unknown forces.
Too many questions, too little answers. Government prepares another mission into Barnard's Star.

Meanwhile a handful of different stars are explored, such as Luyten 347-14, though this one doesn't have a planetary system:



Luyten 674-15 system:









QY Aurigae system:















WISE 1318-1758 system:











Xenobiologists on HIP 47650-A II publish results of their detailed studies of the Substance recovered from onboard tanks of Rakshasa ship of Invaders. Their most important discovery revolves around the regenerative properties of it. Several tests conducted on rats showed that even severely mauled ones quickly came back to health once Substance has been applied to their wounds. Moreover, in a course of next week the healed parts strenghtened and the rats became more fit.

Applications of the Substance in medicine as of now are not possible due to it containing human DNA shiponed from killed colonists in a few attacks Invaders have made, but biologists say it could be easily filtered out, allowing even to carry a symbolic burial of the victims of those colony fleet assaults, but the second obstacle would still remain: currently it is not known how Invaders produce Substance and there is only so much of it recovered and available for further experiments.

Soon after the research has been published, on 17th April 2217, HIP 47650-A II has received a Core World status. The planet has been named "Aracaju", which is the same name that once was given for the aliens that left their deteriorating terraforming monoliths on the surface and never came back, eventually leading to their discovery by human explorers, one of the first that once cruised among the stars.

The problem with Aracaju is that the accelerating production of Vaccines put a heavy strain on the industries in HIP 47650 system, which was never that rich in natural resources in the first places and specialised mostly in xenobiology and terraforming, not heavy industries.
To help alleviate the problem, a fifth moon of Sirius-A-I has been chosen to become a mining colony providing supplies for the entire HIP 47650, allowing Aracaju to develop proper heavy industries worthy of a Core World and contribute more to the military effort of entire human race. The celestial body in question is very large for a moon, having basically the size of a small planet, is very easy to terraform and abundant patches of aluminium, titanium and even noble metals and diamonds have been discovered after several geological analysis.
First fleet of Pandoras has been sent to prepare the moon for colonisation, this task serving as an easy test of the abilities of first terraforming modules small enough to fit them on a starship.