Dendrus IV, Purgatory System, Great House de Jardin
The planet was, as it had been for the past century, a pure black void invisible to everything. It was like a planet-sized black hole that wasn’t a black hole at all. It didn’t suck anything into it by some massive gravity well.
But anything that fell down to it was certainly lost, just like a black hole.
It was a lifeless rock whose pitch black surface was completely still, as though it was a massive globe of ink, floating serenely out in the galaxy.
Any who looked directly at it were deeply unsettled to the core. It felt to them as though they were looking at something that both existed and never existed at the same time.
It came with a severe sense of finality that ever
An Imperial mecha squadron skated across the industrial city. Or rather, the ruins that used to be an industrial city. Everything all around them from the largest fabrication bays to the smallest machine sheds had been completely annihilated.Their coral facades and armor plating had been cut apart and blown wide open, usually from the top down. Whatever structures inside had also suffered equal amounts of damage and had been wrenched open.Very few walls and structures were even upright and whole - most had been shattered and broken and collapsed outright.More critically, whatever weapons of war that were being created in each of the buildings were also blasted apart. Numerous hovertanks had been splayed open and blasted apart. Others had their frames and parts reduced to useless debris.
The fleet was out in the middle of Imperial space, far from any settled or civilized systems. It was composed of hundreds of light cruisers and frigates, as well as thousands of heavy fighters and mecha.They weren’t there to rearm or regroup or repair. All they did was simply sit there.Or rather, all they did was monitor critical communications all throughout the Empire. They weren’t looking for any meaningful content in the communications themselves, of course. All they wanted to know was if any communications were happening at all.More importantly, if comms stopped, anywhere.Orsethii stood on the bridge of the lead cruiser. Her eyes narrowed as she scoured the countless holoreports that hovered all around her. In it were mere hints of Ra’ventrii a
The Corvus Republic Civil Defense Force was scattered all over the city in countless teams. Each one was composed of humans and synths and drogar and wolves, all of whom worked in tandem to help the Imperial citizens around them.It didn’t matter if the citizens were wounded or not, hungry or not, weary or not. The CDF went to each and every one, and did their best to help them.As they always did, they provided food, clothing, medicine, comfort, anything at all that could help.But most importantly, they offered sanctuary and safety to everyone they came across. It didn’t matter who they were, what their clan status was, how old or young, how healthy or wealthy. All were welcomed.Many accepted outright.Wh
Orsethii stood on the bridge of her cruiser and watched the destruction that unfolded all around her. Her fleet took apart the Corvus Republic as best they could. And despite the fact that the Republic wasn’t fighting back, it was taking them far too long to actually dismantle them.A deep unsettling thought spread through her officers, one that gave some of them pause during their unrelenting attack.Except Orsethii. She found herself angered more and more knowing that the Republic refused to fight back. Worse, that they weathered her own attacks gracefully.She practically ignored their request for parley, though ultimately the connection was forced on her. A number of the First Feathers appeared on the wraparound screen and as holoprojections around the bridge without any approval from Orsethii whatsoever.
Orsethii grinned devilishly as space flashed all around her fleet. Or rather, as Ra’ventrii’s fleet flashed into their broken part of space.But that grin slowly faded and turned into a frown as more and more ships kept flashing in. The sheer enormity of it was mind-boggling.Although they had original estimates from her very first encounter with the Empire, and although Orsethii expected the fleet to grow, she didn’t expect it would grow to this size.The Einherjar now had three devastators - two Imperial and one from the Hegemony. They were accompanied by dozens of battleships and carriers, hundreds of cruisers, thousands of destroyers and frigates. And there were far too many fighters and mecha on the field for them to count.This was truly a f
The southern end of the wraparound screen split into two small portions and slid to the side. That allowed the Orsethii and her bodyguards into Thanatos’ bridge unimpeded. They walked in with authority as though they were inside their own ship.Trailing behind them were Azrael and Raijin, who glanced around at the massive bridge surrounding them. They were somewhat in awe over it - they had never seen a bridge quite that large and imposing.More than that, the room was also incredibly dark, and was just as gloomy and shadowy as the rest of the ship itself. In fact, the only thing that actually lit the bridge was the wraparound screen itself.On it were live feeds of every ship in Orsethii’s fleet. No doubt massive guns were pointed in their direction as well.
Watching Freya and the ship recover with blinding speed shook Orsethii a great degree. Though she could easily do the same with her own body, there was something else that completely unnerved her. She certainly didn’t feel the same way the first time the two of them had dueled.Orsethii couldn’t quite put her finger on the feeling. It was a bit like looking down an impossibly long cliff, and getting overwhelmed by vertigo. There was an inevitability that surrounded Freya. And it wasn’t so much a feeling of being overwhelmed but rather one of oblivion.It snuck into her the same way that the ship’s oppressive darkness did as well. That feeling eroded her slowly, as though she was surrounded on all sides by something intangible, and it chipped away at her bit by bit by bit.The drogar focused o
“Stop!” screamed Azrael.Freya instantly stopped mid-thrust, with the very tips of her talons mere millimeters from Azrael’s face.The girl was breathing heavily, just as heavily as Orsethii behind her. It seemed she used every bit of her own energy to speed towards the drogar and defend her with her own body. Despite her obvious exhaustion, she kept herself on her feet, and even extended her arms out as far as they could go.“Out of the way!” Freya said through gritted teeth.“No!” Azrael countered. “You’re gonna haveta remove me if you want her!”Freya’s other arm reared back as though to swat Azrael out of the way. But she struggled to swing the moment it re