Crusade into the Void

[DukeShasta]

Greetings, everyone!

As some of you know, I was making a Stellaris AAR when I screwed up my name lists, and then worsened the issue by messing up some of my save files while trying to fix the issue, so I ended up abandoning the campaign. Well, as I promised, I'm starting a new campaign, with the same empire, and hopefully this one will make it to the end! Now, let's dive right in!

 

[DukeShasta]

The Lumenorean Protectorate only emerged as an unified planetary government in the 22nd century. Before then, the Lumenoreans were divided into large kingdoms that warred amongst themselves for land and resources. This all changed in the late 21st century, when Ernst Gorm, a young and ambitious nobleman from the small island kingdom of Lumenea rose to power. Gorm, the son of a prestigious baron, and nephew of a marquis, yearned to rule over the kingdom. He rose through the ranks of the Lumenean military, quickly rising to the rank of general. He rose to fame after leading a crusade against the fractured Gallic states, which lay just across the Great River from the island of Lumene, the heart of Lumenea. Under General Gorm’s command, the Lumeneans smashed the Gallics, seizing a number of coastal provinces. While Gorm’s prestige grew at home, the Lumenean populace grew increasingly fed up with the Savoy dynasty, which was widely perceived as corrupt and weak. In 2087, the populace’s resentment exploded into anger following a major scandal. The Lord Exalted Advisor and heir to the Lumenean throne, John Savoy, was found to be in an intimate relationship with a young Slav diplomat. To make matters worse, it turned out that the Slavs had armed and funded three fleets of privateers that roamed the seas, destroying Lumenean trading vessels and raiding Lumenean coastal settlements. Rumors arose that Prince John had sold out the kingdom, and the people called for the nobleman to be prosecuted, or at the very least relieved of duty. The king, Feodor, was reluctant to take action against his son, further fueling popular resentment. By this point, Gorm, who was now in his late forties, had been given the title of Duke and ruled over the captured Gallic provinces. He watched the political unrest with a sharp eye. In 2091, he decided to stage a military coup, claiming that by defending his son, King Feodor had also betrayed the state and thus, was a traitor to Lumenea. The people flocked to his banner, and after a brief but fiery two year long civil war, Gorm triumphantly entered the capital city and seized the Lumenorean throne for himself. Feodor, John, and many of the remaining Savoys fled abroad, which Gorm claimed to be evidence of the dynasty’s treason. Gorm would spend the next five years consolidating his rule, before turning his attention southward.

While the Lumenoreans had evolved from mammals, they bore little resemblance to the furry mammalians known as Qu’Vaks that also lived on Lumenor Prime. The Qu’Vaks were a tribal people who lived in large villages. Each village was ruled by a village elder, usually the eldest member of the village, and most, if not all, Qu’Vaks who live in the same village are part of the same clan. Often, neighboring villages, which were often closely related also, would ally together to form a tribe. While the northern continents were dominated by the Lumenoreans, the Qu’Vaks controlled two major continents, Valk Mog (Dry Mass) to the south, and Tureng Mog (Forest Mass) to the west. By the late 1500s, the scattered Lumenorean kingdoms had begun establishing contact with the various Qu’Vak tribes. The explorers of Lumenia took the lead in exploring the Qu’Vak continents. They mapped the coastline, but didn’t bother to push into the interior. After all, the various wars in the northern continents were enough to keep the kingdoms busy - there was no need to conquer the Qu’Vak tribes, scattered as they may be. That, however, is not to say that there was no interaction between the Qu’Vaks and the Lumenoreans. The Lumenoreans, especially the Lumeneans, built trading posts along the coastline, and the occasional slave raider would attack coastal Qu’Vak settlements to seize slaves that would then be sold in slave markets on the northern continents.

By 2099, Gorm would be in full control of Lumenea. However, the pacification of the rebellious nobility had brought one major change - to win over a number of prestigious noble Houses, Gorm had decided to style himself Grand Duke rather than King. The move, though seemingly insignificant, meant that the sovereign was not an absolute ruler, but rather, simply a higher ranking peer. This move also meant that the Dukes, the patriarchs of the oldest and/or most influential Houses, were now given a larger say in the affairs of the kingdom. As the 22nd century began, Gorm decided to turn his military forces southward. This was for two major reasons. First, during his rebellion and subsequent campaigns, Gorm had raised a vast army, nearly 20 million men. The vast majority of these troops were inexperienced, and while Gorm wished to conquer the other Lumenorean kingdoms, he recognized that this would be suicide unless he found some way to harden his troops in battle first. Second, the Gallics had ceded all of their trading posts along the western coast of Valk Mog to the Lumeneans following the Gallic Crusade. Gorm recognized that this would be a perfect forward base. He signed a treaty with the ruler of Iberia in 2102, gaining the use of three naval ports along the Iber Peninsula in exchange for increasing trade shipments to Iberian ports. This treaty gave Gorm a second forward base to use, this time to force his way south. In 2103, he struck. A massive army group of five field armies, 500,000 men, sailed from two ports on the Iber Peninsula and attacked a coastal Qu’Vak village, utterly overwhelming it. The field armies then spread out and advanced southward, utterly overwhelming the outnumbered and outgunned Qu’Vaks. Within three months, the entire north had been conquered. At the same time, two field armies invaded the land of the Vi Mog tribe, the strongest tribe on Valk Mog. Marching from trade posts on the western coast, the Lumeneans quickly overwhelmed nearby Qu’Vak villages. Though strong, the Vi Mog tribesmen could not stand up to the Lumenean tanks and infantry. By mid 2103, the Vi Mog were no more. Gorm then ordered Army Group North to march eastward, while Army Group West headed south. By 2105, Lumenea had conquered all of Valk Mog. Gorm established dozens of new baronies on Valk Mog, handing out land to the most loyal nobles and most decorated military officers. He then established a series of marches and duchies to centralize rule over the continent. Gorm also revised the Lumenean slave policy. Slavery was not new to the Lumeneans - after all, Lumenoreans would often enslave civilians captured during military campaigns. However, following the conquest of Valk Mog, the Lumeneans had more slaves than they needed. As a result, Gorm decreed in 2106 that Lumenoreans could be enslaved only if they were criminals or rebels. This meant that the vast majority of Lumenorean slaves in Lumenea would be freed. For the next decade, Gorm spent his time governing his newly expanded empire. He spent his time organizing the government to make it more efficient and ensuring the nobility’s loyalty to him.

In 2118, he was ready to go to war yet again. He declared a Second Gallic Crusade and his armies swept through the Gallic states. By 2120, the Lumeneans were in full control of Gallica. A year later, the Gallics sued for peace, surrendering all their territory to the Lumeneans.

With the elimination of Gallica, the balance of power in the northern continents shifted. The other kingdoms recognized that the Lumeneans were by far the most powerful, and began forming coalitions to counter the Lumenean threat. The Slavs, who had long been rivals with the Lumeneans, allied with the various small states to their west, and began a campaign to conquer the territories to the south and west of them. Meanwhile, the Irnex, a small kingdom in the north, instead established a colony on Tureng Mog and signed non-aggression pacts with the Lumeneans. Gorm recognized that the Slavs were the major threat, and granted the Irnex a guarantee of independence to keep them from joining the growing Slav Mutual Defense Organization. By this time, Gorm was in his early eighties. Though he wished to conquer the few territories that had not joined coalitions, he recognized that he was nearing the end of his life, and succession during a war would be difficult at best, and disastrous at worst. Thus, he began handing the reins of power to his son, Marcus. In 2125, Grand Duke Ernst Gorm passed away in his sleep of natural causes, and Marcus Gorm was officially the new Grand Duke. Grand Duke Gorm spent a few years consolidating his rule and eliminating rebellious nobles before launching his first crusades. In a series of brief but fiery campaigns, Lumenean armies swept through the northern continents, conquering territory after territory. However, Grand Duke Gorm changed the way these new territories were administered. Under the elder Gorm, a territory would be carved into fiefs that would then be handed over to Lumenean nobility. Instead, Grand Duke Gorm gave baronies, the lowest possible fief, and the occasional march to local nobility, while reserving duchies and most marches for Lumenean nobles.

By 2130, Lumenor was split into three coalitions. The Grand Duchy of Lumenea covered a third of the northern continents and the entirety of Valk Mog. The Slavs had created a Slav Mutual Defense Organization that covered the rest of the northern continent. Meanwhile, the small Kingdom of Irnex, which owned only a small territory in the icy north, had established a sizable colony, double the size of the Kingdom, in northeastern Tureng Mog. For the next 45 years, the Lumeneans and Slavs remained in a state of cold war. Both powers built up their military strength and engaged in border skirmishes. However, both sides believed that the other side had an equivalent, if not stronger, military, and neither side was willing to risk attacking. In 2175, Grand Duke Gorm decided to start probing the Slav defenses more fiercely. He ordered his intelligence officials to fabricate a diplomatic incident and deployed troops to the border in response. The Slavs retaliated by increasing troop deployments and raising their overall military readiness. Both sides began cross-border raids, and skirmishes grew more frequent as the months passed. In 2177, Grand Duke Gorm’ chief general at the border ordered a series of lightning raids against Slavic border towns to measure the Slav defenses and seize valuable resources. The raids were extremely successful. The Slavs retaliated by launching a raid of their own against a cluster of poorly defended villages and towns. The Lumeneans tried to respond, but their forces were nowhere near the attack, and by the time they arrived, the Slavs would be long gone. However, a young man by the name of Shasta was able to organize the civilians in the villages and form a ragtag militia. Armed with hunting rifles and other small arms, the militia confronted the raiders a few kilometers away from the first village in a thick forest. Although the raiders were experienced in guerilla warfare, they were no match for the militia members, many of whom were hunters who knew the terrain like the back of their hand and were expert marksmen. They led the raiders into ambushes and shot at them from hidden pre-built positions. By the time the Lumenean border forces responded to the incursion, Shasta’s hastily recruited militia had already killed approximately half and captured a third of the raiders. The few that survived fled as soon as they encountered the Lumenean troops.

Shasta, the young man who had organized the militia, was an orphan. His mother had died in childbirth, while his father had been a sergeant in the Lumenean military who was killed two weeks after his son’s birth while fighting to repel a Slav raid across the border. Shasta was adopted by the village mayor and treated like a son. He soon found that he enjoyed hunting, and would often organize hunting parties with older villagers to hunt larger prey, such as the ubiquitous horned quadrupeds known as venise or even the occasional Lumenorean black wolf. These experiences would help Shasta when he organized his ragtag militia, as many of the hunters he recruited already knew and respected him. The commander of the Lumenean response force, an elderly captain named Viktor Dakr, recognized the young adolescent’s potential and recommended him for recruitment to the Lumenean army. Captain Dakr was also a member of House Dakr, a minor noble family that wished to raise its standing within the Grand Duchy. He believed that Shasta would bring glory and honor to the Dakr, so he petitioned for the House to allow him to adopt Shasta into the family as a son (1). Following much debate, Shasta was accepted into the family. Not long after, the Lumenean Army officially recruited Shasta, who was sent to the prestigious Lumenean Military Academy for his education. There, he spent four years before being commissioned as a lieutenant. His first assignment was as an aide to his adoptive father, Captain Viktor Dakr, who commanded a company of troops stationed along the border.

At this point, Slav-Lumenean tensions were at an alltime high. Both sides accused each other (rightfully so) of meddling in their internal affairs and attacking the other side’s territory. In 2183, Grand Duke Gorm declared the Great Crusade agains the Slave Mutual Defense Organization. By this time, Shasta had been given his own platoon within Captain Dakr’s company, which was held in reserve along the southern border. Gorm had given command of the army to three field marshals: Viktor Aren commanded Army Group North, while his brother Ambrose commanded Army Group South. Brett Scowley was given command of Army Group Central, known derisively as Army Group Rear, which served as a rear guard and mobile reserve. While Marshal V. Aren (2) and his army group drove eastward to seize the Slav capital, his brother was ordered to march south to seize the Slavs’ rich petroleum fields and cripple their industrial centers. The Slavs fought bitterly against the Lumenean invasion, but eventually fell before the invaders’ superior might. In one notable engagement, the Battle of Blovograd, Lieutenant Shasta Dakr proved himself to be the expert tactician that Viktor Dakr had recognized. Marshal A. Aren was a contemptuous man who often refused to listen to those he deemed inferior: commoners and minor nobility. As a result, he refused to listen when Shasta, who he deemed to fall in both categories, and Captain Dakr, who was minor nobility, pleaded for him to hold back instead of assaulting the city. Shasta had convinced his adoptive father that the Slavs, who had been in a constant state of retreat following previous engagements, were planning an ambush. Marshal A. Aren dismissed this and immediately launched his attack, relegating Captain Dakr’s forces to the rear guard. Thirty minutes into the battle, just as the first paratroopers were jumping into the city, the Slavs struck. Marshal A. Aren had planned a two front attack, sending his best armored legions to assault the city wall while paratroopers jumped into the city from dropships. He hoped to crush the city wall and allow his men on the outside of the city to jump into Blovograd just as the paratroopers began their assault. However, the Slavs had hidden regiments of tanks in the forest to the east of the city and additional troops on the city wall. They revealed themselves just as the paratroopers began their landing, catching the Lumenean armored legions in a crossfire. Two tank legions and a mechanized infantry legion were shredded by the Slavs’ concentrated fire, and battalions from other legions were teetering on the brink of destruction also. In the rear guard, Shasta and Captain Dakr heard the desperate pleas for aid and rushed to the front with the rest of the rear guard. Shasta quickly recognized that the Slavs were overextending their tank regiments, and ordered a pair of tank battalions from the rear guard to attack the three Slav tank regiments on the eastern flank. Then, he directed the rest of the rear guard to charge the main gate, forcing the Slavs to extend themselves even further to protect the city, and giving the Lumenean legions some room to plan a counterattack. After four hours of heavy fighting, the Slav tankers were forced to either pull back into the city, or flee the battle. Marshal A. Aren ordered his forces to pull back and regroup. He reprimanded Shasta and his father severely for insubordination and expressed his intent to have them both court-martialed. Both men were ready to face a court-martial board, but Shasta first pointed out that the paratroopers were still in need of assistance. He argued that if the Lumenean armored legions were to redeploy and the paratroopers were to attack the interior of the wall, then the Lumeneans could catch the Slavs in a crossfire. Marshal A. Aren was even less inclined to listen to the young man now, but he grudgingly admitted that the young upstart had been correct about the Slav ambush, and was likely to be correct again now. As a result, he sent orders to his best armored legions to attack the city at dawn, following a battle plan that he drew up. This time, the assault was successful, and the Lumeneans seized the city. The capture of Blovograd, and its neighboring city Bolyograd, gave the Lumeneans full control over a major trading crossroads, and fragmented the Slav forces in the south. Although Marshal A. Aren followed through on his threat of a court-martial, the inquiry was quietly dropped after a number of prominent noble Houses, most of whom had members who were in the ambushed legions and were only saved by Shasta’s quick thinking,

For the next decade, the Lumeneans and Slavs engaged in bitter fighting. Although the Lumeneans had a significant tactical advantage by the end of 2185, the Slavs refused to surrender, fighting on until the last Slav field army was smashed by Army Group North in late 2186 and the last Slav holdouts fell in early to mid 2187 . In late 2187, the Treaty of Slavgrad was signed. Lumenean popular opinion was overwhelmingly in favor of harshly punishing the Slavs. The Lumeneans were angered by the Slav resistance and the high casualties they had inflicted. While Grand Duke E. Gorm’s decree on the illegality of enslaving Lumenoreans remained in force, a number of prominent noble Houses, most of whom ran slave guilds, found a loophole in the decree. They declared that by fighting on after the fall of the Slav capital of Slavgrad, those who continued resistance after 2185, and by extension, those who lived in territories captured after the fall of Slavgrad, were technically rebels, and thus, the decree did not apply to them. This declaration proved to be extremely controversial, but would eventually be approved by Grand Duke Gorm and the Council of Nobles and added to the treaty (3). By this time, Viktor Dakr had retired, and Shasta had been promoted to colonel and given command of a tank legion.

A year later, while Shasta was pacifying rebellious elements in the former Slav territories, Grand Duke Marcus Gorm died of suspicious causes. He had no heir - his one son, Ryan, was killed in battle during the Great Crusade. As a result, a succession crisis occurred. There were three major contenders to the title of Grand Duke: Grand Duke M. Gorm’s uncle, Nigel, his brother, Cliff, and his cousin, Isobel. Few supported Nigel Gorm’s claim to the title - after all, he was older than Marcus, childless, unlikely to have a heir, and nearing the end of his life. By succession law, Cliff Gorm was first in line to the succession, but many disliked him, as he was an avid war hawk who controlled a major slaving guild and had called for the enslavement of all Slavs. On the other hand, Isobel leaned liberal and appealed to the populace. The Council of Nobles was split, with a minority of noble Houses, many of them prominent and influential, backing Cliff, while the majority of noble Houses supported Isobel, though many were minor nobility and had little influence in Lumenean politics. In early 2189, popular opinion exploded against Cliff Gorm following the public release of the investigatory report into the death of Grand Duke M. Gorm. Gorm had died of a heart attack, which investigators found was caused by a toxin in his Lumé wine. Investigators were evenly split as to who was the culprit, Cliff or Isobel, but the report leaked to the public only implicated Cliff. Lumeneans geared up for a civil war, as the opposing factions called up troops and denounced the other as traitorous. Shasta played his cards close to his vest. Though not a flag officer, he was still a well-known household name in the Grand Duchy, and each side longed for his support and tactical expertise. It took four months for Shasta to declare his allegiance. During this time, he concluded his campaigns and headed back to the capital, stopping along the way to raise a pair of new mechanized infantry legions, appointing a pair of loyal staff members as the legion’s colonels. He finally arrived in Lumenea City in mid 2189, scarcely a month after the release of the police report. He declared his allegiance to Isobel Gorm and echoed the people’s calls for Cliff’s arrest on murder and treason charges. Emboldened by Shasta’s endorsement, Isobel declared herself Grand Duchess and gave Shasta command over her personal forces, duties that would normally be carried out by a general in the Praetorian Guard. Noble Houses allied with Isobel sent troops from their personal militaries to Isobel’s stronghold in northern Lumene, while those allied to Cliff sent troops to Sext, a duchy on the coast of what was once Gallica. For the next one and a half years, the two factions, known contemporarily as the Hawks (Cliff) and the Liberals (Isobel), waged war for control of the Grand Duchy. In late 2191, Shasta led Liberal forces to lay siege to Sext while Cliff was busy invading northern Gallica. Cliff raced back to relieve Sext and was met thirty kilometers from his besieged fortress by Shasta’s forces, which included his three legions and Isobel’s personal guard, dubbed the Liberal Praetorian Guard. Halfway through the battle, a second Liberal force, consisting of noble private militaries and mercenaries from private military companies owned by Liberals smashed into the exposed Hawk right flank, causing the Hawk line to crumble. Most of the Hawk soldiers fled the field, with only Cliff’s Praetorian Guard detachment remaining to fight back. In the fierce fighting that followed, the Hawk Praetorian Guards were utterly destroyed. Cliff was killed during the fighting. Following Cliff’s death, the Hawk faction crumbled. Many noble Houses, such as House Aren, that had supported Cliff were deprived of rank and titles, while minor noble Houses that supported Isobel gained additional power. Shasta’s actions had earned him a promotion to lieutenant general and turned House Dakr into an influential powerhouse in Lumenean politics. His tank legion and one of his mechanized rifle legions formed the first division in the newly created Imperial Guard, a force created by the Grand Duchess to serve as a crack vanguard. Additionally, he had requested, and obtained, permission from the House Dakr leadership to create his own noble House, allied to the Dakr, which he named the Elekhri (4). Isobel Gorm, now officially the Grand Duchess, had desired to promote Shasta to Lord General Militant and make him her chief of the army, but he advised her to instead promote a general who had proven himself but had not taken part in the Great Lumenean Succession War, in order to increase unity in the Grand Duchy. Isobel took this advice, though she still considered Shasta to be one of her top advisors. Shasta advised the Grand Duchess to declare a new crusade, this time against the Inrex and their Qu’Vak allies. Grand Duchess Grom agreed, and even took it a step further, declaring a Western Crusade that called for the invasion and subjugation of the entire Tureng Mog continent. Shasta was given full control over the Crusade forces. He took personal control over Army Group North, which sailed from Lumene in early 2193 for the Irnex colony on the northeastern coast of Tureng Mog. Within seven months, he had subjugated the territory, sending hundreds of thousands of Qu’Vak slaves back to the Grand Duchy. At the same time, other army groups were slowly but steadily pushing their way into the continent interior, and the aptly named Army Group Arctic had subjugated the Irnex core territories, effectively ending the civilization. However, Shasta left command of Army Group North to a trusted subordinate and returned to Lumene in late 2993 for political reasons.

To prevent his opponents from labeling him as an ambitious man planning a coup, Shasta had refused Grand Duchess Gorm’s offer of naming him the Lord General Militant. However, like Ernst Gorm, he was a shrewd and ambitious man. Before refusing Grand Duchess Gorm’s offer of promotion, Shasta had ensured that he had an ace up his sleeve, one that he could use to blackmail the Grand Duchess - following the Great Lumenean Succession War, the Council of Nobles had abolished a number of “seditious” political organizations, including the Council for Closed Borders, the War Hawk Party, and, almost as an afterthought, the Political Reform Initiative. Few realized that the PRI, as the faction was known, had been abolished. In fact, the PRI still carried out public meetings, and a number of influential Lumeneans, including the Grand Duchess, were members of the party. However, Shasta knew that a number of noble Houses, many of them powerful families, still opposed him. As a result, during the Eastern Crusade, he wrote up battle plans that purposefully put the private militaries of these families in harm’s way, severely reducing his opposition’s military force. At the same time, he ensured that forces controlled by allied noble Houses got a disproportionately large share of the glory and prestige from the Crusade. This shifted the balance of power, ensuring that those who were allied with House Elekhri were far more powerful and influential than those who opposed it. Add to that the public’s overwhelming support of the general, who they saw as a commoner that had risen power through sheer talent and merit, and Shasta recognized that the time was ripe for a coup.

In early 2194, Shasta forced Grand Duchess Isobel Gorm to resign her titles and abdicate her position, threatening to have her arrested for sedition if she refused. The Grand Duchess had one heir, her twelve year old son, Harold. Unfortunately, as Harold was still a child, he was not prepared to lead the Grand Duchy. As a result, Shasta proposed to take the title of Lord Protector and act as a regent until Harold came of age. To further reinforce this proposal, Shasta renamed the Grand Duchy of Lumenea to the Lumenorean Protectorate. He also created a new legislature, turning the Council of Nobles into the House of Lords and establishing a Lumenorean Senate for commoners. Commoners backed this move, as it granted them more political power. Nobles were displeased, but soon realized that it was a necessary evil. In late 2195, the Eastern Crusade was all but over, with most of Tureng Mog conquered, and only a few Qu’Vak tribes standing defiant. Most of the troops on the continent were transferred back to the northern continents. And just in time for Shasta’s newest campaign.

By this point in time, Iberia was the sole unconquered civilization on Lumenor Prime. The Iberians had close relations with the former Grand Duchy of Lumenea, sending shipments of tribute to maintain their independence and allowing the Lumeneans to use Iberian coastal ports as naval bases in exchange for increased trade through their territory. However, by the late 22nd century, these relations had begun to break down. Trade had begun drying up, as the expansion of Lumenean territory meant that Lumenean merchants could make their fortune in Lumenea without having to seek trading partners abroad. Additionally, the Iberians were angered by the Lumenean conquest of their neighbors, and were especially displeased by the subjugation of the Qu’Vak tribes. As a result, in 2196, Shasta ordered a preemptive invasion of Iberia, swiftly seizing the peninsula and toppling the royal family. At this point, Shasta decided to “convince” (read: militarily threaten) the nominal Grand Duke, Harold Gorm, into handing over his title to Shasta. This resulted in the end of the Gorm dynasty and the disappearance of House Gorm from Lumenorean politics (5). Shasta then began preparing for the next grand expansion of Lumenorean territory - expanding into space.

He ordered the construction of an outpost in orbit of the sun in the Lumenor system to facilitate trade and serve as a shipyard. The first ships the shipyard would
construct were three Javelin-class corvettes to form a small navy that would secure Lumenorean space from hostile forces. Next, Shasta ordered the construction of a construction ship and a Pathfinder-class science ship. The construction ship would be completed first, in mid 2197, and was immediately tasked with building research and mining stations over other celestial bodies in the Lumenor system. To fund his initiative, Shasta ordered the razing of numerous districts that he deemed to be wasteful. Though this angered the nobility, Shasta took extreme care to only eliminate those districts that belonged to nobility that had lost their power following the Great Succession War, claiming that those nobles had forfeited their right to their holdings after their rebellion. He also appeased those few influential nobles whom also lost territory in the Great Razing, as the initiative was dubbed, by promising that they would be the first to be granted territory during the Great Expansion into space.

By 2200, Shasta had amassed enough resources to begin the Great Expansion.

FOOTNOTES:
(1) This was not unheard of - many noble families adopted people that were deemed “special” - intelligent scientists, war heroes, etc. However, most of these adoptees had to go through a lengthy process to become a member of the family, first being adopted as a merit adoptive, before taking the House’s trials to become a Trial-born, and then being promoted to ranking distant, and finally, cousin. To be immediately adopted as a family member was almost unheard of. Additionally, the highest rank that a commoner, like Shasta, could attain in a House was ranking distant. Viktor Dakr’s request ignited much debate among the highest echelons of House Dakr.

(2) Only a few individuals will be referred to by their first name. All others will be referred to by {title} {last name} or simply {last name}. If two individuals with the same surname happen to hold the same rank at the same period in time, they can be told apart by their first initial.

(3) Of course, enforcement of this was difficult at best, and impossible at worst. While the capture date of prisoners of war could easily be found, Lumenean officials had no reason to keep track of individual refugees. Millions of Slavs disappeared, finding new lives elsewhere. Only a dozen million or so Slavs would actually be enslaved - enough to appease the Lumenean populace and enrich the slaver guilds, without being a common occurrence. ((and since it’s less than a pop unit, it’s not represented in-game))

(4) He recognized that a vocal minority in House Dakr disliked how quickly he was rising through the ranks, so he decided to cut ties with the family, though he ensured that the Dakr and Elekhri would remain allies in the future. He adopted approximately a dozen close friends, most of them loyal staffers, into House Elekhri and created a House defense force using his second mechanized infantry legion.

(5) House Gorm was now considered minor nobility. Though they had numerous allies, and quite a bit of influence, the Great Lumenean Succession War had devastated the family, wiping out most of the bloodlines in the House. House Gorm would never recover from this - while they remained present in Lumenean politics, their influence slowly waned until they had all but vanished from Lumenorean politics.

 

[DukeShasta]

Grand Duke Shasta recognized that the Protectorate needed to assemble its best thinkers to be able to successfully venture into and explore the great, unknown void that was the rest of the galaxy. As a result, Shasta ordered the formation of a new government ministry, the Ministry of Science and Research, which consisted of the best Lumenorean scientists and bureaucrats assigned to help them get any and all resources they required to carry out their tasks. He divided the ministry into five divisions: the Biology Division, led by the adaptable Elzbieta Kava; the Engineering Division, led by one Martina Diaz; the Physics Division, led by a computing expert named Iason Metaxas; the Exploration Division, which staffed the newly constructed science ships; and the Research Division, which staffed the various government owned research outposts that had been constructed in the Lumenorean system.

The first Lumenorean science ship was commanded by a scientist named Konstantyna Filipowski, who had proved herself to be adaptable to new situations. The ship was named the Kepler, after Juan Kepler, the scientist who had invented the hyperdrive in the late 2000s. In January 2200, the Kepler was ordered to survey the neighboring trinary star system of Alpha Centauri. The voyage marked the Lumenoreans’ first foray into the rest of the galaxy. Yes, they had begun exploring the Lumenor system by the late 20th century, and space exploration had picked up after the invention of the hyperdrive, but the constant warring among the Lumenorean states had kept space exploration on the back burner. Until now. With the unification of Lumenor Prime, the Lumenoreans were now free to turn their eyes towards the unknown void that was the rest of the galaxy. Who knew what lay beyond?

The Kepler’s voyage to Alpha Centauri was broadcast to all on Lumenor Prime over TriNet. Civilians, nobles, and wealthy merchants alike eagerly awaited the Kepler’s daily reports. They saw an opportunity to profit - nobles and wealthy merchants especially. Many pored over planetary scans and reports of resource distribution, hoping to stake out a claim over rich resource deposits and turn a profit. While Grand Duke Shasta had established a state owned mining conglomerate, O.G.I.E.s (Ore, Gas, Ice, Energy) Excavations, there were still many resource deposits deemed too small to warrant O.G.I.E.s’ attention that were still extremely profitable within the Lumenor system. Wealthy merchants and nobles hoped that similar deposits could be found in Alpha Centauri. Even the poor had something to look forward to. They eagerly awaited reports of new worlds that they could settle on, to try and forge a better life for themselves and their families. In late April, the first stunning report came back from the survey ship. Filipowski had led a survey team down to the Continental World of Alpha Centauri III, where they discovered alien wildlife. Though nonsapient, the discovery of alien life sparked debate within the Lumenorean scientific community. The discovery was seen by many as validation of the belief that there were alien civilizations in other parts of the galaxy, simply waiting to be found. A few disagreed, pointing to the wildlife’s nonsapience as evidence of the rarity of alien civilizations, though this view was very much the minority. The next year, the Kepler concluded its survey. A Lumenorean construction ship moved in to build an outpost in the system and claim it for the Protectorate. Easily a dozen nobles and wealthy merchants followed, ordering private construction ships into the system to build their own mining outposts. A few daring Lumenoreans even personally took yachts into the system, trusting that the Kepler had not missed any dangers in the system.
As for the Kepler, it moved on to survey the neighboring system of Procyon. Buoyed by the success of the Kepler’s first voyage into the unknown, Grand Duke Shasta ordered the construction of a new science ship and a new construction ship. He planned to order them to explore the southern frontier while the Kepler explored the north. Not long after, the first survey reports came back from the Kepler. Among them was a report that the Kepler had discovered a number of aerostat structures that, upon further investigation, turned out to have been a xeno colony. Unfortunately, the colonists had apparently massacred each other. Filipowski ordered all the data in the colony’s databanks downloaded and sent back to the homeworld for study. That same year, the construction of the DWV Clostermann was completed. An older and more carefree scientist, Drusilia Hargreave, was assigned to the ship, which was promptly sent to survey the Barnard’s Star system to the south.

Meanwhile, to the northwest, Filipowski continued to stun her superiors. She reported faint traces of weapons radiation, which she concluded to have originated from a military spacecraft, in orbit of Procyon B. She also discovered robot debris on a small asteroid, which she set aside as an archeological site for future scientists to study. But the final, most impressive discovery was in late May of 2203, when she discovered artifacts from the ancient Irassian Concordat civilization on the asteroid WPR-004. Not long after, she stunned her superiors yet again, this time when she discovered an ancient, badly damaged, orbital shipyard. In 2204, as Filipowski completed her survey of Procyon and moved on yet again, her superiors petitioned the Grand Duke to order the construction of a third science ship. They pointed out that Filipowski had made many discoveries, but the need to map the galaxy meant that she could not stop to study them more carefully. The high ranking scientists argued that a third science ship should be assigned to patrol the Protectorate and study anomalies and archeological sites discovered during system wide surveys. This way, the Protectorate wouldn’t miss out on any vital technologies or data while still being able to map the stars without lengthy delays. The Grand Duke agreed, and ordered the construction of a third science ship. That same year, Filipowski stunned the scientific community when she reported the discovery of an ancient space station in the Torrom system. The station, dubbed a “Gateway”, was abandoned and deactivated. However, engineers from the Ministry of Science and Research reported that it was part of a galaxy-wide network, and if activated, would allow for speedy travel from one part of the galaxy to another. This stunned military experts, who recognized the logistical and tactical implications of such a discovery. Not long after, Filipowski discovered a wormhole in the Meleph system. Again, the Ministry pointed out that the wormhole could be used to quickly move across the galaxy, though they warned that the wormhole was inherently unstable, and could only be used after stabilization. They cautioned that the Protectorate did not yet have the technology to stabilize a wormhole, but the revelation alone got military experts thinking.

In mid 2206, Filipowski discovered an ancient mural covered with alien writing on the surface of Meleph VII. This time, the Ministry’s curiosity got the better of them, and Filipowski was ordered to translate the mural and decode its contents. That same month, the DWV Tesla, the science ship assigned to patrol the Protectorate, tracked down the source of radiation in the Procyon system - the wreckage of an alien spacecraft. The Tesla’s crew recovered the ship logs, which when examined, revealed that the crew was chasing a “pack of thieving rats” that had stolen a device that they dubbed the Rubricator. The crew sifted through the various curses and insults in the logs to find the last known location of the Rubricator, a previously uncharted star system. The Grand Duke ordered all science ships to be on high alert, declaring that the Protectorate must obtain the Rubricator. Not long after, Filipowski finished translating the mural she had discovered, which turned out to be a memorial for an alien race that had maintained a small interstellar empire. Filipowski believed that the aliens had been wiped out by the mural’s creators, who, based on the age of the mural, were likely also extinct. The Grand Duke ordered the mural to be shipped to Lumenor Prime, where it was displayed in the Museum for Exobiology, a government run museum that served as a treasure trove of artifacts, alien wildlife, and other surprises discovered as the Lumenoreans explored the stars. That same year, alien vessels were discovered in the Suther system, and an envoy from the Diplomatic Corps was assigned to try and establish communications.

In 2208, the Protectorate established their first colony on an alien world, colonizing a Continental World in the Sirius system that they dubbed Sirius Prime. That same year, the Tesla completed its investigation of the ancient shipyard in the Procyon system. They reported that it could be repaired, though the project would be a momentous undertaking. As a result, a construction ship was dispatched to the site while the Tesla and its commanding scientist, Lisbeth von Wrangel, were sent to investigate the archeological site in the system.

In early 2209, the Diplomatic Corps completed their First Contact investigation. They had discovered that the alien spaceships weren’t really spaceships! Instead, they were living, spacefaring “beasts” - nonsapient wildlife that could move through space just as well as a spaceship. The Ministry of Science and Research wished to study them more closely, but the Diplomatic Corps warned that the creatures had been extremely hostile to investigators during the course of the First Contact investigation.

A few months later, the ancient shipyard in the Procyon system was successfully repaired. The shipyard built three highly advanced (to the Lumenoreans, at least) raiders before breaking down again (permanently, this time, Lumenorean engineers concluded). The raiders, which, by Lumenorean standards, would be corvettes, were quickly pressed into service as part of Strike Force Lupus Noir.

One of the so-called “raiders”.


In December of 2210, the DWV Kepler entered the Roschon system - the system that was the last known location of the Rubricator. There, the Kepler found a habitable planet covered with ruined structures - a “Relic World”. Filipowski marked the planet as an archeological site for further study and began to survey the system.

In early 2211, the first major Lumenorean political factions began forming. Political factions were not that unique - after all, influential politicians often banded together to ensure that legislation was passed. However, usually factions consisted of large coalitions that included many political parties that ranged in size and influence. However, in January 2211, Filipowski, boosted by her fame from being, by far, the most successful Lumenorean pioneer, united the largest militarist political parties and established the Path to Victory Committee.

In 2216, Filipowski made yet another surprising report. This time, she had encountered a primitive xeno civilization living on an Ocean World in the Melitane system. This ignited much discussion in the Lumenorean legislature. Many militarist and xenophobic legislators called for the subjugation of the alien civilization. However, other legislators argued that the technological gap between the xenos, who were in their equivalent of a Bronze Age, and the Lumenoreans would make the aliens a burden on Lumenorean society. The Grand Duke sided with these legislators and ordered the creation of a Xeno Studies Group within the Research Division to staff observation outposts and study primitive xeno civilizations until they were deemed ready for subjugation. That same year, Hargreave and the DWV Clostermann discovered a crystal codex. The holographic data document turned out to document the terms and conditions of a trilateral trade treaty between three ancient xeno powers. Unfortunately, the document lacked context, but Science Officer Hargreave believed that the information that could be gleaned from the document could help the Protectorate in future dealings with xeno powers. This crystal codex was sent to the Lumenorean homeworld and joined the ancient alien mural and numerous other artifacts in the Museum of Exobiology.

In early 2220, reports emerged of an extremely influential guru, Doris Lessard, who had won over many colonists on Sirius Prime. These colonists were actively seeking out and following the guru’s advice, even before that of Protectorate authorities. Luckily, Lessard took care not to usurp governmental authority, and local officials eventually recommended integrating her into the governmental command structure.

Reports emerge of an influential spiritualist guru on Sirius Prime.

In mid 2221, a stunning report emerged from the southern frontier. Recognizing the need to secure the southern border of the Protectorate, Grand Duke Shasta had dispatched a newly built science ship, the DWV Alacrity, to explore the frontier. In July of 2221, the Alacrity reported that they had encountered alien spaceships in the Shulmak system. The Diplomatic Corps responded to the report immediately, sending an investigation team under the command of a seasoned Envoy to establish communications with the unknown party. Quickly, the investigators were able to conclude that the ships were from an alien spacefaring nation and not simply spaceborne wildlife. This revelation sparked intense discussion and debate within the Protectorate. Who were these aliens? Were they friendly? Or would they be hostiles? Should the Protectorate be welcoming? Or cautious and isolationist?

 

[DukeShasta]

“Order, order!” the Lord Speaker of the House called, loudly banging his gavel. “We will have order!”

The hubbub in the large chamber slowly quieted down as nobles ceased their conversations and took their seats.

“First order of business today is the petition by House Fidorov in regards to the recent hostile actions by the Gamma Aliens and an appropriate response. As the petitioner, House Fidorov is given the floor,” the Lord Speaker intoned loudly. He banged his gavel once and the elderly Legislatorial Sergeant-at-Arms standing next to him marched towards a side door and stood at attention next to it.

“The Patriarch of House Fidorov, Jorge Fidorov, Baron of Slivograd,” the man called before opening the door and saluting. A tall, fit man wearing a suit and tie entered the chamber and walked towards the lectern. He held a folder with some papers on top of it and set it down on the lectern. He pulled a pair of eyeglasses out from a pocket on his suit jacket and flipped open the folder before speaking.

“Lords, and ladies, I am here today because of the tragedy in the Shulmak system. As you all know, a ship owned by my family carrying a shipment of minerals to the Shulmak system was seized by the so-called Gamma Aliens,” the baron begins. He sighs. “That shipment was our main deal of the year. Now it’s fallen through.”

A sympathetic murmur runs through the crowd. A few of the nobles, especially those from minor families, knew how space trade was often a gamble. Shipping goods from one system to another could turn a large profit, often larger than selling to buyers in the same system, but it was also a gamble. Piracy, while rare, was still a major threat to trade. And there were high costs involved also - a minor family often only had one or two transports at their disposal, and fuel and maintenance costs were a major expense. And losing a ship? Well, replacing it would be even more expensive.

The baron continued, “But the cost of this treacherous attack isn’t just borne by me and my House. It’s borne by the entirety of the Protectorate! Think of our honor! Think of our legacy! What will future generations think if we DON’T RETALIATE?!? They’ll call us cowards! Fools! Imbeciles, even! They’ll denounce our inaction, our refusal to act against these xenos who have proven their hostility beyond a doubt!”

“Then what do you suggest we do?” a noble called out.

“Attack them. Attack these xenos, and kill or enslave every last one of them until the ruler is begging on his knees for mercy!”

“We don’t even know who these aliens are! We haven’t even seen one of them! They could have a massive empire that we don’t know about!” a noble protested.

“We just established two relatively new colonies! We are not ready for a war! The Navy is not even at full strength!” another noble shouted.

The baron had to concede the point. The Lumenorean Navy had wanted to equip its main battlefleet, the Strike Force Lupus Noir, with twenty of their Javelin-class missile boats, but an alloy shortage had kept the fleet at 75% strength. The race to expand meant that most of the alloys stockpiled by the government were being used to build new frontier outposts. The few alloys leftover were sent to the shipyards, which used them to build patrol boats and the occasional corvette, which were then sent to join newly formed System Defense Forces and bring them to full strength. He snorted at the thought. Full strength. Along with System Patrol, a privately funded paramilitary force paid for and equipped by the noble families that collectively “governed” a system (1), the System Defense Forces were supposed to defend against a xeno incursion. Not that it had worked in Shulmak, the baron thought angrily. That was the problem, wasn’t it? The military and defense forces were underfunded - all the money was going towards the Grand Duke’s expansion initiative, not towards fortifying the Protectorate and protecting it!

“Well, we would be ready if we could stop our expansion and divert resources towards fortifying and arming ourselves!” a third noble shouted.

The baron recognized the noble as a member of his hastily built coalition. He realized that he needed to step in and support his ally, so he shouted, “That’s right! What has expansion brought us? Trinkets and enemies, that’s what! If we can stop expanding and turn our eyes towards firming up our own infrastructure, maybe we’ll be better prepared for xeno treachery!”

“Trinkets and enemies?!?” a noble shouted angrily? “Trinkets and enemies? Expansion has brought us riches and scientific knowledge! We have made dozens of scientific breakthroughs! And who among us has not been enriched by the bountiful resources discovered during our planetary surveys?”

This sparked an outburst of shouting as the chamber dissolved into arguments between coalition members and their opponents. A young House Dakr noble, Ricard Dakr, sighed. It would be a long day.

***​

Lumenorean public opinion was evenly divided over the newly discovered xeno civilization, codenamed “Gamma Aliens”. Approximately half believed that the aliens would be friendly and welcoming, while a slightly smaller number expected hostile actions. However, in mid October, the hopes of the optimists within the House of Lords would be dashed, as reports emerged of an incursion by the “Gamma Aliens” into Lumenorean space. While a number of Gamma Alien ships had been spotted in the Shulmak system, they had mostly been peaceful towards the Lumenoreans. This all changed in mid October. The Gamma Aliens launched a covert incursion, intercepting and seizing a civilian cargo ship and escaping into hyperspace before System Patrol could respond. This report ignited a harsh debate within the House of Lords. The noble family that owned the lost vessel, a minor family called House Fidorov, assembled a coalition calling for a harsh retaliatory attack by the Lumenorean Navy. Other nobles protested, pointing to the small size of the Navy as well as the precarious state of the economy and warning that the Protectorate was not ready for war. However, one major change still occurred - the Diplomatic Corps was given the option to undertake aggressive actions during the course of a First Contact investigation. Originally, the Corps had been ordered to take proactive measures to make First Contact easier for both sides. No longer. In light of the Shulmak Disaster, as the incident was dubbed by the Lumenorean press, the House of Lords decided that xenos were more likely to be hostile enemies than cordial friends.

The Grand Duke is briefed on the treacherous attack by the Gamma Aliens.​

Finally, in mid 2284, the Lumenorean Protectorate received a transmission from a galactic civilization calling themselves the Ikarzuri Mercantile Guilds. Apparently, these were the elusive “Gamma Aliens” that had attacked the Lumenorean cargo ship in Shulmak. They shared a single hyperlane border with the Protectorate. In light of their hostile actions, the Grand Duke ordered the border system, Sathama, to be fortified immediately and moved Strike Force Lupus Noir into the system for additional security. He also assigned the Diplomatic Corps to find out as much information as they could about this xeno civilization. He wanted to know how powerful the xenos were before he tried challenging them - the Protectorate needed to show that hostile actions have repercussions, but the Grand Duke did not want to challenge a superior civilization, at least, not without finding some help first. The Grand Duke also ordered all ships to be on high alert for other xeno spaceships - he did not want to lose any more ships, civilian or otherwise, to a treacherous xeno attack.

Not long after, the Lumenorean scientific community was stunned to learn that the DWV Alacrity had discovered a strange Gateway in the Abaddon’s Demesne system. Apparently, this Gateway was not part of the Gateway network. Instead, it was connected to a strange cluster of stars designated the L-cluster by Lumenorean astronomers. The Gateway appeared to have been built by microscopic nanites and was locked in a maintenance loop that prevented its activation. The Grand Duke immediately ordered the Ministry of Science and Research to begin looking into the history of these “L-gates” and how they could be reactivated.

Surprisingly, in mid 2227, Science Officer Filipowski and her crew discovered a strange signal in the Troidom system. Upon decryption of the signal, Science Officer Filipowski and her crew discovered that it was broadcasting what appeared to be the lost works of an ancient Lumenorean playwright, Mariana Almeida. Apparently, some alien visitors had visited Lumeor Prime some 600 years ago, during Almeida’s lifetime, and took a liking to the play. Science Officer Filipowski concluded that these unknown alien visitors had decided to leave an unexpected tribute to the Lumenorean people. Many of the more xenophobic members of Lumenorean society took this to be a sign of the Lumenorean people’s superiority over other xeno races.

Science Officer Filipowski discovered a signal broadcasting an ancient Lumenorean play. ​

That same year, the Grand Duke authorized the Lumenorean Navy to send Strike Force Lupus Noir into the Suter system to clear out the Space Amoebas that were residing there and preventing the Ministry of Science and Research from conducting a planetary survey. This task had three purposes. First, the elimination of the Space Amoebas would allow a Lumenorean science ship to survey the system without fear of being attacked. Second, the engagement would give the Lumenorean Navy crews much needed experience - experience that would be highly necessary if the Protectorate was to go to war with the Ikarzuri. And finally, the Grand Duke hoped that the Ministry would be able to develop additional military technologies from studying the corpses of the Space Amoebas. After all, the Ministry had been able to improve the maneuverability of Lumenorean corvettes by studying the graceful movement of a Space Amoeba’s flagella. Scientists from the Ministry had theorized that the flagella could be tamed and used like strike craft, and the regenerative properties of the Space Amoeba’s thick hide seemed to also have military applications, but the Ministry would need additional samples to conduct their study. Samples that could be retrieved from the corpses of Space Amoebas killed during the planned engagement. The battle went as planned, with the five spaceborne creatures being killed within a week. Unfortunately, however, one corvette was lost, though most of the 150 man crew were able to escape before the ship went down. The Navy immediately ordered a new corvette constructed to replace the destroyed vessel, but it would be a while before the ship was completed.

As 2228 rolled around, the Protectorate was shocked by yet another report of contact with alien spacefaring vessels. This time, two fleets of alien warships and three battle stations had been spotted in the Rabinoc system. This worried military experts, who recognized that the xenos had a far superior military compared to the Protectorate and advised against provoking the unknown aliens. That same year, the Grand Duke authorized the Diplomatic Corps to send an envoy into the Ikarzuri Mercantile Guilds to establish a spy network and gather information about the xenos, which were apparently ruled by a large megacorporation.

In mid August, 2230, the Diplomatic Corps finally succeeded in contacting the Yibrak Wildings. These xenos were apparently extremely divided, often fighting against each other. Luckily for the Protectorate, this meant that the Yibraks’ extreme military strength was often turned towards infighting over feuds instead of attacking neighboring states. The Yibraks stated that they worshipped an entity called “She of the Void”, who had told the Yibraks to leave their ancestral home and live in the massive space stations that they now resided in. The Yibraks also stated their intention to wipe out the “alien heretics” and their openness to fighting one species of alien heretics on behalf of another. This statement caused some Lumenorean officials to start scheming on how they could use the Yibraks to weaken the Ikarzuri, though the Grand Duke ordered the proposal shelved for the time being. That same year, the Lumenoreans came into contact with three more previously unknown alien species, and the Diplomatic Corps assigned envoys to begin First Contact investigations. In early 2234, the investigations were aborted when three xeno civilizations, the Xabir Commonwealth, Glyrran Star Authority, and Autocracy of Faltus contacted the Protectorate. Grand Duke Shasta personally accepted the call and expressed his desire to have positive relations with the xeno civilizations. He also ordered the Diplomatic Corps to dispatch an envoy to the Glyrran Star Authority, the most receptive of the newly discovered xeno civilizations, to improve relations between the Star Authority and the Protectorate.

Not long afterward, local authorities within the Protectorate began reporting a spike in the usage of an illegal hallucinogenic drug. A number of legislators, most of them members of the One Throne Group, called for a crackdown, while other legislators called for the legalisation of the drug and the taxation of drug sales. The Grand Duke was conflicted. On the one hand, he despised the idea of legalizing narcotics and feared that it would set a bad precedent. On the other hand, he recognized that people would use the narcotic anyway, and it would be better if the Protectorate used the increased sales of the drug to increase tax revenue instead of lining the pockets of smugglers and organized crime organizations. As a result, he ended up reluctantly proposing a bill to legalize the narcotic and tax its sale that eventually passed the Lumenorean legislature. That same year, the DWV Alacrity discovered a wrecked Ikarzuri supply ship. Apparently, the ship had been wrecked after passing through an unexpected geomagnetic solar storm and went down with all hands. The ship’s cargo hold was full of valuable minerals, and some in the Lumenorean legislature called for the minerals to be seized, both to benefit the Protectorate and spite the Ikarzuri. However, the Grand Duke ordered the minerals returned to the Ikarzuri, arguing that it would give the Protectorate an edge in future negotiations.

In early 2236, the Yibrak Wildings threatened to raid the Protectorate. Recognizing that the Lumenorean Navy was unequipped to deal with an attack, the Grand Duke swallowed his pride and sent several cargo ships filled with valuable minerals to pay off the xeno raiders and convince them to turn back. This angered a number of militarist politicians, but most of the Lumenorean legislature agreed with the Grand Duke’s line of reasoning. That year, a surprising discovery shocked the Lumenorean scientific community. An underground vault filled with boxes, thousands upon thousands of black boxes, was discovered in the Hensedon system. Upon further investigation, scientists discovered that the boxes were databanks that contained huge blocks of ternary code, which was revealed to be digitized brain scans - the last ditch attempt of xenos facing extinction to try and save their species. Unfortunately, the Protectorate did not have the technology to resurrect the aliens, but the Grand Duke ordered the brain scans downloaded for safekeeping, so the aliens could be resurrected when an appropriate technology was developed.

That same year, the Glyrran Star Authority proposed a cultural exchange. They proposed that an Glyrran delegation be allowed to reside in the Protectorate for several months, and a Lumenorean delegation be sent to live in the Autocracy for the same time span. The Grand Duke was open to the idea, though he had a secret plan. Although he agreed to the proposal, he secretly sent orders to the Ministry of Intelligence’s Special Operations Division to embed operatives in the Lumenorean delegation and spy on the Glyrrans. He had no intention of getting burned by the Glyrrans the way he had been burned by the Ikarzuri. That same year, the Protectorate was contacted by the Raxar Alliance, a hostile xeno nation that immediately closed off their borders to the Lumenoreans, who responded in kind.

The next year, the MISOD operatives began secretly sending caches of Glyrran technology back to the Protectorate. That same year, a wreck was found on an asteroid in the Qamm system. The science team sent to study the wreckage discovered a scientist named Ketrill who was a member of the hitherto unknown Sutharian species. Ketrill claimed that she had crashed due to malfunctioning navigational sensors and had been stranded for several years. She requested employment with the Protectorate. In exchange, she claimed that she would share some of her technological knowledge, and the Grand Duke accepted her offer, appointing her head of the Physics Division. Many were surprised when they first saw Ketrill - she resembled a Lumenorean! Ketrill explained that the Sutharians were shapeshifters, and she was assuming the form of a Lumenorean adult woman instead of her natural form to better blend in.

In 2239, colonists on Toarus Prime discovered a submerged alien cruiser. A plan to retrieve the cruiser was drawn up, but it was shelved for the time being because it would “take too long”, as one official put it. Not long after, additional reports emerged from the frontier of alien spacefaring vessels being spotted, triggering additional First Contact investigations. Unfortunately, that same year, the Glyrrans discovered that the Protectorate had been using their cultural exchange delegation to spy on them and the delegates were imprisoned. Luckily, however, the incident didn't damage Glyrran-Lumenorean relations as much as most diplomats had feared. Also, during that year, the Grand Duke authorized an initiative to collect specimens of nine different species of nonsapient wildlife from nine different worlds. The specimens would be used to help populate the newly created Zoological District of the Museum of Exobiology.

Sadly, in 2247, the famous guru of Sirius Prime, Doris Lessard, passed away. She had been suffering from poor health for a while and a fever finally finished her. The citizens of Sirius Prime were in mourning and petitioned the government to build a shrine to honor her. The petition was approved, and for the next five years, government resources were diverted to fund the building of the shrine. That same year, an alien object was spotted in high speed orbit over an asteroid dubbed C-112. A science ship was ordered to investigate the object. It slowed down the object by deploying a drone to latch onto the unidentified object and halt its momentum. The object was an alien box. The Grand Duke ordered the Physics Division to begin studying the box to figure out its contents. 8 months later, the scientists on the team sent to investigate the box made their report. Using sonar, they had found that the box contained three small vials, each filled with an unknown liquid. The Grand Duke then ordered the Physics Division to open the box and reveal its contents. When the project was completed, the team opened the box to reveal three different gene-modification mediums. The scientists quickly synthesized one of the liquids, chosen at random, and applied it to the Lumenorean populace. Based on observations of early subjects, it appeared that the solution increased the potential lifespan of the subjects by allowing them to heal faster. A number of conseervative Lumenorean politicians criticized the move, claiming that the Grand Duke had gone against God’s will by altering the genetic makeup of the population.

In 2251, the Glyrran Star Authority invited the Lumenorean Protectorate to join their federation, the Cosmic Compact. The Grand Duke was interested in the offer, but the xenophobic and militarist isolationist legislators in the House of Lords banded together to squash the proposal. That same year, the Grand Duke, bowing to pressure from the more xenophobic factions within the House of Lords, authorized the seizure of an alien spaceship spotted in a system along the northeastern frontier. A unit of marines boarded the exploratory vessel and seized it with only minimal casualties. Some of the xenophobic nobles called for the captives to be vivisected, but the Grand Duke firmly opposed this. Instead, he ordered the arthropoids interrogated and the technology seized during the raid investigated thoroughly. The captives were remarkably uncooperative, but the interrogators eventually gleaned clues about their language and technology. They were able to identify the alien civilization as the Izki Mandate and amass a considerable dossier of intelligence about their capabilities and activities. However, the Mandate was extremely angered by the Protectorate’s hostile actions and immediately closed off their borders.

Then, in October of 2252, all thought of the Mandate’s hostility was banished when the Ikarzuri Mercantile Guilds declared war against the Protectorate! The Navy was immediately deployed to the border to meet the enemy and reinforcement vessels were ordered. Many militarist legislators slammed the Grand Duke for not adequately preparing for the possibility of war, pointing to the weakness of the Navy, which was only at half strength due to an alloy shortage. The Grand Duke shot back, arguing that most alloys had been dedicated to expansion, and the few alloys that had been left over had been used to fortify key positions. He also took the opportunity to institute a corvee system, arguing that the government would need to relocate people to keep essential industries, such as factories for war materiel, up and running. He also made a number of secret deals with the Yibrak Wildings, to the displeasure of a number of prominent Lumenorean nobles. First, he paid the Yibrak to assemble a fleet and raid the Ikarzuri’s territory. Then, he hired a Yibrak admiral to lead the Lumenorean battle fleet, arguing that the Yibrak spent much of their time fighting, either against themselves or while raiding other xeno civilizations. He pointed out that a Yibrak would be much more experienced than any Lumenorean flag officer. A few nobles were disgruntled by the deals, but they grudgingly accepted the Grand Duke’s reasoning.

In late 2253, the Strike Force Lupus Noir entered their first engagement in over a decade. They intercepted the hostile Foreskax Void Skulkers battlefleet in the Sathama system, where they had just disabled and seized a Lumenorean border fort, and engaged it in a lengthy, and costly, battle. Fleet Admiral Bo-Ka, the Yibrak admiral hired by the Grand Duke proved his worth, directing his fleet to smash the larger Ikarzuri fleet and send them fleeing into hyperspace. He lost seven corvettes and one of the alien raiders built by the abandoned alien shipyard in Procyon, and suffered almost a thousand casualties, but forced the aggressive but lethargic Ikarzuri admiral, Kiriox, to flee into hyperspace, leaving behind the wreckage of five destroyers and fifteen corvettes, half of the aging reptilian admiral’s force. It would be costly to replace the lost vessels, but the Protectorate was the clear victor in the Battle of Sathama. To make matters worse for the Ikarzuri, the Yibrak raiding fleet entered Ikarzuri space that same month and began raiding. Not only was the fleet larger than any Lumenorean or Ikarzuri fleet, but also, the Ikarzuri fleet under Kiriox appeared to be the only battle fleet that the Ikarzuri had, and the Battle of Sathama had knocked it out of commission, at least for the next few months. After consulting with Admiral Nadya Kolosov, the aging Supreme Admiral of the Lumenorean Navy, Admiral Bo-Ka ordered his fleet to remain in the Sathama system, instead of pressing their advantage and invading Ikarzuri space. Over the next few months, Strike Force Lupus Noir remained in the fortified border system, overseeing the repairs of the Sathama system starport and recovering Ikarzuri prisoners from the dozens of escape pods and shuttles that drifted amid the battle debris.

The battle report for the Battle of Sathama.​

Meanwhile, politicians in the House of Lords debated how the war should end. Intelligence reports indicated that the Ikarzuri would accept an offer of a “White Peace” with no border adjustments, but many nobles wondered if letting the war draw out would eventually lead to public agitation for an end to the war. They mused that if this were to happen, the Protectorate could demand more concessions than if they offered a White Peace now. Finally, they agreed to wait it out - after all, Admiral Bo-Ka and Strike Force Lupus Noir had already smashed one invasion fleet, and they’d do it again if the Ikarzuri tried it again. There was no real risk to letting the war drag on. The gamble paid off - in 2259, six years after declaring war, the Ikarzuri surrendered, ending the war. Lumenoreans celebrated in the streets - the Protectorate had been attacked by a xeno power and had emerged victorious. In 2260, the Protectorate was contacted by a number of previously unknown xeno civilizations. The Grand Duke met each civilization’s ruler over holo and expressed his desire for positive relations. Not long after, the galactic powers met and began talks to form a Galactic Community. Although some xenophobic and isolationist nobles voted against the proposal, the House of Lords voted overwhelming in favor of joining the Galactic Community when it was established.

By this point, the Lumenorean expansion was slowing down. However, major events were taking place that shaped the Protectorate. First, in October of 2262, Lumenoreans throughout the Protectorate began displaying latent psionic powers. It was unknown what triggered it, but it appeared that all Lumenorean citizens had begun displaying these powers by the time the month ended. Meanwhile, in mid 2263, a Protectorate science ship discovered an ancient Irassian colony that had been the victim of extensive orbital bombardment. The science team dispatched to study the site recovered a number of Irassian artifacts, including a communications log. These artifacts, along with other artifacts previously recovered, allowed a team of scientists to pinpoint the location of Irass, the Irassian Concordat’s home system! A nearby science ship was immediately dispatched to survey the previously uncharted system and study the Irassian homeworld. In 2265, the survey was completed. The science ship’s away team retrieved a number of artifacts from the Irassian homeworld, including a sample of the deadly Javorian Pox that had brought down the Concordat. Using these recovered artifacts, scientists from the Biology Division then prepared a special project to study the Irassians. Meanwhile, in 2267, the Galactic Community passed a resolution to form a Galactic Market and began soliciting nominations for a world to base the Market out of. The Grand Duke, wishing to bring additional trade to Lumenor Prime, nominated the Lumenorean homeworld. That same year, the Exploration Division finally finished collecting wildlife specimens for the Museum of Exobiology. Visitors from all over the Protectorate journeyed to visit the government owned museum, and revenue generated by the museum increased tenfold.

In 2272, the Grand Duke began plotting his next move. He had bribed some of the officials in charge of finding a suitable planet to base the Galactic Market Hub out of and convinced them to base it out of Lumenor Prime. He also ordered the mustering of a full army group of five Qu’Vak slave army legions, three regular Lumenorean army legions, and two legions of Lumenorean telepaths and placed it under the command of a young general, Antonia Ortega, who had been recruited after displaying exceptional talent as a general in House Ortega’s private military forces. He also ordered the Strike Force Lupus Noir reinforced to full strength, ordering the construction of five Stygian-class escort carrier cruisers to beef up the fleet. That same year, however, the Grand Duke came under fire after he sent 500 million Lumenoreans to live in “The Preserve”. “The Preserve” was a world owned by the Fallen Empire Firial Ancients and served as a wildlife preserve where different species of sentient aliens were held to “prevent extinction”. Many Lumenoreans denounced the Grand Duke for “selling citizens into slavery”, although a sizeable minority respected the Grand Duke for approving the initiative and sending the citizens to the Preserve, claiming that the Fallen Empire would be able to protect them and prevent the extinction of the Lumenorean species.

The very next year, the Protectorate discovered a dimensional portal on the newly established colony of Tiqim Prime. A scientific team was dispatched to probe the portal. They discovered that the portal led to a different universe, one where the Lumenorean Protectorate developed warp drives instead of hyperdrives. Travel in the Mirror-Protectorate, as this second Lumenorean Protectorate became known, was tedious, as “Warp beasts” often attacked ships as they were in warp. Both Protectorates agreed to trade with each other through the portal. That same year, the Grand Duke, with the grudging approval of the House of Lords, established a hegemony federation with the Tezekian Conglomerate. He recognized that the creation of a federation would strengthen the Protectorate’s political and military position in the galaxy. The Glorious Lumenorean Star League was formed in early June of 2274. The Grand Duke then demanded that the Ikarzuri Mercantile Guilds submit to the Protectorate as their vassals. When they refused, he declared war. The Glorious Lumenorean Star League - Ikarzurian War of Obedience had begun. The second war between the Lumenoreans and the Ikarzuri. Would the Lumenoreans triumph again? Had they cemented their position as a dominant power in the galaxy? As the Protectorate’s first offensive war, what would this mean for Lumenorean society?

FOOTNOTES:
(1) There was still a regular government within each system, but each system was technically the "property" of between one to five (depending on the size) major noble families.

 

[HistoryDude]

Is Lumenor Prime in the Solar System? It's close to Alpha Centauri after all.

The xenophobes seem to be ruling right now.

 

[DukeShasta]

Oh, I knew there was something I forgot to add from my original thread - yeah, Lumenor Prime is Earth.

The xenophobes seem to be ruling right now.

Well, a xeno nation just kidnapped and vivisected a bunch of Lumenorean civilians - xenophobic sentiment is really high. But the Grand Duke himself isn't a xenophobe - he'll work with xenos if there's any benefit to it (IE all his dealings with the Yibrak)

 

[DukeShasta]

Admiral Bo-Ka looked out of the bridge viewport at the sea of running lights that marked the location of the Lumenorean battle fleet. HIS fleet. Strike Force Lupus Noir. The full might of the Lumenorean Navy, brought to bear on the xenos.

“Sir,” a young Lumenorean ensign called, rising from his seat in front of a comms console and saluting. “The fleet signals ready.”

Admiral Bo-Ka nodded. He turned to face his crew. “Very well. It is time for war. Signal all vessels. Execute Operation Vengeance.” Neat drive trails slowly formed as the fleet turned and began flying towards the edge of the system, where they would be free of the system gravity well and could make the jump to hyperspace. One ship, then another, then another flickered and disappeared as they jumped into Ikarzuri territory. The Lumenor Protectorate had launched its first ever invasion of a xeno system.

***
​

In May of 2275, the Grand Duke began his offensive. He deployed the Strike Force Lupus Noir to Sathama to intercept the Ikarzuri battle fleet, which Intelligence analysts believed was being deployed on an offensive. At the same time, Shasta made another deal with the Yibraks. He hired them to raid the Raxar Alliance, who had signed a defensive pact with the Ikarzuri. Shasta believed that the Raxar would not pose a threat to the Protectorate - the only hyperlanes connecting the two empires ran through the territory of the Yibrak Wildings, whose open hostility meant that any Raxar fleet attempting to enter the Protectorate would immediately be destroyed. There was a wormhole connecting the Protectorate system of Sterope to the Raxar system of Etan Stela, but many intelligence experts doubted that the Raxar had the ability to stabilize wormholes and use them for travel. Still, the Grand Duke decided to hire a Yibrak raiding fleet to keep the Raxar occupied, just in case.

In December, Strike Force Lupus Noir arrived on station in the Sathama system. Intelligence reports indicated that as soon as the fleet moved into the system, the Ikarzuri Foreskax Void Skulkers fleet withdrew. Many young officers snorted at the Ikarzuri’s cowardice, but Admiral Bo-Ka and other strategists nodded in admiration of the move. The Foreskax Void Skulkers fleet was massively outnumbered, and by withdrawing it, the Ikarzuri were giving themselves the option to strike at Sathama after the inevitable Lumenorean invasion. This caused much debate among the chief naval officers in charge of the campaign. Many wanted to invade the Mercantile Guilds, but were worried about the threat of invasion. These worries were exacerbated by reports from the Raxar Alliance, which indicated that the Yibrak raid, while successful, had not dealt any damage to the Raxar fleet. Luckily, the Raxar fleet was nowhere near the Etan Stela system, but naval experts were worried nonetheless. They would have felt better if they had a battle fleet in reserve to defend the Protectorate, but logistical challenges and the ever present alloy shortage prevented the construction of a second fleet. Eventually, Bo-Ka suggested that the Navy begin the raiding campaign as planned, though with some modifications. He changed the target systems and focused the plan on luring out the Ikarzuri fleet instead of driving deep into Ikarzuri space and securing their core systems, as originally planned.

In March of 2276, over a year after the initial declaration of war, the Lumenoreans invaded the Ikarzuri system of Tinab in the first battle of the war. Strike Force Lupus Noir bombarded the Ikarzuri outpost in the system into submission before deploying dropships filled with marines armed with laser rifles, shotguns, assault rifles, and thermal detonators that stormed the station. After leaving behind enough marines and crew to garrison the station and guard the prisoners taken during the battle, the strike force moved on to the next system. Reports indicated that the Ikarzuri fleet was still withdrawing, and many naval strategists theorized that the Ikarzuri, recognizing that their fleet could not stand up to the strength of the Lumenorean Navy, was holding it in reserve to defend their core worlds. Reports also indicated that the Raxar Navy was moving through the Xabir Commonwealth. Intelligence experts and naval officers alike were confused by the reports - according to the Lumenoreans’ sensor data, the Raxar Navy was moving AWAY from the battle. A few intelligence analysts theorized that the Raxar were moving to reinforce their Ikarzuri allies. This theory was dismissed, however, as the voyage would take very long and the Raxar would likely arrive after the Ikarzuri had been decimated.

In October, two major events rocked the Protectorate. First, the Lumenorean species experienced a “Great Awakening” as all Lumenoreans unlocked their full psionic potential. Of course, some individuals were still more talented than others, but all Lumenoreans now had some degree of psionic potential. Telepathic communication became just as, if not more, prevalent compared to verbal communication. The Great Awakening also revealed a new dimension - a primordial realm of pure psychic energy: the Shroud. The Grand Duke wished to breach the Shroud and explore it, but it would take a collection of the most powerful Lumenorean telepaths over a hundred months to carry out the project. Too long. As a result, the Grand Duke grudgingly put aside the project to focus on the war instead. He’d carry out the project when the Protectorate was better prepared.

The Lumenorean’s Great Awakening lifted a veil to expose a new reality, one where Lumenorean society was more intricately connected than ever before. ​

That same month, the Ikarzuri fleet made their move, attacking the captured Tinab system. The Strike Force Lupus Noir, which had just finished seizing the Pell system outpost, was directed to move behind the enemy and cut off their line of retreat by seizing the Laloria system before moving in for the kill. They did so in January, just as the Tinab outpost fell. It was an understandable sacrifice, one that the soldiers garrisoning the outpost understood. Everything of value - prisoners, intelligence, sensitive documents - had all been moved to the Sathama fortress ahead of the attack. However, the Ikarzuri shocked Admiral Bo-Ka and his staff by moving to retake the Uyiescapes system as well, instead of invading the Sathama system, as they had previously anticipated. Admiral Bo-Ka was forced to halt his fleet in Laloria and wait for the Ikarzuri to enter Uyiescapes before attacking. He feared that if he tried to retake Tinab, he would be drawn into a lengthy chase around the border systems - one that would waste valuable time and resources. Instead, he decided to wait for the Ikarzuri to begin their attack before making his move.

In February, he made his move. On the sixth of the month, the Ikarzuri battle fleet dropped out of hyperspace and moved in on the captured outpost.

The Ikarzuri fleet of six destroyers and fifteen corvettes enters the Uyiescapes system. ​

When Admiral Bo-Ka received this report, he knew it was time to strike. He ordered his fleet to move into the system and intercept the enemy fleet.

“We are heading into battle. We will meet the enemy fleet head on, and emerge victorious. We will crush the xenos and avenge the dead of Shulmak, of Sathama, of every offensive action that the Ikarzuri have taken against us. We will crush the xeno fleet and ground it into dust. We will pave the way for the subjugation of the Guilds and exact the vengeance of the Protectorate. All hands to battle stations!”

• Admiral Bo-Ka’s announcement, broadcast over intercom and the general comms frequency for his fleet as the Strike Force Lupus Noir entered battle.

The battle lasted approximately three months. In mid March of 2277, the aging Ikarzuri admiral Kiriox ordered a general retreat, leaving behind the wreckage of three destroyers and seven corvettes. The rest of the fleet escaped with cracked armor and hull and depleted shielding. An unknown number, it was hoped, would not survive the sudden jump to hyperspace. While not the decisive battle many naval officers had hoped for, Admiral Bo-Ka was highly satisfied. Half, if not more, of the Ikarzuri fleet had been destroyed. The Ikarzuri fleet was decimated, and the way was open for the Protectorate to conquer the entire eastern half of the Ikarzuri Mercantile Guilds. Little resistance was expected. That same year, Lumenorean officials were heartened when reports emerged of a possible diplomatic split between the Ikarzuri and the Raxar. Both empires declared previously signed commercial pacts and research agreements to be null and void. Some nobles and tacticians hoped that this meant that the Raxar would be less likely to help their Ikarzuri “allies”, a hope that was further confirmed when sensor reports indicated that one of the Raxar fleets had turned back and was currently docked at a Raxar station.

In mid 2278, while the Strike Force Lupus Noir was busy seizing Ikarzuri outposts in the east, Admiral Kiriox and her fleet reemerged and attacked the Laloria system. Naval strategists were sorely disappointed when they realized that not only had the fleet had not lost any ships during the chaotic retreat, but the ships were now fully repaired. The Ikarzuri were more resilient than previously expected, it seemed. Strike Force Lupus Noir was hastily moved into the system, this time to crush the Ikarzuri fleet for good, Admiral Bo-Ka hoped. His fleet intercepted the Ikarzuri as they bombarded the outpost in the system. Unfortunately, there would be no battle. Just as the Lumenoreans entered engagement range, the aging Ikarzuri admiral ordered a retreat into hyperspace. Many Lumenorean naval personnel, officers and enlisted alike, were angered by the Ikarzuri’s cowardice and their refusal to do battle. Admiral Bo-Ka attempted to calm them, to little avail. He eventually gave up and ordered the fleet to proceed to the Xandebaan system and seize the spaceport there, hoping to sate the bloodlust of his soldiers. It would be tougher to crack, as the station was classified as a starport, not an outpost. Additionally, the Ikarzuri had built a defense platform orbiting the station and providing additional defensive firepower. Still, the attack went smoothly. The fleet destroyed the defense platform and an Ikarzuri troop transport before bombarding the station into submission. The fleet then moved to attack the nearby Simtinasca system while General Ortega led her army group to invade the Ikarzuri colony in Xandebaan. The war was kicking into a new phase. The Protectorate was invading what were essentially the Ikarzuri core worlds. In April, Admiral Bo-Ka’s fleet took the Ikarzuri capital system of Karzu, destroying three of Kiriox’s corvettes and four transports in the process. The capital planet itself remained unconquered, and the government had fled before the attack, but the message was clear: the Ikarzuri would not win. It was only a matter of how long it would take before they lost. Admiral Bo-Ka paused briefly to repair his fleet and pick up prisoners from the two fields of Ikarzuri wreckage before continuing his offensive. In September, he attacked the heavily damaged Ikarzuri fleet again, this time in the Saphiban system, where it had fled following the Battle of Karzu. The fleet swept through the system, destroying five transport ships, a destroyer, and three corvettes. Kiriox fled yet again, but her fleet was now heavily decimated, only a fraction of its former self, really. That same month, General Ortega invaded the Ikarzuri colony of Dexalon in Xandebaan. Within a month, the invasion was over. The two Ikarzuri armies defending the planet had been decimated. General Ortega quickly recruited troops from sympathetic colonists to reinforce her armies and form a garrison army before returning to orbit. She then moved to the neighboring Simtinasca system and repeated the process twice more. Both invasions were just as successful, and General Ortega moved into Karzu to invade the Ikarzuri capital planet in June 2280.

That same year, a nationalist orator, Ivana Kysely, began making nationalist and xenophobic speeches to audiences on Tiqim Prime. She was very persuasive and had much clout with the colonists. While she had not spoken out against the government, she advised stances that were against official Protectorate policy. The Grand Duke ordered her arrest under treason and insurrection charges. He reasoned that even though she was not causing trouble yet, she was committing sedition and undermining governmental authority by calling for actions that the government did not support. Surprisingly, there were few protests following Kysely’s arrest. Most people accepted the criminal charges brought against her, and it seemed that she wasn’t as influential as originally feared.

By January 2283, the Protectorate was pushing into the western half of Ikarzuri space. Admiral Bo-Ka decided to invade the Luthiea system, where the Ikarzuri fleet was stationed. He hoped to crush Admiral Kiriox’ fleet for good this time, leaving the entire Ikarzuri Mercantile Guilds open for the taking. The battle went well, but the results were rather disappointing. Kiriox fled almost immediately, leaving behind the wreck of her only corvette. A fleet of Ikarzuri transports docked at the station stayed longer, fleeing uselessly before the missiles, lasers, and railgun rounds of the Lumenorean fleet before jumping to hyperspace after losing a dozen vessels. Days later, the station fell after heavily armed marines stormed the station.

By mid 2284, the war was essentially in a “clean up” phase. Strike Force Lupus Noir conquered system after system after system with little resistance. The Tezeks contributed also, taking lightly defended systems and forming bridgeheads. However, the Ikarzuri were reluctant to give up, and the war dragged on for four more years. In February, both sides were getting tired of the war. The Grand Duke ordered the 14th Star Flock, a fleet of hastily built Federation warships serving as a reserve, to attack the Raxar Alliance and bring an end to the war. That same month, a pacifist activist on Roschon Prime, Paulina Torres, began a media campaign calling for an end to war and violence. She warned of the dangers of conflict and became the face of a “Ghandeis” movement. The movement was very popular with colonists on Roschon Prime, and state authorities reported that it was undermining governmental authority. The Grand Duke decided to crush the movement before it became an insurrection and ordered Torres to be arrested on treason and sedition charges. Luckily, only a few minor protests were held protesting the arrest. Torres apparently wasn’t as revered by the populace as local authorities had feared.

The Grand Duke orders the arrest of Paulina Torres, an influential pacifist activist on Roschon Prime.​

That same year, however, the Raxar launched their offensive. They invaded the Protectorate through the Etan Stela - Sterope wormhole. The Supreme Admiral, Nadya Kolosov, hastily took command of the 14th Star Flock, which was rushed to defend the border that, unfortunately, the Protectorate had neglected to fortify after years of Raxar inaction. In 2290, the 14th Star Flock caught the enemy fleet in the Cyban system and drove them off. Three destroyers and three corvettes were destroyed - the first warships lost during the war - and over three thousand members of the League Navy lost their lives in the engagement. However, the Raxar were forced to leave behind the cracked hulks of five destroyers, fourteen corvettes, and one of their two cruisers as they fled into hyperspace. The 14th Star Flock was then directed to retake the Sterope system and invade the Raxar Alliance through the wormhole. It was hoped that a sudden incursion would force the Raxar to pull back and perhaps convince them to lean on their Ikarzuri allies to surrender and end the war. A Raxar fleet of six cruisers and a corvette confronted the Star Flock in the Epsilon Indi system, where they were decimated. The Raxar destroyed a cruiser and two corvettes but were forced into hyperspace, leaving behind the wrecks of the corvette and half of their cruisers. The Star Flock then pursued a second Raxar fleet into the neighboring system of Khamb, where they too, were destroyed. Then, the Star Flock rampaged around Raxar space, seizing systems left and right until the Ikarzuri finally surrendered. The Ikarzuri Mercantile Guilds surrendered their independence, agreeing to become a vassal of the Protectorate and join the Glorious Lumenorean Star League. The Protectorate also seized a cluster of formerly Raxar systems surrounding the Chor’s Compass system, home system of the Caravaneers and home to TradeStation Tungle, a massive intergalactic casino. The systems were connected to the rest of the Protectorate through the Etan Stela - Sterope wormhole. The Protectorate had long eyed those systems and the lucrative trade routes that ran through them, believing that ownership of them would mean that caravans would pass through Protectorate space more often and also increase tax revenue. Many militarist nobles also saw the seizure as a humiliating punishment, intended to punish the Raxar for advising their Ikarzuri allies to prolong the war instead of surrendering earlier.

Once again, the end of the war sparked months of celebrations in the Protectorate. The Lumenoreans had gone on the offensive against a xeno power for the first time and emerged victorious. They were now indisputably a galactic power. The entire northeast quadrant would be their domain.

 

[HistoryDude]

And the Lumenoreans have proven their might.

 

[DukeShasta]

Captain Elziabeth Toires sat at the comms console of her transport, the Divine Jewel. Normally, the duties of the console would be handled by her comms officer, but the government official who hired her transport had been clear - the data she was about to transmit now was to be handled by her and her only. No one else was to be trusted with the data. In fact, the cockpit had to be cleared before the data was transmitted and the crew could only return after the other vessel acknowledged the transmission. Captain Toires looked across the empty cockpit to the holographic display, which showed the Jewel and another vessel lying next to each other in the middle of nowhere. In the middle of empty space. Toires looked out the cockpit at the alien vessel, which was distinctively avian in appearance. A transport sent by the Firial Ancients to receive the data she was transmitting now. She did not know what the data contained. She did not care. All she knew was, somebody had paid top dollar for a transport to make the transmission. She did not know that she had not been the only vessel hired. She also did not know that many Lumenorean biologists and government officials were watching the events with a keen eye. She definitely had no idea that the fate of dozens of long-extinct species - all of which had specimens interred in, and genetic samples stored in, a massive vault underneath the famed Museum of Exobiology - rested on the outcome of this transaction.

***

Following the conclusion of the Glorious Lumenorean Star League - Ikarzuri War of Obedience, the Lumenorean government made some political and social changes based on experiences from the war. First, the Grand Duke used the military support provided by the Tezekian Conglomerate’s various private naval contractors to drum up enough popular support to pass a law outlawing species wide enslavement of the Tezekians. The move essentially meant that the Tezekians as a species were given full citizenship - the only way a Tezekian could be enslaved was if they were a criminal, or they were sold into slavery due to debt. Slave traders were forbidden from kidnapping and enslaving Tezekians, even during war. This was an extremely rare honor, one that had never before been granted. The move was meant to bring the two nations closer together by eliminating one of the main points of contention between them - the enslavement of the Conglomerate’s founding species.

At the same time, the Protectorate was deciding what to do with Rexas and Zoirch, the two formerly Raxar colonies that had been ceded to the Protectorate. Neither world had a climate suitable for Lumenoreans. As a result, one of the worlds, Rexas was converted into penal colonies. Convicts, usually those who had committed heinous crimes such as rape or murder or were engaged in interstellar criminal activities such as piracy or drug trafficking, were sent to Rexas to work. Little more than slaves, they toiled day and night as farmers, miners, and technicians, sending shipment after shipment of food, minerals, and batteries back to the Lumenorean homeworld for packaging and stockpiling. Those few jobs that the government was unwilling to entrust to the convicts were filled by robots, or very rarely, Lumenorean migrants. Many of these Lumenoreans hated living on Rexas, but recognized that it was an easy way to advance in society - after all, if nobody wanted to be a nobleman on the penal colony, even a lowly commoner could gain their own noble family if they volunteered to live on the colony. The other colony was abandoned - all the inhabitants were moved to Rexas or other Protectorate worlds. The Ministry of Intelligence also established numerous outposts on Rexas. From there, intelligence operatives sowed unrest in nearby Raxar colonies.

The war also led to changes in Lumenorean naval doctrine. The Stygian-class escort carriers had proven themselves. Their strike craft allowed them to screen other warships in the fleet by shooting down enemy strike craft and missiles while also smashing the enemy warships with their acid blasts, which were unimpeded by shields and extremely effective against armor plating. The sheer effectiveness of strike craft indicated that they would be a potent weapon. As a result, the Spirit-class destroyer was redesigned as a picket vessel. The destroyer had originally been an interceptor, designed to intercept hostile corvettes and destroyers and batter them with lasers and railguns while using point defense to shoot down enemy missiles. The Stygian-class cruisers, however, had shown the destructive efficacy of strike craft. In response, naval strategists and shipbuilders worked to change the Spirit-class into a picket vessel with both flak batteries to counter missiles and laser point-defense turrets to shoot down hostile strike craft. To make room for the double barreled “Guardian” laser point defense turrets, the shipbuilders had to slash the destroyer’s armament, reducing the original two clusters of lasers and railguns into just one of each. However, the Navy accepted the reduction in armament. After all, the destroyers’ main objective was to screen the fleet, not batter the enemy. The battering would be left to the Javelin-class missile corvettes and the Stygian-class cruisers. Additionally, a new vessel, the battleship, was designed. The Aquila-class was designed to be a monstrous presence on the battlefield, battering the enemy from range. It was equipped with state of the art railguns, lasers, armor, and shielding. Like other Lumenorean warships, the hull was also reinforced using crystalline plating using an alloy made with elements retrieved from the wreckage of a destroyed Crystalline Entity. But the most important part of the vessel was the spinal mount. A massive particle lance, which fired a large stream of highly energized plasma particles, was mounted on a spinal mount in the bow. The lance was a newly designed weapon which naval strategists theorized would cause massive damage with one shot, even wrecking smaller vessels. Though largely ineffective against most shielding, the lance was highly effective against hull plating and even more effective against armor. Five of these battleships would be ordered, as were ten more missile corvettes.

In December, the reclusive Firial Ancients Fallen Empire contacted the Lumenorean Protectorate, requesting a copy of the brain scans of extinct aliens that the Protectorate had recovered so long ago. They claimed that they required the scans in order to resurrect the species. The Grand Duke gladly agreed, sending over the scans immediately. He was curious as to how successful the Fallen Empire would be. Very successful, as it turned out. Scarcely days after receiving an encrypted transmission with the contents of the brain scans, the Firial were able to somehow create 500 million individuals of the long extinct Groknaploran species. The Grand Duke and many of his top scientists were stunned. The Firial had resurrected an extinct species! If only the Lumenoreans could learn how to do so … . The Grand Duke ordered his scientists to work to discover the secrets of this technology. He had long ordered the Ministry to retrieve samples of xeno genetic material and store the samples in the massive gene banks in the Vault of Life beneath the Museum of Exobiology. While the vast majority of these samples were taken from species that still existed, such as the Tezekians, Ikarzuri, Izki, and Raxar, there were a number of samples taken from corpses of extinct aliens, such as the Javorians, that had been found during planetary surveys or studies of anomalies.

That same year, in 2294, the Physics Division finally finished studying the L-gates and had figured out how to reactivate them. Science Officer Konstantyna Filipowski, as the most highly decorated scientist, at least in the Exploration Division, if not the entire Protectorate, and her ship were sent to the Abaddon’s Demesne system to reactivate the L-gate there. In mid 2295, the project was completed. Science Officer Filipowski and her vessel were sent through the gate to survey the L-cluster. When the vessel entered the black hole system of Terminal Egress, the entrance to the L-cluster, they were met with eerie silence. Some planets had been shattered. Others were covered with what appeared to be deactivated, microscopic nanomachines. It was clear that a titanic struggle had occurred. But why had the gates been locked down?

Preliminary report from Science Officer Filipowski upon entering the Terminal Egress system.
​

Two years later, in 2297, the Galactic Community finally finished its voting session. The Community voted to form a Galactic Council that would govern over the Galactic Community. The three members of the Council were chosen based on diplomatic weight - the three nations with the most diplomatic weight were given seats on the Council. In 2297, these three powers were the hive-minded Baanthurian Prime, which controlled a massive swath of territory in the southwest, the Lumenorean Protectorate, and the Ekwynian Order theocratic dictatorship, a member of the Star Accord federation, a dominant power in the northwest.

As 2300 rolled around, the Grand Duke decided to make some changes to the laws governing the Glorious Lumenorean Star League. First, he increased centralization, placing additional power in the hands of the federation government. Next, he passed a law ordering that League Navy vessels could only be built by Lumenorean shipyards. He then increased naval contributions from member states. He then reorganized the League Navy and redesigned its warships. First, he reorganized the collection of warships known as the 14th Star Flock, ordering the fleet to be structured the same way a Lumenorean Navy fleet would be and renaming it the Grand Armada. He then ordered a team of naval strategists and leading shipbuilders to redesign all of the League Navy’s vessels. Since the League Navy’s warships used technology provided by all member states, the ship design team decided to use some novel and untraditional weapon systems to arm the League’s warships. For example, while the Narwhal-class missile corvette used quantum missiles like its Lumenorean cousin, it also had a cluster of ion disruptors instead of lasers. Additionally, the ship designers revised the roles of battleships and destroyers. The success of the Stygian-class escort carriers indicated that strike craft were a lethal weapon - one that could also serve as point defense. As a result, the ship designers turned the Cerberus-class into a massive carrier. The idea was that the Cerberus-class battleships and the smaller Orpheus-class cruisers would throw up enough fighter craft to hammer the enemy fleet while still forming a screen around the main battle fleet to shoot down hostile missiles and strike craft. As a result, the Siren-class destroyer was turned into an artillery platform that could bombard the enemy with proton launchers and plasma accelerators.

Meanwhile, in 2301, Science Officer Filipowski and her crew discovered an anomaly on a Nanite World in the Oreb system. When they examined the anomaly, they discovered what appeared to be a lone Lumenorean - one that could survive in vacuum without the need for protective gear. The science team was able to convince the Lumenorean to return to the DWV Kepler with them, where they set up a TriNet transmission with the Grand Duke. The Lumenorean made some weird remarks before finally conceding that he was not a Lumenorean. When further pressed on the issue, the entity explained the history of the L-cluster. The L-gates had been shut down by their creators after the nanite swarm used to build the gates rebelled against the Gatebuilders. Eventually, the nanites got bored and began experimenting with different shapes and forms before finally condensing themselves into one entity - this nanite entity, which called itself Gray. Gray informed the Grand Duke that he could serve as a governor or transform himself into either a massive warship or a smaller warform for planetary warfare. The Grand Duke was ecstatic and quickly recruited the nanite entity into Protectorate service. He decided to test how powerful Gray was as a warship and sent him to eliminate a cache of ancient mining drones and their base. The battle was a raging success. Gray shredded some 36 ancient mining drones, 9 ancient combat drones, 30 ancient destroyers, and the drones’ home base. The Protectorate recovered a cache of alloys and valuable minerals from the wreckage of the drone base, along with a strange device dubbed the Surveyor, which could locate previously undiscovered resource deposits. Gray was ordered to return to the Protectorate and serve as the Governor of the Lumenor sector.

That same year, a group of high ranking clergy convinced the Grand Duke to send a delegation to the Glyrran Union to enlighten them on the Lumenorean religion. While the missionaries had limited success, the mission still improved relations between the two nations.

In 2305, the Concave of Telepaths breached the Shroud once again. This time, they met a presence, the Eater of Worlds. The telepaths, under the Grand Duke’s orders, made a covenant with the presence. Almost immediately, the effects of the covenant could be seen and felt. Lumenorean soldiers fought harder and more vigorously. However, there would be a price to pay - every time the Eater got hungry, it would, as its name suggested, eat a Lumenorean city by absorbing it into the psychic disorder of the Shroud.

That same year, the Lumenorean Protectorate proposed the construction of a monument on Lumenor Prime in honor of the sixtieth anniversary of the creation of the Glorious Lumenorean Star League. The other member states agreed and each sent a construction ship to aid in the construction effort. Meanwhile, the Protectorate sent diplomatic delegations to both member states’ capitals to integrate them more closely into the federation. In 2311, the beautiful monument was completed and unveiled to the public. It was a splendid creation - a perfect tribute to the unity of the federation and the Protectorate’s august leadership.

In 2308, the spaceborne entity known as VLUUR entered the Lumenor system. The entity, which was a larger than average Void Cloud, caused a space storm that severely impeded travel. Commercial craft were forced to find detours, and many shipments were delayed, as captains were unwilling to fly through the dangerous weather. In response, the Grand Armada and the Strike Force Lupus Noir were ordered to eliminate VLUUR. One corvette was lost in the ensuing battle, but the destruction of VLUUR led to dark matter being scattered all over the Lumenorean system. Some were collected by salvaging vessels, both government and civilian. Others fell onto celestial bodies and those deposits were bought by the government and sold to O.G.I.E.s Excavations for collection.

In 2310, the Protectorate began making diplomatic overtures towards the Star Dynasty of Tirmana. Finally, in 2311, after calling in favors from a number of high ranking diplomats and government officials, the Protectorate’s Diplomatic Corps was able to convince the Rothak High Queen, Grii II, to sign a treaty that turned the Star Dynasty into a protectorate of the Lumenorean Protectorate and a member of the Glorious Lumenorean Star League. The Star Dynasty’s vassal state, the Erissu Enterprises, and the Star Dynasty’s protectorate, the Sirgogg Nation, also became Lumenorean subjects. The Protectorate had extended its influence to encompass parts of the southwest quadrant of the galaxy.

That same year, Lumenorean shipyards began churning out ships after the Lumenorean Navy ordered construction of a new battle fleet. Navy High Command gave command of the newly raised fleet to the aggressive Fleet Admiral Manfred Grasser, who had originally been the commander of the Etan Stela Shipyards. He had impressed Lumenorean Navy officers during a routine inspection visit with his impressive leadership qualities and had been recommended for promotion to Fleet Admiral. The Admiralty had long been looking for a suitable candidate to command the planned fleet, and Admiral Grasser fit the profile perfectly. Admiral Grasser worked alongside Admiral Bo-Ka and Supreme Admiral Kolosov, who retained command of the Grand Armada, as the Troika of the Navy. Together, they planned drills, missions, and campaigns and were even more influential than the official High Command of the Navy. Their advice was much respected and welcomed by the Grand Duke, sometimes even more so than official Admiralty reports.

In 2312, Grand Duke Shasta Elekhri passed away in his sleep. He was 156 years old. His son, Richard, succeeded him. In January, Grand Duke Shasta’s lavish state funeral was held. It was a splendid affair, as befitted the “Great Uniter”, as the ruler was known posthumously. The various states of the Glorious Lumenorean Star League sent envoys to attend the ceremony, and the Grand Armada and the Strike Force Lupus Noir paraded overhead while Lumenorean Army troops held military parades on Lumenor Prime.

In 2314, just over a year into Grand Duke Richard Elekhri’s reign, the government was hit with a major crisis. Hackers released a computer virus that knocked out government computer systems on Lumenor Prime. Although service was quickly restored, the hackers stole large amounts of personal data from several top governmental officials. The data thieves attempted to ransom the data, offering to return it in exchange for a large sum of money. The thieves threatened to publicly release the data if their demands were not met. Grand Duke Richard had been a hardliner against crime. When he was younger, he had been a high ranking official in the Ministry of Internal Order’s Internal Security Division, chasing after rebels, pirates, and organized crime figures. He had no intention of bowing to the demands of criminals. There would be no ransom paid. The hackers leaked data on government corruption, revealing that a number of high ranking governmental officials, including the Supreme Admiral, had been pocketing governmental funding. The Grand Duke wanted to have the officials arrested and prosecuted, but a number of influential politicians in the House of Lords successfully blocked the move, causing public outrage.

That same year, a team from the DWV Kepler finished excavating the archeological site on Roschon Prime. They recovered the Rubricator, but their shuttle was destroyed by a massive snarling, hissing dragon and the Rubricator was stolen. It appeared that this creature was the creature that had assailed the hoarding rats that had lived on the Relic World. The fiend had been attracted by the rats’ hoarding and made its nest in the royal palace, where it feasted on the rats’ dead bodies. It destroyed the DWV Kepler, killing the elderly Filipowski and her crew. There was no time to mourn. The Grand Armada, which fortuitously had been passing through the system on an anti-piracy patrol, turned to meet the threat. It raced to shield the inhabitants of Roschon Prime and annihilate the leviathan.

The Grand Armada bombards the dragon known as Shard. A massive cloud of cloned Amoeba Flagella strike craft launched by the carriers of the fleet surround and bombard the leviathan.
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Finally, in August of 2315, the Grand Armada killed Shard and recovered the Rubricator. Upon close examination, the Rubricator turned out to be capable of replicating any artifact it came in contact with. The device would be a boon to the scientific community - scientists could use it to replicate artifacts that they wished to study, allowing them to study artifacts while preserving a copy for display in museums. The battle had been very costly, however. The Armada limped back to Lumenor for repairs, leaving the wreckage of four out of its five battleships, three cruisers, two destroyers, and five corvettes. It would take years to bring the Armada back to full strength.

That same year, upgrades to communications and logistical systems allowed for admirals to command larger fleets. Five cruisers and five destroyers were added to the order of battle for all three major Lumenorean battle fleets, and construction began immediately. The Lumenorean and League Navies were truly a power to behold. To further strengthen the Lumenorean military, the Grand Duke also hired a fleet of Yibrak mercenaries. The fleet, known as Her Chosen Champions, was led by a female Yibrak named Ju-Ta. Unlike her fellow Yibrak, Fleet Admiral Bo-Ka, Ju-Ta was not trusted by naval officers. She was a largely unknown quality, and truly a mercenary. Although Bo-Ka had been a mercenary, he had pledged his loyalty to the Protectorate and only the Protectorate. Additionally, he had proven himself loyal to the Protectorate over the years. Ju-Ta had not, and would demand additional payment every five years. Naval officers took this into consideration - Her Chosen Champions would not be trusted as a vanguard or a rear guard. No. Her Chosen Champions would be deployed as cleanup and cannon fodder. It would deploy with a Lumenorean battle fleet to provide additional firepower, or it would work alone to seize strategically unimportant territories.

In 2322, following numerous refits, Strike Force Drakon finally departed on its first combat mission. The fleet was sent to Ikarzuri space to eliminate two pesky pirate fleets, the Void Serpents in Simtinasca and the Burning Brigands in the neighboring Canopus system. The two fleets were stationed in colony systems and traders were shying away. The Ikarzuri had made no attempt to eliminate the criminals, and even stood by while they built military stations. The Lumenorean government had had enough. If the Ikarzuri couldn’t deal with the pirates, the Lumenorean Navy would. Strike Force Drakon swept through the systems, destroying a total of eighteen raiders and both pirate outposts. The fleet recovered strongboxes containing stolen energy credit chips and valuable minerals from the wreckage of the pirate outposts and sent the loot back to Lumenor Prime. The fleet also captured numerous pirates, most of them Ikarzuri, and sent them to Lumenor Prime to stand trial. The pirates, most of whom were Ikarzuri, were quickly convicted and sentenced to slavery. The Mercantile Guilds protested the speedy trials, but the Lumenorean government was in no mood to hear the Ikarzuri complaints. They were still incensed by the Ikarzuri’s failure to handle the piracy situation.

That same year, the Protectorate embarked on an ambitious mission to terraform the Barren World of Proxima Centauri b into a Continental World. The project would take 15 years and cost the Protectorate a massive sum of energy. The government hoped that the newly terraformed world could be used by Lumenorean nobles to grow food, mine minerals, and generate energy, all of which were resources that the Lumenoreans were in dire need of. Additionally, that year, an archeological site was discovered on Sasin Vb. The site appeared to be an ancient tomb. Science Officer Reginald Daniels was immediately sent to the Sasin system to excavate the site.

Unfortunately, that year also saw the death of Grand Duke Richard Elekhri. He was 144 years old and died after being poisoned by an unknown assassin. Though investigators were unable to find the perpetrator, many suspected that it was a hit ordered by an influential noble family. Of course, these claims were dismissed as gossip, or even slander and libel. However, the claims did have a point - Grand Duke Richard had been an outspoken xenophile, pitting him against many of the most influential Lumenorean nobles and politicians, many of whom embraced xenophobia and hated some of the xenophilic reforms the Grand Duke proposed. He was succeeded by the young Vasileios Elekhri, who had risen to prominence as the CEO of a House Elekhri-owned arms company. Vasileios was a strong proponent of strengthening the Lumenorean military and engaging in displays of power. He ordered the Strike Force Lupus Noir to join the Strike Force Drakon in the Trax Ofko system. Their orders - eliminate the Sejethari Marauders and seize their territory for the Protectorate. In 2326, they moved in on the first system, Lytirin. During the battle, Admiral Bo-Ka was so impressed with the conduct of Captain Lucrezia Di Chiara, the captain of the battleship DWV Actium, that he recommended her for promotion to Fleet Admiral, a recommendation that was approved by the Lumenorean Navy’s High Command. Strike Force Drakon bore the brunt of the battle, losing three corvettes, six destroyers, and a cruiser. In exchange, the two fleets had destroyed thirteen raiders, four cruisers, and seven frigates - over half of the Sejethari raiding fleet stationed in the system. The fleets had also eradicated the enemy’s armed habitats and fortified outposts in the system and destroyed a Sejethari galleon. The fleets were ordered to move on to the Sejethari home system of Devil’s Maw, which was even more heavily defended. A galleon, fourteen frigates, fourteen raiders, and two cruisers would escape. Everything else was obliterated. The Lumenorean battle fleets left behind the wreckage of thirteen corvettes, three destroyers, and five cruisers as they moved on to the last Sejethari system. Finally, in early 2327, the campaign ended with the destruction of the last Sejethari Void Dwelling in the Efrov system. Refugees scattered across the galaxy. Although a few warships had escaped, the Sejethari civilization had effectively been destroyed. All that remained was wreckage and a mess of drifting escape pods and shuttles. Over the next few months, hundreds of thousands of xenos, civilians and marauders alike, would be recovered from the wreckage - up to a half a million individuals, all of whom were pressed into slavery.

The Lumenorean Protectorate destroys the last of the massive space stations housing the Sejethari Marauders, effectively ending the proud nomadic warrior civilization.
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That same year, cowed by the Protectorate’s massive show of force, the Sek-Lokkar High Kingdom requested to become a protectorate of the Lumenorean Protectorate. The request was approved and the High Kingdom became a subject nation of the Lumenoreans and a member state of the Glorious Lumenorean Star League. The move also had a second, more important implication. The Protectorate were now truly masters over the northwestern quadrant. There were only two independent powers remaining in the region - the Haahn Conservers Keepers of Knowledge Fallen Empire and a small swath of territory owned by the Galactic Hyldnean Regime. The Mata’ai Republic also had a small cluster of systems. Everything else was either within the Protectorate’s sphere of influence or uncolonized.

The Grand Duke ordered the Lumenorean Navy, which the League Navy was now effectively a branch of, to begin planning for a war against the Raxar Alliance and their Myrran Consortium allies, whom they had signed a defensive pact with. Unfortunately, that year, Supreme Admiral Kolosov passed away. Command of the Grand Armada passed to Admiral Di Charia, though the Supreme Admiral position was given to Admiral Bo-Ka, who was by far the most experienced Lumenorean admiral. Unfortunately, Admiral Bo-Ka passed away later that year. He would be replaced by another hired Yibrak admiral, Fleet Admiral Si-Na. While some Lumenoreans opposed the decision, many supported the Grand Duke’s reasoning - Bo-Ka had been an excellent admiral, odds were, Admiral Si-Na would be too. However, the unfortunate timing of the deaths set back the Protectorate’s plans for war. Instead, the Grand Duke and other top officials ordered the Navy to draw up plans for a hunting expedition to slay the ancient Tiyanki Matriarch in the Balawar system. It would be a good way to blood the Navy and their new admirals. Admiral Di Charia, who had been given command of Strike Force Drakon, was temporarily transferred back to the Grand Armada while her Strike Force was reinforced. Admiral Grasser, the new Supreme Admiral, took command of the Strike Force and led it to its new home, the Etan Stela shipyard, while Admiral Si-Na and the Strike Force Lupus Noir accompanied the Grand Armada and its temporary commander on the hunting expedition. However, in December of 2332, the Protectorate was pulled into a war when the rebellious Estwani Masterless declared war on the Tezekian Conglomerate. The Masterless were a militarist and fanatically egalitarian nation of democratic crusaders who had obtained their independence after rebelling against the Conglomerate. Top Lumenorean officials rolled their eyes and ordered the Strike Force Drakon to crush the insurrection. At the same time, the Grand Armada and the Strike Force Lupus Noir were ordered to proceed with their hunting expedition. The Tiyanki Matriarch was believed by the Curator Order to hail from another galaxy. It was larger and older than any other Tiyanki ever known. There were rumors that a captain had sworn to kill it and had chased it to the galaxy from the Matriarch’s home galaxy, though these tales were questionable at best. The Grand Duke had privately consulted with the Order, who told him that the Matriarch had a proton torpedo lodged in her hide from a recent battle. The Order sold the Grand Duke information on how the torpedo could be detonated by a warship using an energy pulse. The information was immediately relayed to the Lumenorean war fleets as they entered battle. The creature fought fiercely for her life, but truly stood no chance against the might of the Protectorate. The Lumenoreans dispatched a shuttle to recover the head of the Matriarch from the Tiyanki corpse. The head would be taken back to the Museum of Exobiology on Lumenor Prime as a trophy of war. At the same time, however, an unidentified ship emerged from the corpse of the Matriarch and began hailing the Protectorate. The mammalian captain, Reth Unddol, had been hunting the Tiyanki Matriarch for decades, but his ship was swallowed whole by the Matriarch. He pledged his loyalty and his ship, AH4B, to the Protectorate. AH4B was assigned to the Lumenor system as a ceremonial parade vessel and last line of defense, while Captain Unddol was given a promotion to Fleet Admiral. Unfortunately, there were no fleets for him yet, though the Lumenor Navy was drawing up plans for a second League Navy battle fleet. That same year, the Biology Division finished researching how to build a Strategic Coordination Center, a massive megastructure capable of coordinating the entire Starbase network, augmenting offensive and defensive capabilities. A construction ship was ordered to begin construction on the megastructure in orbit of Saturn in the Lumenor system. Additionally, that same year, the terraforming of Proxima Centauri b was completed, and the Protectorate began a colonization effort. They were also heartened by the project’s success and began planning additional terraforming projects.

That same year, Science Officer Daniels and his archeological team finally entered the final chamber of the ancient tomb, where they discovered the corpse of the great prophet Zarqlan. The team took tissue samples from the deceased humanoid and cut off his head. The samples were added to the massive gene banks in the Vault of Life, while the head of Zarqlan was brought to the Reliquary, where it joined the Surveyor, Rubricator, and a sample of Javorian Pox taken from Irassia. The Protectorate was then contacted by the Finu Guardians Fallen Empire, who congratulated the Protectorate, claiming that they had been revealed to be Zarqlan’s “Chosen”. The Guardians informed the Protectorate that they would be free to colonize any holy worlds near the Guardians’ borders and there would be many devout pilgrims on Celestial Throne who would welcome an opportunity to fight under the Protectorate’s banner. Unfortunately, the Protectorate would not have a chance to colonize the holy worlds until much later - as of the time being, all of the holy worlds were in systems claimed by other powers. However, the Navy much welcomed the additional fighting power that Finu pilgrims would bring with them.

However, that same year, other events took place that were quite embarrassing for the government. First, signs of revolt began emerging on Rexas. Slaves began holding clandestine meetings. The government had long neglected the stability of the Penal Colony and the wellbeing of the inhabitants. Now, they were ready to revolt. An army group of droid armies was ordered to land on the planet and fortify it in case the slaves tried to revolt. The governor also declared martial law on the planet. At the same time, a government agent was discovered to have sold secrets to a potential enemy of the Protectorate. She was arrested for espionage and treason, but the damage was already done.

The Lumenorean Navy continued their plans to invade and subjugate the Raxar Alliance. They ordered construction of an entire fleet’s worth of ships for the League Navy. The fleet, which would be named Strike Force Griffin, would allow the Navy to engage an enemy on four fronts - five if Gray was deployed as a warship or the Her Chosen Champions mercenaries were allowed to attack on their own. That same year, when the Conclave of Telepaths breached the shroud, they were able to focus the psychic energies into a colossal warrior - a Psionic Avatar. The Avatar was added to the Lumenorean First Army Group, where it would spearhead any and all Lumenorean attacks. The First Army Group was also reinforced that same year, after the Protectorate ordered five armies of cloned Lumenorean shock troopers and five armies of slaves recruited.

Additionally, in preparation for the war, naval experts began a redesign of the Lumenorean carriers and escort carriers. The Navy had long utilized Amoeba Flagella that had been bred in captivity and trained as strike craft. They had been extremely advanced, even better than fighter craft! However, technological innovations had led to the invention of the Crusader-class fighter bomber, which was equipped with heavy lasers and proton torpedoes. The Crusaders were about equal to the Amoeba Flagella. As a result, the Navy decided to refit all of the League Navy’s carriers to carry Crusaders. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Navy personnel were sent to learn how to fly the new craft. However, many Amoeba Flagella trainers had become close to the creatures they trained and controlled in battle. They refused to give up their “pets” and transition to flying the Crusaders. As a result, every attempt by the Navy to phase out the Amoeba Flagella in the Lumenorean Navy was stymied. The Stygian-class would continue to deploy with hangar bays filled with Amoeba Flagella strike craft indefinitely. Meanwhile, General Ortega and her army group were deployed to the Eurydice system to put down the Estwani revolt. The Tezeks had been either unwilling or unable to invade the last rebel planet. The Lumenoreans would have to do it for them.

Meanwhile, the Navy remained docked at their home stations. They had little to do - the war against the Estwani was virtually over; all that remained was to invade their final planet. The war against the Raxar could not begin yet - the Protectorate needed to be at peace in order to demand vassalization. The government knew the demand would be rejected, giving the Lumenoreans the excuse they needed to go to war. However, the demand could not be sent until both nations were at peace - the Raxar were currently fighting three defensive wars, and the Lumenoreans were still embroiled in the conflict against the Estwani. The war against the Raxar could not begin until all four wars had concluded. Instead, the Navy drew up plans to attack the mysterious automated dreadnought in the Aswiri system. They hoped to blood the Strike Force Griffin and test Admiral Unddol’s resilience under fire. They also hoped that something could be salvaged from the wreckage of the dreadnought - something that could improve the Protectorate’s already impressive navy. The dreadnought was millenia old, one of a line of flagships belonging to an ancient interstellar empire. The empire was brought to a sudden and violent end by its neighbors, and the crew of the dreadnought died, but the ancient warship had continued to stand vigil over the Aswiri system. Many had tried, and failed, to eliminate the vessel. The Lumenoreans, however, were destined to succeed.

 

[HistoryDude]

Smart move with the toleration.

That deal with the Eater of Worlds might come back to bite the Protectorate, but its short term effects are very good.

The Fallen Empire's resurrection of a species is indeed a mighty feet, but the Protectorate can surely advance them. Hopefully, that Fallen Empire stays Fallen.