Chapter 3b: Meeting the New Threat (2220 - 2230)
Chapter 3b: Meeting the New Threat (2220 - 2230)
As the Explorators continued to push along the only open path to expansion, the Empress ordered that expansion to continue - the Yunak system was added to the Empire, and let more mining stations and research labs were created. The logistical line of these outlying holdings was growing more and more taut, but plans were already being drawn up to colonize the new world found in the Ucrichi system at some point in the next two decades to provide for a more secure base for those outlying holdings.
To help police all these holdings, on 12.7.2220, the Empress and the Assembly of Higher Minds unveiled the Judgement Corps. Organized on military lines, this organization would be responsible for policing the outlying territories of the empire, operating from bases on each system starbase, the Judgement Corps was empowered with a great deal of latitude when it came to enforcing the laws in space and on system stations, mining outposts and research facilities. Planetside, more traditional law enforcement procedures continued.
On 12.11.2220, the dimensional portal on Divine Providence was found to lead to a strange, entropic dimension filled with Dark Matter - a small amount of which would be extracted and put to use for the Empire. More importantly, however, the researchers realized that the entropic energy could be harnessed and weaponized into a powerful anti-shield weapon: the Null Void Beam
On 2.10.2221, in order to deepen ties between Moshtar and Vanerra, the two states signed a research agreement, sharing some technological data for the benefit of both, the idea mostly there to generate trust between the defensively paranoid Moshtarans and the Empire - trust that could be leveraged for still deeper ties.
Annexation continued with the Ucrichi and Worchetassay systems being brought into the Empire, while the Empress, having spent decades now staffing an increasingly expanding Imperial Bureaucracy, had honed her eye for talent expertly.
On 9.30.2222, not long after first contact, the Gaian Concordant, in a gesture of peace, good will and future friendship, offered a supply of minerals and energy to the Empire. The gift was accepted, though the Empress was unsure as to the motivation - was it appeasement, or perhaps the Gaians were 'deigning' to offer the Empire their charity?
Nonetheless, with finances tight - and minerals tight too, after being sold to shore up those tight finances - the gift was accepted and put to good use
The Gift arrived a month later with the Gaian Embassy, and the Gaians were allowed to set up their Embassy next to the Moshtaran one, creating an informal 'Elvhen Quarter' around the two embassies in the Capital City.
Shortly after contact with the Purity Order was made, the Gaian Concordant, apparently just as concerned about these Xenocidal monsters as the Empire, offered to ensure security by signing a non-aggression pact. Though our borders were not meeting yet, the Empire would be expanding closer towards them every day, and it would secure the peace of mind of both empires to have a pact of non-aggression. The Empress signed it eagerly. There was only one enemy on the Empire's mind - even the Kram'col were of lesser concern now.
On 7.1.2223, the Empress issued a "Decree of Containment Expansion" ordering that the Empire was to expand as much as it needed to to reach the border with the Purity Order. These monsters had to be contained, and the only way to do that was to meet them in space and check their expansion.
"There can be no doubt about it - the Purity Order will seek our utter destruction and devastation, the utter destruction of people," The Director of the Imperial Intelligence Service said. "They are not just xenophobically isolationist, like the Kram'col, but they seek the death of everyone and everything else that is not them."
"And, to be perfectly honest, they're a bunch of frehalish*," the Director added. "They believe a nonsensical history of Humanity and of the genetic history of the life before space, and are fed a constant diet of hate and paranoia."
"Perhaps we should hunker down then, prepare for their assault," the Minister of Colonization suggested. "Not forever, obviously, but if they do plan to destroy us, we could bait them into doing that, destroy them on the teeth of our fortifications and defenses."
"At the moment, they could easily blow past what we have on our outlying systems," Admiral Icea replied. "We can and will improve our defenses there, but that will take time. They also have impressive shielding technology - we may have some good ways to counter that soon, but as of yet, we do not."
"If we're going to counter them, we need more resources." the IIS Director chimed in, "And even more, we need more defensive depth. We need to be able to check their expansion now, and we need to take the offensive against them as soon as possible - if we prove too hard of a nut to crack, they will go elsewhere and kill whoever else they find."
"And I cannot let that happen," Ashal said with finality. "It is my duty to bring Unity, and Unity is the endpoint, peace for all. I cannot bring that final unity and peace to people who are dead. And these so-called 'pureborn' are still people. They are still Children of Earth. We must liberate them from the rage and hate they have been fed, from the vile darkness that grips their minds and souls."
Ashal stood, "Tychea's will in this instance could not be more clear - we must expand to meet them, we must marshall all our resources and mobilize for war. As of this moment, we prepare for only one task, only one duty - the invasion of the Purity Order, the dismantling of its regime, the execution of its leadership and the liberation of its people. We will meet them in space, planetside and wherever else we need to destroy this foul and evil stain on the galaxy."
"And, to be perfectly honest, they're a bunch of frehalish*," the Director added. "They believe a nonsensical history of Humanity and of the genetic history of the life before space, and are fed a constant diet of hate and paranoia."
"Perhaps we should hunker down then, prepare for their assault," the Minister of Colonization suggested. "Not forever, obviously, but if they do plan to destroy us, we could bait them into doing that, destroy them on the teeth of our fortifications and defenses."
"At the moment, they could easily blow past what we have on our outlying systems," Admiral Icea replied. "We can and will improve our defenses there, but that will take time. They also have impressive shielding technology - we may have some good ways to counter that soon, but as of yet, we do not."
"If we're going to counter them, we need more resources." the IIS Director chimed in, "And even more, we need more defensive depth. We need to be able to check their expansion now, and we need to take the offensive against them as soon as possible - if we prove too hard of a nut to crack, they will go elsewhere and kill whoever else they find."
"And I cannot let that happen," Ashal said with finality. "It is my duty to bring Unity, and Unity is the endpoint, peace for all. I cannot bring that final unity and peace to people who are dead. And these so-called 'pureborn' are still people. They are still Children of Earth. We must liberate them from the rage and hate they have been fed, from the vile darkness that grips their minds and souls."
Ashal stood, "Tychea's will in this instance could not be more clear - we must expand to meet them, we must marshall all our resources and mobilize for war. As of this moment, we prepare for only one task, only one duty - the invasion of the Purity Order, the dismantling of its regime, the execution of its leadership and the liberation of its people. We will meet them in space, planetside and wherever else we need to destroy this foul and evil stain on the galaxy."
Author's Note said:
Around this same time, Sacred Justice reached 200 million and became largely self-sufficient when it came to food.
In furtherment of the new military rearmament, the Empire's scientists began finalizing the work on weaponizing the Null Void Beam. The Purity Order had excellent energy shielding technology, but with the Null Void and the planned 'Anti-Shield' class of Corvette, the Empire could counter this advantage quite easily.
Equally, in order to ensure the protection of the Empire against any Purity Order invasion before the Empire was ready to go on the offensive, new investments were made in improving ground defenses on all the Empire's planets.
On 2.13.2224, Moshtar and Kram'col signed a nonaggression pact. The Empress was reported to be unhappy with this development, but on the other hand, there simply was very little decision bandwidth left to care about the Durgon of the League - they would have to be left aside for now. There was only one threat the Empire had to focus on.
In furtherance of securing the Empire's flanks and marshalling resources for this coming war, the Empire finished the months long process of completing a commercial pact between Vanerra and Moshtar, eliminating most tariffs and trade barriers and regularizing all commercial and business contact between the two regimes.
On 3.6.2225, in an effort to make the Empire more productive, to continue to marshal the Empire's resources, a program of bonuses and motivational media was put into effect in partnership with the Empire's leading manufactories, mining corporations and farming conglomerates. The bonuses were partially underwritten by the Imperial treasury in order to get workers to meet higher quotas.
Alongside the bonuses, however, were a series of informational posters and a public awareness campaign in major mining and farming centers, focusing on the threat of the Purity Order, and what the common worker of the Empire could do to contribute simply by working harder.
On 5.6.2225, High Cleric Acin Nars died in her sleep at the age of 88. Her health had been failing for several months by that point, and the God-Empress wasted no time in naming her replacement, the body not even being cold when Maito Kep, a high ranking Archdecon in the Holy City and staunch ally of the Throne was named to the position of High Cleric.
The move was not especially popular, however, and the public's opinion of the Empress's governance dropped from 89% to an unusually low 75% over the next few days after the action, Though rumors had long spread that the God-Empress and the High Cleric had not gotten along, it was still seen as somewhat disrespectful to such a venerable servant of the goddess to replace her so quickly.
To shore up her support in the face of this, Ashal organized a highly public state funeral for High Cleric Nars, offering kind words to the woman's devoutness, saying: "There can be no doubt that Acin Nars was a devoted, devout woman, with a boundless love for the Goddess and for her fellow Psilons."
Over the second half of 2225, the Empire completed its research into the Null Void and began construction of the first 'Anti-Shield Class' Corvettes, to supplement the existing fleets of Missile and Interceptor class vessels. Then it began work on implementing a way to fit larger and more powerful electromagnetic coils onto their mass drivers.
In early 2226, the system of Neston was claimed, marking the border with the Purity Order. The system immediately began fortifying the Neston System - it was the only path the Purity Order had into Imperial Space without invading the Gaians as well, so it had to be a powerful deterrent against attack. The Empress ordered all available resources to be poured into expanding the fleet and the defenses at Neston.
In a statement to the Imperial Media, the Empress declared: "There can be only one priority, only one vision for our Empire - we must build our ships, build our fleets, and pour every available resource we have into our ability to defend ourselves against the Purity Order and the menace they pose to all Children of Earth. Everything the Empire has must go to this one goal."
And so over the next three years, that's exactly what happened. The Fleet was moved to the Neston system, and raised to twenty Corvettes, while the Neston Sarbase was improved with defenses and shipyard facilities to facilite the construction of yet more ships.
On 10.21.2229, negotiations to lift all tariffs between Gaia and Vanerra were finished, and coffee exports to Gaia took up a large portion of the Empire's sales to Gaia, as the product caught Gaian markets by storm, quickly outpacing tea and even caffeinated sodas as the vehicle for caffeination of choice in Gaia.
Though coffee beans could be grown on Gaia, for decades to come, most would import the superior Vanerran beans and blends rather than the ones grown on Gaia
On 11.2.2229, IIS operatives discovered that the League of Kram'col had found a ruined matter decompressor near the Black Hole known as Ozark's Limbo. This technology, theorized during the Second Empire, but never proven to function, was said to be able to reverse the gravitational pull of a black hole and literally yank the raw materials out of a black hole, turning that raw mass into useable materials once more - albeit likely not in its natural form, whatever it had once been.
Kram'col had no way to repair the device as things stood, but the IIS marked Ozark's Limbo as a high priority for annexation... eventually.
Production Note said:Around this time, I got the Imperious Archiecture tradition, but I couldn't figure out a good way to explore that in-lore, so I'm mentioning it here:
To continue to expand the depth of resources available to the Empire, Saentheng I was ordered colonized as 'Pious Devotion' on 5.2.2230, and on 8.3.2230, the colony of Holy Promise reached 2 billion people - many many young children and teens, but also many immigrants from elsewhere in the expanding empire, the population continuing to skyrocket with the increase in prosperity.
On 11.11.2230, scientists began to project to probe the dimensional doorway on Divine Providence further, hoping that either more dark matter could be gathered, or that more powerful technology could be reverse engineered from the entropic null dimension to help improve the Empire's ability to fight the Purity Order.
However, after realizing how long it would divert crucial engineering resources, the project was shelved for the time being.
As 2230 drew to a close, the Empire had grown more powerful, but also entered into more danger. It had made friends and opened more trade, but everything it had was being poured into one project: War.
It was only a matter of time until the Empire declared war on the Purity Order. All that remained to be seen was when.
The Empire in 2230
Known Space in 2230
