Oh Snap. I find that kinda funny--due to Nit's name... anyway, like I said, I found it funny. Please disregard. Actually, I'll expand this a bit. Let's get a second Utterly Unoffical revision of my Nonbinding Backstory. One sec...Noble Ire wrote:The Eighth Enclave
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A radius of around 350 Lightyears from Sol and Earth, the Holy Solar Empire of Fortress Terra was a regime built upon state-enforced fear and state-sponsored prosperity. A distributed network of relatively small feudal powers that all gave Terra Proper what it demanded in exchange for protection, both from forces outside and unknown and from Terra's own Star-Smashing Armadas, the Empire functioned literally unopposed for a millenia.
Widespread Man-Machine Transhumanism had taken humanity to great heights--greater than any that could be achieved with flesh alone, but internal and external pressures had forced Fortress Terra to comprise between total control and regional autonomy. Growth at the individual nation-state level was encouraged, but at a price. Controlling interplanetary commerce, the dukedoms, governorships and republics of the Holy Solar Empire were beholden to Fortress Terra for their own vitality. Compliance to the distant power was a small price to pay for a modicum self government. Without Terra and her Fleets, they were without their own basic needs, and at the mercy to the more immediete threat from other, closer Imperial powers.
Among the duties, there was a draft to be complied with, several taxes and Holy Observances to be followed or bribed away, and the demand that each force levvy and supply the Empire with elements of it's own war machine. No single world would ever build a vessel of Holy Sol's armada--much to their own credit, they engineered vessels so labyrinthine that no single power knew all elements of their design, and instead supplied materials and parts.
With their ships of immense power and the stranglehold they had over commerce, Terra worked to power far beyond their actual boundaries, establishing a network of Deadlands around the core systems that were patrolled, monitored, and zealously defended from outside encroachment. Alien forces were known of intellectually, but only dimly understood, spoken of in the same terms as Demons and Angels--half believed, but completely feared.
At it's height, the Empire was an impenetrable wall of humanity's might, and all foreign powers knew better than to test their patience. Human powers who did not acknowledge the Primacy of Holy Sol were cast into the Deadlands, but an even less fair fate awaited any alien species the fleets discovered. The few that were unlucky enough to have begun developing near Terran Space were obliterated and chased within a year of Sol, an ever-increasing Deadland that threatened to one day turn the entire nonhuman galaxy to Wasteland.
But as with all heights, there was threat of a fall. With every expansion of it's sphere of influence, new Empires of enemies were created, destroyed, and scattered to the void between stars. Here they waited, learning of each-other's presence, and gathered strength. It was harder to patrol these voids, and barbarians gnawed at the edges of Terra's deadlands--like Rats in Versailles. (Damn you Ryan, how do you spell that?) Control of the Empire depended on isolation and fear, not from actual fears that couldn't be controlled and disposed of successfully.
As new strategies were contemplated, methods to shrink the demands of a boisterous Empire and quell the rivalries between factions, something happened. Maybe the arrival of Nitram's forces, powerful as they were, set off a chain reaction of terror down the authoritarian ranks. New enemies posessing of vessels of nearly equal power, travelling enmasse to the Solar Empire's root. Perimeter fleets have already clashed with them--gutting many of the outsider's vessels and leaving them with a mere fraction of their original fleet, but the advance has torn a hole in the Imperial defenses, through which are pouring a number of vengeful barbarian forces. Enemies far outside, still strong and long prepared for an eventual clash with Earth, turn attentively towards the scuffles.
When it becomes clear the invaders are humans--true humans in blood and mind and all, terror sweeps over Terra, and in an orgy of Xenophobia and body-snatcher style hysteria, the Empire descends into chaos as Fortress Terra obliterates the surrounding sectors and walls itself off. It is unknown if Terra survives at all, but the Imperial Remnants flail about without orders from Earth, and the peacekeeping vessels have either returned to Sol, or left abandoned in their stardocks.
The galaxy sits, breathlessly, awaiting the next move--what next? Do they wait for the Empire's vessels to return, bringing the resources and security they need to survive? Or would they commit a Cardinal Sin, and seize the great ships for themselves, and take what they need from their neighbors? Or will they all wait around like retards and attack only the first person to send a fleet anywhere? Only time can tell.
))
