The Zealot War
The Zealot War is the name given to a devastating interstellar war that began in 2008 and ended sometime during 2011. Few records or even traces of the war remain, as most evidence was suppressed by the direct order of the Time Lord's Celestial Intervention Agency in order to stabilize the timeline. During the time of the war, Solarchos, Morrigan, and all of their friends and companions were embroiled in a desperate fight to preserve not only their own lives, but to protect everything they loved and cherished.
Their efforts may very well have been the only thing preventing Earth and the Suburban Senshi from becoming engulfed in that conflict.
Contents
Early 2008
At that time, Solarchos and his companions retreated from Earth. Hostilities had been steadily growing. Lines and factions were forming and the bonds of fellowship that had once existed were steadily unraveling despite all efforts to prevent it. Ultimately, the decision was made to withdraw. Reluctantly, Solarchos and his companions departed Earth in the hopes that eventually peace would be restored, not at all certain when they’d be able to return.
“I will not be stopped! Not by Solarchos or the Senshi or the Time Lords or anyone! I will rule this quadrant or see it burnt to ashes around me!” Intercepted private transmission made by Subject:Iago. All information on true identity suppressed by order of the Celestial Intervention Agency (Ordo Tempus mandate).
Six months passed. Peace descended upon Solarchos’ life as he endeavored to make the most of the Exile (as it came to be known as). Unmei continued to be a hotbed of skirmishes with the Skaven and intrigue amongst Kurisutaru and her fellow courtiers (where mud-slinging was often more literal than figurative). On Egae work continued on the expansion and construction of the Enclave. The Van Saar were at last acclimating to Unmei/Egae culture and the foundations of their own unique society were laid down. The salvage and reconstruction of the many dozens of starships left behind during the war with the Imperium of Man was well underway and construction had begun for a thermal borehole to mine Egae’s resource-rich mantle.
At home, life continued to treat Solarchos and Inu-Kit well. Their children were happy and strife was a very rare occurrence. The Amestris Manse became well known for its expansive fruit orchards and one of Solarchos’ oldest friends (Satyr) entertained himself by making use of the orchard’s products to come up with new and interesting alcoholic beverages. Talon and Morrigan, on the other hand, became equally well known for their own agricultural enterprises...most notably hemp production. Three guesses where some of that production was going.
As was so typical and frequent for him throughout his life, Solarchos had managed to take a bad situation and find hidden benefits and opportunities.
Solarchos himself had no idea of what was transpiring elsewhere, and in this case ignorance was not bliss as the envious and wrathful eyes of a relentless enemy continued to regard his luck and perseverance as a personal affront.
Subject:Iago wanted him to suffer.
Subject:Iago already controlled an interstellar realm of fair size. Numbering several dozen inhabited worlds and twice as many outposts and small colonies, the burgeoning Interstellar Alliance had been brought into existence and rapid expansion by the efforts of a single dynamic individual of exceptional power and ability. The Alliance itself was fairly sophisticated with a technological base almost identical to that of the UNSC of “Halo”. Subject:Iago ruled the ISA in everything but name, for his influence was considerable. The Van Saar Federation was only in its infancy, consisting of merely two worlds, yet Subject:Iago wanted it annihilated. The wheels of propaganda began to turn and it wasn’t long before he was the center of a vast cult of personality dedicated to carrying out his will.
The Zealot Movement was born, and its attention was quickly fixated on the destruction of the Van Saar.
Late 2008; the Phase of Acquisition
"The Phase of Acquisition, or "preparatory condition", is a vital segment of any successful prosecution. Though a warrior must be prepared to battle reactively without notice or forewarning, it is when he prepares and plans for war, and accommodates the specifics of his adversary into those plans, that he is most successful. This is war as craft or science, as I have remarked before. Often the fight is won before the first shot has been fired, or even before notice of the first shot has been given." Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, Notes Towards Martial Codification.
The peace that Solarchos had begun to enjoy ended brutally as a massive fleet of ISA starships invaded Unmei/Egae. The planetary defenses, which were already substantial, were still largely under construction. The orbital shipyards and anchorages that had been established were heavily damaged. As the warships of the ISA engaged the Van Saar’s remaining defenses, hundreds of thousands of ground troops (mostly “UNSC Marines” with specialist magical support) landed on Egae.
Their objective was to overrun the Enclave and destroy it utterly with everyone still inside, to devastate it so completely that Solarchos and his people would never recover. Subject:Iago had even managed to convince a few of his former allies and friends to participate in the invasion, securing their services through deceit, manipulation, blackmail, and/or greed.
He had been thorough. He’d spent much time planning the invasion. He knew Solarchos and anticipated his reactions. He knew that enlisting the aid of former friends would be a dire insult calculated to invoke deep rage, making him reckless. He also estimated that the Enclave, like anything of Solarchos’, was overrated and inferior to anything produced by magic. Imperial technology and vehicles were equally inferior and crude. Only individuals truly counted, and the individuals under her control could easily stand up to the multitudes of rabble he called soldiers.
Subject:Iago was wrong on every single count.
The orbital defenses of Egae/Unmei weren’t fully operational, but what was operational was much more effective and resilient than anticipated. The spacedocks were extensively armed, and more than a few of the Imperial starships that were slowly being rebuilt had operational weapons as well. The ISA starfleet suddenly found itself taking far more losses than even their worst-case scenarios had ever calculated.
Things only got worse when a huge temporal anomaly opened. A single ship emerged: a Space Marine battle-barge. Accelerating directly into the heart of the ISA fleet, the battle-barge cut a swath through them. Sustaining only minor damage in the process, the battle-barge quickly reached low orbit and launched its full complement of Space Marines to assist Solarchos and his companions.
The Ghost Foxes, a Space Marine Chapter that wouldn’t exist for another twenty-five years, had been brought back in time to help.
On the ground, the Zealots had been lulled into a trap. The ground forces had landed with only minor losses and resistance from the Van Saar had been minimal at best. Morale was high, especially since the Van Saar only launched hit-and-run attacks, then retreated quickly. The Zealots never seemed to notice that the Van Saar raids always focused on support vehicles and large concentrations of troops, and always retreated in good order with very few casualties. Despite nearly constant harassment, the Zealot ground force surged towards the Enclave undaunted, confident in their inevitable victory.
They failed to notice that the raids were steadily whittling away at their supply trains, or that they were being forced to spread out, or that the Enclave sat in the middle of some of the harshest and worst landscape on all of Egae. All of these things sapped at the strength of the mighty Zealot army, but the Zealots themselves noticed nothing.
At the Enclave, the outer perimeter defenses were quickly overrun. The obstacles and fields of razorwire had been established, but many of the defensive turrets weren’t complete. Despite heavy resistance from the Van Saar, the Zealots penetrated the second and third lines of defenses. The walls of the Enclave stood before them, and they were practically salivating at the slaughter to come.
The trap was then sprung.
Intercepted transmission from the Battle of the Enclave. Identities of speakers withheld by order of the Celestial Intervention Agency (Ordo Tempus mandate).
- heavy laughter in the background*
Speaker #1 – “What the fuck was that?!”
Speaker #2 – “Nukes! He’s using nukes!”
Speaker #1 – “What?! What do you mean he’s using nukes?!”
Speaker #2 – “Those were nuclear missiles! He actually nuked us! He nuked US!”
Speaker #3 - >still laughing<
Speaker #2 – “20-kiloton yield...impact zone two miles behind us...we just lost our whole rear echelon!”
Speaker #3 – “Heheheheheh, I knew you had it in you, lover!”
Speaker #1 – “But nuclear weapons?! Why would Solarchos...?”
Speaker #2 – “Because we’re attacking him! We’re the enemy! This was supposed to be easy! This was supposed to be simple! This is fucked up!”
Speaker #3 – “He lied to us. What? That surprises you? He lied to us to get us to do his dirty work as usual. At least Solarchos is honest about what he wants and believes in. COME ON, LOVER! IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?!”
>>Static for nearly thirty seconds. Static starts to fade and is replaced by deep, loud laughter from Speaker #3<<
Speaker #3 – “Yes! YesyesyesyesyesyesYES!!”
Speaker #1 – “Another nuke?!”
Speaker #2 – “Twenty kilotons! That one hit off to the side of the first strike!”
Speaker #1 – “But...another nuke?!”
Speaker #3 – “DO IT, SOLARCHOS! HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME!”
>>Static for nearly thirty seconds as third missile impacts.<<
Speaker #3 – “AAAAAAAAAAAAH-hahahahahahahahahahaha!! It’s beautiful! It’s so fucking beautiful!”
Speaker #2 – “That one hit the other side of the first strike! If we retreat, we'd have to retreat through nuclear craters! They're cutting us off!”
Speaker #1 – “The Enclave’s opening, what are they...OH MY GOD!! THAT THING'S A HUNDRED FEET TALL!!!”
Speaker #2 – “Fall back! Fall back! Get the hell out of here! You! Do something! You’re supposed to be on our side!”
Speaker #3 – “Nope! Not any more. I think I’ll sit the rest of this stupid war out. You see, I really can’t stand that tin-pot dictator you’re all blindly following. In fact, I might just help out Solarchos just a little bit from here on out. He may be a dumbass but at least he’s an honest dumbass who says what he means and means what he says. And I LOVE his style of mass destruction! So, go on and keep doing whatever Herr Halfass-Hitler back home keeps telling you. Me...I’m helping out Solar and his buds from the shadows! Oh...and if you plan on getting out of this trap alive, head that way...you’ll avoid the worst of the incoming artillery barrage AND the drop-pods coming from orbit. Ta-ta!”
Transcript ends.
Within a five minute span, three twenty-kiloton nuclear missiles struck the area, incinerating the heart and trailing edges of the Zealot’s massive ground army. With their direct line of retreat cut off, the Zealots were suddenly denied freedom of movement. Then they discovered that the Enclave’s defenses had been easily defeated because they were meant to be easily defeated.
Automated weapon systems and turrets that had remained silent suddenly activated. Pre-targeted artillery began to fire. Air support that had previously been scarce suddenly began to appear in massive numbers, taking off from concealed airfields. The hit-and-run raids ceased and the Van Saar began to aggressively fight back. Mana-shadow generators activated, creating magical “dead zones” that prevented some of the Zealot’s magical specialists from moving wherever they needed.
Then the doors of the Enclave opened and the full might of the Van Saar Federation surged forward to do battle. Thousands of tanks rolled forward, led by dozens of Baneblades, a pair of Warhound-class Titans, and a massive Warlord-class Titan. Every single inhabitant of the Enclave marched behind them: man and woman, young and old, every single Van Saar had joined together to fiercely defend their very existence.
The tanks accelerated and drew together into a single long line. They never slowed down as they plowed straight into the Zealots.
From within the battle ranks of the Zealots the situation became equally desperate as additional Van Saar reinforcements arrived from nowhere. Several hundred Ghost Fox Space Marines landed squarely in the heart of the Zealot’s ranks, inflicting ghastly casualties as they tore into their enemies with holy fury. Previously unknown allies also joined the battle on Solarchos’ side. A group of highly specialized mages and supernatural creatures, calling themselves the Dark Hand of Jigoku, began attacking the Zealots relentlessly, countering Subject:Iago’s own mages and eliminating key officials within the Zealot’s high command.
All requests for reinforcements were refused. Orbital support was gone. Retreat was not authorized. By direct order of Subject:Iago NO ONE was to take a single step backwards. The Enclave was to be destroyed, and Iago would accept nothing short of absolute victory regardless of what the situation was. After all, the Zealots outnumbered the Van Saar by a huge margin and they had superior magical support. How could they possibly be losing?
The Zealot’s mighty army lost all cohesion. Communications failed, morale collapsed, casualties were rapidly mounting and without any clear line of retreat the Zealot’s advance transformed into a slaughter of epic proportions.
Finally, after nearly a whole day on non-stop combat, the invasion was crushed. Attacking forces had suffered casualty rates over 90%. All of Subject:Iago’s planning and preparation had totally failed and it had failed for two important reasons.
Firstly, because Solarchos had allies he never knew he had assisting him.
But secondly, because while Subject:Iago was very good at small and individual-scale tactics, he had no aptitude in large-scale strategy. He had no fundamental understanding of the concepts of combined arms or force multipliers. He did not know his enemy, and he did not know himself, and in failing to do so succumbed in battle.
He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.
The invasion of the Enclave was thwarted, and what would become known as the First Wave ended. If only it ended there.
The Second Wave began within days after the Battle of the Enclave. Egae and Unmei had both taken widespread damage that would take months to rebuild. The Zealots had taken over 90% casualties, but the survivors had scattered and continued to engage in guerilla-style warfare for months until they were all hunted down. The primary objective of the invasion had failed, but its secondary objective had been accomplished: the disruption of Unmei/Egae’s communications network.
By the time communications were restored, the second assault was already well underway. A new enemy had been specially created to annihilate all life on Unmei and Egae, and the disruption caused by the invasion had given it time to begin its attack.
Tyranids. Subject:Iago had seen to it that an entire Tyranid hive-fleet was created. Now it was time to unleash them and revel in the carnage.
Barely recovered from the first battle, Solarchos and his companions immediately went back into war. Joined by the Ghost Foxes and sending out additional requests for aid and reinforcement (mostly to the Humankind Empire Abh) and supported from behind the scenes by the Dark Hand of Jigoku and even more hidden allies, he refused to back down.
For over thirty days the battles raged non-stop. Across Unmei, across Egae, and across the inhabited worlds of the nearby Gurhal system (which had also come under attack by the Tyranids), the Van Saar and the Ghost Foxes fought tirelessly. The cost was high. Millions of innocent lives perished to the ravenous hunger of the Tyranids and Sergeant Trajan, a Fallen Angel and mentor to Solarchos, was one of the first to fall. Even Solarchos was seriously wounded in battle with a Hive Tyrant while protecting the lives of Inu-Kit and their children, completely losing his left arm in the process of slaying the monster. Still, against all odds, they endured.
Solarchos recovered. The Ghost Foxes pushed back the Tyranids, eliminating their synapse creatures while the armies of the Van Saar methodically wiped out the remaining uncoordinated monsters. And Trajan, who had been nearly killed, returned from the grave as a Dreadnought. Finally, at the height of the last battle, as the Tyranid’s primary brood-ship descended upon the world of Moatoob and began the process of consuming it, reinforcements arrived at last.
The entire Ghost Fox Chapter was somehow summoned from 25 years in the future and nearly 20000 Space Marines, equipped with weapons and technology unlike any normal Astartes chapter (obviously borrowing from xenos), descended en masse to do battle with the Tyranid swarm. It was during that last battle that the greatest secret of the Ghost Foxes was revealed: its leaders were none other than Solarchos’ children, all grown up. The Abh also arrived and engaged the hive-fleet itself. Meanwhile, Solarchos and his allies launched their final assault upon the heart of the swarm – the Norn Queen existing deep within the main brood-vessel. Delivering a powerful bio-toxin into the capillary towers on the surface of Moatoob, they succeeded in poisoning the Tyranid ships as they attempted to replenish their depleted stores of biomass. Then they began their attack on the Norn Queen. Invading the living ship and fighting their way deep inside, they proceeded to plant several high-yield antimatter bombs amidst its birthing chambers and digestion pools. Accomplishing their mission, they withdrew, attacked every step of the way as the vessel’s sickened defense organisms finally began to recover from their poison-induced torpor.
Despite the odds, everyone escaped. The bombs detonated, and the Tyranid brood-vessel, the heart of the fleet, ceased to exist as multiple explosions totaling over two thousand megatons detonated inside it.
It was supposed to have been their last hour, yet the Van Saar had survived and emerged stronger than ever. The Ghost Foxes remained to exterminate the last of the Tyranids, and the people of the Gurhal system, who’d been deeply betrayed by the Interstellar Alliance, formed an official alliance with the Van Saar instead. The Second Wave ended, and for a time the Zealots withdrew.
2008 ended with a measure of much-needed peace.
2009; the Phase of Execution
"Battle is not a state to be entered into lightly. Battle is always painful and always comes at a price, so the astute commander never commits to battle unless no other options remain. Once that commitment is made, once the Phase of Execution, or "primary condition", has begun, it must be done with the utmost efficacy: a rapid application of overwhelming force to obliterate your enemy as quickly and completely as possible. Do not give him the time or space to react. Do not leave him with any materiel or opportunity that he can use in a rallying phase. Eliminate him physically and psychologically so that his threat is utterly removed. Kill him with your first shot. Utterly annihilate him with your first strike. This may be considered the application of "attack" in its purest form." Roboute Guilliman , Primarch of the Ultramarines, Notes Towards Martial Codification.
Subject:Iago raged and fumed. All of his plans, despite the time and resources dedicated to them, had failed. Iago’s hatred of Solarchos had begun to torment him like a poisoned wound.
Throughout the Interstellar Alliance the Zealot Movement kept on spreading and growing. Subject:Iago continued to spread his influence far and wide, expanding the existing propaganda machine in order to marshal yet more resources for the next assault against the Van Saar “threat”. The failed invasion of Egae was spin-doctored into an attempt to “liberate” an oppressed people, and the defeat blamed upon Solarchos’ use of “banned” weapons of mass-destruction. Certain information, such as the failures of intelligence and incompetent strategies, were withheld from the Alliance media. The Van Saar were portrayed in the most negative ways possible, and the Ghost Foxes were used as the nightmare fuel for alarmist conspiracy theorists. At the same time, Subject:Iago did everything in his power to manipulate public opinion in his own favor. So far, the methods he used were mostly legitimate, but rumors of convenient accidents and back-room deals, as well as substantial bribes began to circulate.
Something dark had begun to grow within the Interstellar Alliance, and Subject:Iago was at the heart of it all. In the midst of his hatred and resentment, Iago discovered a new weapon to use. It required no mobilization of the Alliance military, no allocations of ships from the fleet, and no risk of facing the Dark Hand or the Ghost Foxes directly.
All it required was certain...favors to new allies that had presented themselves to him.
In the middle of 2009 a large hyperspace anomaly appeared within the Gurhal system. It lasted for several days before abating, and from it emerged a rogue planet. The Gurhal system’s three worlds (Paryum, Neudaiz, and Moatoob) all sent interplanetary vessels to investigate, but withdrew the moment they detected a radio signal being broadcast from the planet.
It was a distress signal, and the transmission had been Imperial in nature. Solarchos and the Van Saar were immediately notified. Upon arrival Solarchos and his companions began the investigation, and it wasn’t long before Morrigan recognized what they were dealing with.
Saint Annard’s Penance was a prison world of the Imperium of Man. In addition to housing many millions of the Imperium’s dregs and undesirables (many of whom were guilty of nothing more than the crime of being born upon the planet) in brutal and punishing conditions not at all different from a gulag of the old Soviet Union, St. Annard’s was also a major manufacturing and mining center.
Or rather, it HAD been.
One hundred and fifty years ago Saint Annard’s Penance, which had originally been located in a far-flung isolated part of the Calixis Sector, had vanished when it was drawn into the huge Warp anomaly known as the Screaming Vortex. Since that day it had remained lost, and every attempt to investigate what had happened had failed. For over a century and a half, what had transpired on the world had remained a mystery...until now.
Orbital scans showed a world devastated. The original facilities had consisted of an extremely dense series of buildings and mega-complexes covering nearly a thousand square miles, all surrounded by multiple layers of extensive concentric walls. Everything was in a state of heavy disrepair. It seemed as if the whole penal colony had been attacked both from without and within on a gigantic scale.
An expeditionary force was deployed. Investigating the source of the distress signal, they discovered an automated transmitter had been set up deep within the ruins of the main spaceport, and the radio had been set to transmit using Van Saar codes.
The distress signal had been a trap, and the expeditionary force came under heavy attack from thousands of deranged, twisted things that had at one time been Human long ago. Fighting their way out every step of the way, Solarchos and his companions managed to escape with relatively few casualties.
As everyone withdrew to the starship Hellesponte, more distress messages began being transmitted all throughout the Gurhal system: all three inhabited worlds and every deep-space station was under attack. Criminal organizations, political extremists, gangs, and even military units gone rogue – over a thousand different small-scale wars had simultaneously erupted.
The Ghost Foxes were called in. Deploying all throughout Gurhal, they began to quickly and efficiently put down the rebellions. In some cases the uprisings ended as soon as the Astartes arrived, with the rioters backing down and dispersing without a single shot needing to be fired. In other cases the Ghost Foxes were attacked relentlessly, the rioters and rebels making use of stolen military-grade weaponry. But at the primary system capitol at the largest hive-city on Paryun, Solarchos and his allies came under attack not by guerilla insurgents, gang members, or political extremists.
Chaos Marines, survivors from the original Unmei Wars from a few years back, were behind the rebellions. The arrival of Saint Annard’s Penance had provided them with reinforcements in the form of millions of cultists and mutants. The time had come to bring the Long War to new victims and enlighten new proselytes to the “truth” of the Path of Glory. Chaos had been unleashed upon the Van Saar.
As the Federation cracked down hard on the growing Chaos incursion, a fleet from the Interstellar Alliance arrived, led by the Leviathan-class supercarrier Saratoga. Onboard was none other than Sakura Xadium Aino and an observer team from the Alliance, as well as the elite ODST battalion known as the Black Talons. Their mission: force the Federation to cease its escalating hostilities against the Alliance. Based on all of the widely-rampant rumors flying back and forth, and the obvious military build-up instigated by the Federation, Sakura herself had come to investigate and oversee what was going on at the personal request of Subject:Iago himself.
Solarchos was less than thrilled. As the Alliance observation team began to place all Federation operations under extremely close scrutiny the insurgency continued. The Chaos Marines became more and more brazen, yet the forces of the Alliance refused to engage them, focusing almost myopically on the Federation (and especially the Ghost Foxes). Over the course of the next several days the Van Saar and the Ghost Foxes struck back at the Chaos Marines, destroying several of their staging areas and uncovering clues that painted an ominous picture of what was truly happening.
The Chaos Marines had been receiving assistance from a third party in the form of supplies and information. The attacks had escalated in intensity shortly after the Alliance fleet had arrived. Intercepted radio transmissions indicated that the Chaos Marines and the insurgents were frequently receiving orders and updates from a source that seemed to have up-to-date knowledge of Federation troop locations and dispositions. Someone in the Alliance was in league with them.
The information gained was damaging, but incomplete. There were still answers that needed to be found. As Sakura cracked down even further on the Van Saar’s operations (despite the fact that Gurhal was part of the Federation and Sakura technically had no jurisdiction) and threatened intervention from the Time Lords, it became clear that substantial evidence had to be obtained proving that the situation was being deliberately provoked.
Morrigan herself took the initiative. While she and Solarchos entered into lengthy negotiations (that felt more like an inquisition), the espionage and sabotage element of the Ghost Foxes (the 3rd Company, the Specters) went to work.
Their first objective was the Ravager, Nathaniel’s old flagship. A Retaliator-class grand cruiser long since subverted by Chaos, it had served as both a weapon of terror and the home base of Nathaniel’s warband. Heavily damaged during the last war, it had been adrift for years, its misfiring Warp engines causing it to slip in an out of reality periodically. Despite the damage it had sustained large sections of the ship were still functional...and occupied by the deranged, bloodthirsty remnants of the crew. Fighting their way inside, the Ghost Foxes and their allies reactivated the Ravager’s core cogitator and decoded a large segment of the transmission logs they’d obtained. They also obtained new information that shocked all who heard it to their cores.
Subject:Iago had spent time onboard the Ravager, communing with something sinister within the darkness of the ship. The people who had accompanied Iago during his exploration of the ship had never left. Some had been killed while fighting against the Ravager’s inhabitants or succumbed to the lingering malignancy of the ship itself. Others, however, had been subjected to a far worse fate. They’d become unwilling sacrifices of Chaos worship and Iago himself had been responsible. Saint Annard’s Penance had been drawn into the Screaming Vortex through the use of an elaborate and large-scale Chaos ritual. Subject:Iago had used a similar ritual to draw the planet back out.
It was then that everyone discovered that Sakura had taken Solarchos and Morrigan into custody by order of Subject:Iago and the Time Lords. Before Sakura or anyone else could do anything, the Dark Hand returned. Striking without warning they crippled the Saratoga’s engines and sensors while simultaneously engaging the Black Talons to prevent them from carrying out an assassination against Solarchos and Morrigan. As the Ghost Foxes arrived and launched a rescue mission, it was then that the truth finally came out. The Black Talons had been ordered by Subject:Iago to eliminate Solarchos and Morrigan. Some of them were actually Drakkarim: Nathaniel’s private army that had been defeated years earlier. All of them were Chaos worshippers.
Confronted by the massive amounts of evidence, Sakura nearly collapsed as she realized the full implications. Corruption was rampant throughout the Alliance and Iago was the source of it all. The “police action” against Unmei/Egae had been an unprovoked act of wanton aggression. The Tyranid invasion had been deliberately instigated by the Alliance. The rumors and gossip about Solarchos and the Van Saar had been nothing but malicious lies.
Sakura had trusted Subject:Iago utterly and without question and Iago had used her. Millions were dead and Iago was directly responsible. Iago had betrayed them all. Overwhelmed by the enormity of the betrayal, Sakura ordered a complete stand-down of all Alliance forces and several of her companions joined forces with Solarchos.
The bonds of fellowship that had been severed years earlier were beginning to be restored. And just in time too.
New reports arrived from Saint Annard’s Penance. The Chaos followers were now under attack by a new enemy. No one was safe: even the Federation and Alliance outposts on the surface were in danger of being overrun. As the Federation moved in to assist, the true nature of the attackers was discovered. Necrons.
Once long ago, in a previous galactic epoch, the planet that would one day be called Saint Annard’s Penance had been a Necron tomb-world. For sixty-five million years, the Necrons had slumbered undisturbed and forgotten. The intervening years hadn’t been kind to them. Tectonic movements, volcanic activity, meteors, and time had erased every trace of the Necron’s presence. The Imperium had no idea the prison sat on a tomb-world.
The Warp ritual that had pulled the world out of the Screaming Vortex had also awakened the Necrons. The tombs had begun the long, painfully fitful process of reactivating and the first emergence of Necrons had been overlooked due to the chaotic fighting.
Saint Annard’s Penance was their world, and they intended to take it back from the primitive vermin that infested it. Chaos followers, mutants, Van Saar, Ghost Foxes, Alliance – all were deeply despised by the Necrons. Once every living sentient organic was cleansed from the surface of Saint Annard’s Penance, the next logical step was the rest of the Gurhal system.
Hundreds of millions of lives were now in danger.
Old resentments and manipulated hatreds were set aside. Joining together once more, Solarchos and Sakura teamed up their respective forces in order to oppose the Necrons. Landing en masse upon the planet, they began the systematic evacuation of all Alliance and Federation personnel. The prison complex had become complete and total pandemonium. Everything and everyone was under attack from all sides: Necrons versus Chaos warbands versus rival Chaos warbands versus everyone else. Standing together against the twisted bedlam of Chaos and the undying legions of the Necrons, they succeeded in holding them all back long enough to evacuate all VSF and ISA personnel off the planet. Many lives were lost, but no one was left behind.
In orbit, Solarchos had a decision to make. Despite the danger it posed, the Necron tomb complex was still only partially reactivated. Far deadlier things still waited to be awakened. With most of its available constructs already committed against the Chaos Hordes, the tombs were vulnerable.
It would have been possible to capture the tombs intact. Destruction of the primary tomb nexus, which housed not only the central AI directing the Necrons but also their leadership, was possible. Eliminating it would decapitate the command hierarchy. Without guidance the existing awakened Necrons would revert to purely defensive and reactionary programming. It would then be possible to capture the remaining inactive tombs intact.
Reserve-engineering even a fraction of the Necron’s technology would have been of unimaginable value.
On the other hand, Saint Annard’s Penance was tainted by Chaos. Like a toxic waste dump, just being on the surface was extremely dangerous. Anyone residing on the planet for even a short time risked mutation, madness, or worse – corruption. Millions of cultists and mutants still lived, and the Chaos Marines certainly weren’t about to hand the world over. The remaining tombs still had active defenses, and there was no way of knowing if there was a backup system for the primary AI.
Keeping the world would still put the entire Gurhal system at perpetual risk.
Sakura watched fearfully as Solarchos made his final decision.
“In fealty to the God-Emperor, our undying lord, and by the grace of the Golden Throne, I declare Exterminatus upon the planet of Saint Annard's Penance. I now sign the death warrant of an entire world, and consign every living soul upon it to oblivion. May Imperial justice account in all balance. The Emperor protects.”
Cyclonic torpedoes were fired. The planetary crust was shattered by gigaton-yield explosions detonating within the mantle. In less than ten minutes the entire surface of Saint Annard’s Penance was transformed into a searing hellscape of molten lava and incinerated bedrock in which nothing would ever live again. The Chaos and Necron threats were both eliminated.
Soon afterwards, Solarchos stood upon the main launch bay of the newly-restored Oberon-class battleship Aika Sumeragi, addressing the massive number of soldiers assembled before him. Nearly 15000 Ghost Foxes, the entire Chapter, stood with them all as they waited for their future creator to speak. The mood was jubilant, the Third Wave had been shattered, and the speech would be broadcast live all throughout the Gurhal system. Hundreds of millions waited in anticipation for the Lord Governor-Militant to begin.
“Battle kin! Victory is ours!
We have driven back the forces of the Chaos Marines once more, and defeated the legions of the Necrontyr. But a far greater threat has now been revealed to us. The Interstellar Alliance is in the hands of a psychopath and a heretic. Subject:Iago, he that rules the Alliance in everything but name has devoted his soul to the Ruinous Powers, the same Gods he claims NOT to believe in! He is the one who ordered the invasion of Egae, engineered the creation of the Tyranids, and deliberately brought a Chaos-infested tomb-world into the heart of our realm in order to bring about our destruction. My kindred...this cannot, this will not stand!
We have only one option now – war against the Alliance!
My children, you have given me the greatest gift a father can ever receive. You’ve shown me that you’ve all grown to become shining examples of integrity and honor, and where none others could you opened the eyes of Sakura Xadium-Aino to the corruption around her. Return her and her allies home. As we begin the counterattack against the Alliance, she will begin her own war from within to eliminate the source of this corruption. When the time is right to strike at the rot at the heart of the Alliance, they will contact us. Until that day comes we must all be ready. Let none find us wanting!”
Without hesitation, hundreds of thousands of Federation soldiers answered his call.
“By angels and Emperor! Let none find us wanting!”
2010; the Phase of Open Warfare
"In the Phase of Open Warfare, especially when one is placed in a position of defending or countering, one must be proactive. Determine what commodities or resources you will need to gain the advantage and place your opponent on the defensive. Establish which of these commodities or resources your opponent possesses. Take them from him. Do not chase glory. Do not force unwinnable confrontations. Do not try to match his strength if you know his strength over-matches yours. Do not waste time. Decide what will make you strong enough, and then acquire those things. Your most desired commodity is always your continued ability to prosecute the war." Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, Notes Towards Martial Codification.
The last several months of 2009 saw rapid mobilization and buildup as the worlds of the Van Saar Federation prepared themselves for war. There was no debate. No hesitation. No confusion. No arguments over validity or justification. No questions were asked because none were needed. The truth was self-evident.
They were fighting for survival against an enemy that wanted nothing more than to exterminate them all for no reason. Motivated by outrage and common cause, the counterattack almost immediately took on the tone of a noble and righteous crusade in which tens of millions gladly volunteered to fight in.
Meanwhile, the Interstellar Alliance was undergoing a transformation of its own. The Zealot Movement had been gaining momentum and more and more of its adherents were coming into positions of authority. Subject:Iago had also been busy. Using his influence, he’d begun a quiet purge of the Alliance’s upper leadership, replacing many planetary governors and administrators with people loyal specifically to him. The Zealots soon became an officially recognized political party (operating under the title of Nationalist Parliamentarians) who naturally held Iago as the prime example of their ideals. Dissent was strongly discouraged, enforced by the threat of censure and possible violence.
The Alliance steadily began to look more and more like Nazi Germany or the Stalin Era of the Soviet Union, complete with “Hitler Youth” style organizations, propaganda campaigns, loyalty purges, and indoctrination. Magic was becoming embraced more and more, but the casters of such magic were starting to take on a progressively darker aspect. Many of them adopted an increasingly elitist attitude. Others took perverse joy in applying their magic in such a way that bystanders were often unsettled by their behavior.
Chaos worship was beginning to take root and its core tenants (self-advancement at any cost, especially to the detriment of others) were spreading fast.
The Alliance declared war on the Van Saar almost immediately after the Saint Annard’s situation was resolved. With nationalist propaganda reaching near-constant proportions, the Alliance military swelled. New starships were constructed at a rapid pace and new soldiers were trained and equipped almost faster than its existing industry could provide for. When the counterattack began, the Alliance was ready for it with twice the number of ships and troops it had had prior to the invasion of Egae two years earlier.
It wasn’t enough.
The Alliance fleet held a four-to-one numerical superiority. But while the Alliance had more ships, the Federation’s vessels vastly outclassed them in size, mass, logistics, and endurance. The starships used by the Imperium of Man were designed to withstand massive damage and continue to fight. The crude, simplistic technology they used made repairs easy and maintenance even easier. While the Federation suffered several defeats earlier on, for every one ship they lost in battle the Alliance lost three. Like AK-47s, Imperial technology was “too cheap, simple, and ugly to break”.
The tide quickly began to turn. Scattering throughout Alliance-held space the Specters of the Ghost Foxes began striking across dozens of worlds. Shipyards were disabled. Factories were blown up. Mines were destroyed. All throughout the Alliance sabotage was conducted and within a few months stockpiles of construction materials and refined metals vital to conduct war became critically low. The situation became infinitely worse as other subtle but no less ingenious works of sabotage finally came to fruition.
One manufacturing conglomerate that was the #1 supplier of warheads for Archer missiles was successfully infiltrated. Specters then inserted a computer virus into the companies’ primary mainframe. Replicating and transmitting itself throughout the entire organization, the virus introduced a faulty code into every single one of the companies’ automated factories. As a result, every warhead manufactured suffered from a hidden defect in the triggering mechanisms that caused half of the missiles to never detonate when they were used. Millions of compromised missiles were built and sent to the Alliance before anyone discovered the sabotage.
Another similar virus was used to undermine production at a company that held a defense contract for building and supplying autocannon barrels both on a vehicle and starship scale. One stage of the virus reset the quality control settings of the smelters, causing them to produce lower-quality barrels. The second stage of the virus reset the automated testing equipment to overlook the compromised barrels. In the end vehicles, aircraft, and starships using the compromised autocannons constantly reported weapon failures, while units far from the war suffered few if any problems. It was several months before the connection was made and efforts taken to purge the virus, but by then tens of thousands of defective weapons had been built and distributed.
Handicapped by the constant sabotage, the Alliance military began to falter. The deadlock was eventually broken as the Alliance fleet’s numerical superiority was finally overcome. With the destruction of the last of the Alliance’s mobile battle stations, their fleet’s supply lines were cut. As Ghost Fox fast response vessels and strike cruisers continued to raid Alliance transports and commercial shipping, the invasion of the outer colonies began.
By the end of the first month four worlds had fallen to the Van Saar and six more were under siege. When Alliance forces were ordered to withdraw from and abandon the planet Honshu, a farming world covered by 90% water and a depressed economy due to massive decline in ocean harvesting, its people surrendered to the Ghost Foxes without firing a single shot. Immediately afterwards, Honshu was rocked by mass uprisings instigated by “extremist elements within the Nationalist Parliamentarian Party”.
Chaos cults were becoming pervasive all throughout Alliance society, and as the war progressed Sakura Xadium-Aino and her own companions often had to face them head-on. At first she had been highly skeptical of anything having to do with Solarchos and the Imperium due to their semi-religious overtones. But as she witnessed more and more of just what Chaos was capable of her skepticism soon turned to shock and determination.
Everything Solarchos had warned her about Chaos had been true.
To mock the Chaos Gods was to underestimate them, and to underestimate them was to invite death. On the resort world of Curacao she had seen the pleasure cults dedicated to Slaanesh that engaged in outright torture and debauched slaughter of the innocent purely out of sadism. On the agricultural ocean world of Junyo she’d destroyed several covens all dedicated to Nurgle that had been engaged in the deliberate contamination of harvested fish stocks in order to spread sickness and disease for no other reason than the sheer joy of inflicting misery. Throughout the Alliance she had discovered and destroyed dozens of other cults, but the truth behind the cults had been difficult to accept or even to face.
Greed, lust, hatred, despair, nihilism, solipsism, selfishness, discord...all of these were at the heart of Chaos, but there was more to it than that. Its followers had surrendered to and been consumed by something far greater than them. Something else had been feeding upon and encouraging the cultists’ actions, pushing them onwards to commit more and more heinous acts in order to further feed what was ultimately known as the Primordial Annihilator. The Interstellar Alliance’s idealistic concepts of freedom and self-empowerment had corroded and fallen away only to be replaced by the very worst of motivations: the desire for absolute power.
It was then that a subsection within the Celestial Intervention Agency activated and took over. All official Time Lord activity within the region dominated by the Alliance was halted and any assistance that the ISA had been receiving ended abruptly. Specific parameters had been reached. Certain threats had been identified. Now the Ordo Tempus had assumed full control of the situation to enforce its ancient commandment: maintain the integrity of the Prison at any cost. Chaos had escaped and was spreading like a cancer. The CIA had failed. Now it was their turn.
He never knew it, but Solarchos was being covertly assisted by the Time Lords.
As 2010 came to a close, over two-thirds of the ISA had fallen to the Van Saar. Crippled by sabotage, infighting, lack of supplies, and mysterious assassinations, the Alliance’s military could no longer mount an effective defense.
Subject:Iago’s response was typical – harsh and draconian. Martial law was declared, traitors and cowards were executed with all Soviet efficiency, and mass conscription was initiated.
The Chaos Marines officially took over as what was left of the Alliance prepared for the onslaught.
2011; the Decisive Strike
“Faithful. Enlightened. Ambitious. Followers.
In just the last year, barely a tick of the clock, we have gathered together a sacrifice that will be remembered for eternity. Though it was a quieter, gentler voice that first educated me about the true nature of the universe long ago, it was a far louder and primal voice that showed me the true path to freedom from all that would shackle me. And what is this path? This grand revelation that has driven me onwards through fire and fury to gather the bodies of our foes?
It is nothing. There is no meaning. No purpose. We murder. We kill. It is mindless brutality. All of reality is mindless. In mere hours billions will die. Innocent and guilty. Young and old. Weak and strong. Rich and poor. All of them! They will shriek, they will burn, and they will do so for no other reason that we might wallow in their extermination. And united in this absence of purpose, fear, love, honor, truth, justice and duty we shall at long last be free!
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! LET THE GALAXY BURN!”
Intercepted coded transmission made by Subject:Iago.
“After everything we’ve been through, past all the fire and fury, the one thing I know is that we can count on one another to get the job done. Or die trying if that’s what it takes. Because some things are just worth fighting for.”
Jim Raynor, Starcraft 2.
With the Alliance driven to its knees the time had come to launch the final strike. The Ordo Tempus had other plans. Monitoring the war’s progress over the last two years, they’d made an ominous conclusion: the Chaos cults had spread too far throughout the Alliance. Extreme measures were authorized to neutralize the threat and borrowing a tactic from both the Imperium and the Eldar, the Ordo Tempus selected the quickest and most decisive method possible.
Exterminatus of every single inhabited world that belonged to the Interstellar Alliance.
Sakura Xadium-Aino and her own allies immediately balked at the idea of genocide on such a scale. The Chaos cults represented only a fraction of the people within the Alliance; over a billion innocent people would die alongside them. Even the worlds conquered by the Van Saar would be targeted. No amount of arguing or even intimidation from rei.bot could make the Ordo back down and the reply they gave made even rei.bot step back.
The various temporal rewrites that Sakura and her other Time Lord companions had instigated over the past five years had placed a substantial strain on the timeline. Making another large-scale temporal rewrite so soon after the previous one carried with it the very real risk of causality breaking down. The consequences of such a breakdown could be catastrophic. Further meddling had to be prevented.
Sakura had already dodged the bullet once in regard to her own actions. Other members of her own family were facing the possibility of being declared criminals.
Then the news came – Solarchos had located where Subject:Iago’s new base of operations was and had taken command of the Ghost Fox fleet. The objective was obvious: kill Iago and decapitate the Alliance utterly. At the same time, Sakura and her closest allies received additional news from the Dark Hand.
Iago knew what the Ordo Tempus had planned. All of the remaining worlds had been deliberately consecrated to Khorne. Each planet was essentially a sacrifice-in-waiting, and Iago was planning to harness all of the energy of over a billion people dying in order to fuel his own apotheosis into an entity of pure will and power.
Iago intended to become a full-fledged Daemon Prince. He had retrieved and repaired the Ravager in order to accomplish it. The ship was still saturated with lingering daemonic essence. A mass sacrifice was all that was necessary for Iago to draw all of that essence into himself and transcend into near godhood.
Every TARDIS in the region had been shut down by the Ordo Tempus’ interdiction. Solarchos was out of range for standard communications. Magical means of communications didn’t work either. Sakura and her allies had only one option left.
They had to deal with one of Solarchos’ most eccentric, erratic, and obnoxious companions of all...the self-styled Rogue Trader Chibi-Leady and her starship, the heavily modified Cobra-class destroyer Rock You Like A Hurricane (complete with its equally fucked-up crew of Excel-clones). The ship might have resembled something more akin to an FTL-capable insane asylum, but it was still one of the fastest ships around.
Oddly enough, arranging a deal with Leady had been easy once she learned that Haruka was going to be accompanying them on the trip. Leady’s lust for Haruka was the stuff of legend (and many, many jokes). Michiru, on the other hand, suffered a great many accidents along the way, most of them involving roaming gangs of disobedient Excel-clones who then had to be physically beaten back into submission by an Ork freebooter named Brickfist.
Iago looked around the Ravager and was pleased. The blood of a million expendable Zealot cultists slain by his own powers coated every square inch of the massive starship’s interior. The ship’s hallways sang with the shrieks and howls of the malignant spirits that haunted it and they were all pleased. The approbation had been judged suitable and the proper rituals were in readiness.
The Ordo Tempus would provide the rest.
Iago wasn’t at all surprised by the arrival of the Ghost Foxes and the rest of the Van Saar fleet and their allies. The Ravager had been completely overhauled and upgraded in every way. Its defenses had been augmented by a powerful sensor-jamming field that interfered with targeting computers, its own sensors had been greatly enhanced, and its enormous broadside arrays of mass-driver cannons had been replaced with devastating long-range plasma guns superior in every way.
The Ravager also wasn’t alone. Every remaining Alliance starship was present, as were several new additions to his personal fleet.
Chaos warships sat alongside the Ravager. Some of them had escaped destruction during the old Unmei Wars from five years previously. Others had been recovered and rebuilt. All of them were fully operational and comparable to anything the Van Saar had in their own fleet.
Both sides had begun firing on one another when the Hurricane arrived.
Calling in every favor and ally she had, Sakura had gathered together everyone she could for their own assault on Iago and the Ravager. Solarchos’ and Iago’s fleets were evenly matched, but with the assistance of Sakura and her friends the tide of battle quickly began to turn in their favor.
The battleship Aika Sumeragi, heavily damaged by the relentless pummeling she was taking from a whole squadron of Iconoclast destroyers and a single Desolator-class battleship, was saved when Shinji Ikari somehow caused a disabled Space Marine battle-barge whose crew had completely evacuated to smash into the Desolator with enormous force. The battle-barge (somehow renamed Litany of Litany’s Litany) crashed into the Desolator with enough force to buckle the entire vessel amidships, causing catastrophic damage all throughout. As the Desolator was immediately targeted by several other ships, the Aika managed to fight her way clear. Suddenly another battle-barge rocketed forward traveling far faster than it normally should on a direct collision course with the Ravager. The crew of the Ravager saw the danger and responded accordingly. The battle-barge (AGAIN somehow renamed MAXIMUM FUCK) rocked and shuddered as lance beams and unrelenting barrages of plasma cannon fire hammered into it, but failed to slow it down.
The final transmission from the MAXIMUM FUCK’s bridge showed Shinji Ikari, Hal Jordan, Deadpool, and Mace MFin Windu totally rocking out as they closed in. The signal cut out and a minute later the MAXIMUM FUCK, its entire forward section on fire from the damage it had absorbed, plowed straight into the Ravager’s engines. The Ravager’s engines either exploded or flickered and died. Within minutes the Aika, the Hellesponte, the Hurricane, and three Ghost Fox strike cruisers were vectoring in close and preparing to board.
One way or the other, the war that Iago had started would end that day.
The interior of the Ravager was a nightmare, and from the moment she saw it Sakura wondered if Solarchos’ Emperor had witnessed the same thing when he boarded Horus’ battle-barge long-long ago. Every surface had been literally painted with sacrificial blood and the bodies of the victims had been left where they fell. Except that the bodies were drained dry. The ship itself had siphoned out every drop.
The Ravager also included a Crew Reclamator: severely injured or dead crew members were quickly processed and converted into mindless cyborgs and then pressed back into service. Tens of thousands of the crew had already been “repurposed” into servitors with no regard paid to whether or not the unfortunate subject had still been conscious or not.
Something else about the ship was just plain wrong. Shadows were too dark and didn’t seem right. Sound traveled strangely. Walls seemed to bend in odd directions. Everything about the ship seemed surreal and unsettling, as if the whole place had been specifically designed to instill a deep sense of foreboding and fear in its occupants. As the crew began to respond to the many thousands of intruders boarding all over, the full horror of the Ravager became immediately clear.
Every single one of the Ravager’s crew (well over 140,000 at full complement) had been driven insane with psychotic rage and unrelenting fear. Some had begun to change into things less than Human. Others had cut and scarred themselves so immensely that they barely looked Human anymore.
The Suburban Senshi Confederation pressed onwards without hesitation.
No retreat. No surrender. No quarter given and none taken. Entirely too much was at stake, and they all understood what the price of failure would mean.
All records of the events that occurred onboard the starship Ravager locked and sealed by order of the Celestial Intervention Agency (Ordo Tempus mandate)
Unauthorized addendum. Identity unknown.
He lied to us all. Heresy...no term more apt. Now I set things right.
With a massive wave of temporal chaos that swept through the galaxy like a tsunami, the timeline was undone and rewritten:
- The Interstellar Alliance was wiped from existence.
- The Chaos threat was expunged and purged from reality. For now at least.
- Everything was changed...except for one small island of reality that was deliberately spared and protected by forces that owed its occupants an immense debt.
- The Unmei/Egae system and the Gurhal system had both been protected from the changes to history.
- The Ghost Fox Chapter was instantly returned to their proper time. Every Marine that had fallen in the last battle was returned as well. Many Ghost Fox starships had been damaged, but every single one was accounted for.
- The Dark Hand of Jigoku vanished back to wherever they came from without fanfare.
- The Van Saar fleet appeared in orbit around Unmei and Egae. Many ships had been damaged or disabled. Repairing all of them, especially mega-sized behemoths like the Aika Sumeragi, would require many months if not years to completely repair.
- The Rock You Like A Hurricane reappeared around Egae as well. Leady immediately threw a fit when she discovered that Sakura had never actually PAID her for the trip.
- Solarchos, Morrigan, and everyone else returned home to find everything exactly as they’d left it. Inu-Kit waited for him at the Amestris Manse on Unmei along with four rowdy children who’d desperately missed their father.
- The war was over at last.
2012; the End Phase
Nearly a year had passed since then, a whole year in which nothing has come from the Sol system except silence. No ship could travel anywhere except between Unmei/Egae and Gurhal. Everyplace else was denied.
For a whole year Solarchos and his friends enjoyed a peace they’d been denied for a long time. Regular shipments of manufactured goods and refined ores continued to be sent back through the wormhole to the Humankind Empire Abh and life started to return to normal. The damage caused by the Zealot War was slowly but surely repaired and the wounds inflicted slowly began to heal.
Then, one day, without warning, a message was detected emanating from the direction of the Sol system. It consisted of two words repeating.
Come home.