Dark Reign the Future of War Novel

DARK REIGN: THE FUTURE OF WAR

Togra's Final Message

History of the Conflict

Biographies

Unit Specifications

Journal

Togra’s Final Message

Centuries ago I left the Earth. Along with the other believers I set out to bring a new dawn to the age of

man. I stood on the brink of a discovery that would change the very nature of existence. But, as usual,

men do not see the doorways of history until they have passed through them. Ignorant and single-

minded individuals attack that which threatens to disrupt their comfort, regardless of the good that may

be born from that change. Our convoy was set upon by those who wished to steal my knowledge and

exploit it for their trivial ends. But they did not understand. They will never understand. The new age will

come even if it must incubate in the heat of their ashes.

My ship was damaged in the attack, and I became stranded on an uninhabited planet. In time the

heathens followed us away from Earth and polluted the entire galaxy with their petty squabbling and

narrow vision of what power really is. Now I have become trapped by their war. A Freedom Guard base

has been established on this planet, and Imperium assaults are coming more frequently.

This probe will serve as a fail-safe should I fall victim to the chaos around me. If you are reading this then

the worst must have occurred. The probe contains a dimensional portal that will deliver you to the place

and time of my demise. But you must be prepared to stop it. Recorded in the data stores of the probe

are a number of battles from the vast war between the Imperium and Freedom Guard. These battles will

be presented to you as a series of trials which you will relive through a neural interface. You can engage

in each conflict from either side, but you must complete them all. You must demonstrate that you are

strong enough to defeat these armies. If you cannot, the dimension door will not be wasted on you. Fight

well. Much depends on it.

HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT

Part I: The Decline of Earth

Part II: The Pioneer Age

Part III: The Marked

Part IV: The Dawn of War

Part V: The Desiccator

Part VI: The Tograns

Part VII: Objective

THE DECLINE OF EARTH

In the opening centuries of the third millennium, Earth's population continued to swell at a staggering

rate. By 2250 the planet held over 30 billion people. Earth's scientists raced to offset the strangling

effects of population. Massive hydroponic agricultural domes dotted the landscape, increasing food

production exponentially. Methods for large scale, economical water desalinization were developed.

High altitude aircraft hovered at the crown of the atmosphere, releasing chemicals that slowly built up

eroded areas of the ozone layer. In spite of these advances, the frenetic growth of humanity continued

to strain Earth's resources to their limit. Pollution became unmanageable. Thousands of pounds of

nuclear waste were set adrift in space every year. Air pollution was so severe in many major cities that in

2267 the European Environmental Council estimated that one of every nine urban dwellers died by the

age of 30 from lung related diseases.

Millions began living in massive urban complexes which contained air filtering and water purification

facilities. These structures, as large as ten miles square, contained housing, commerce and

entertainment for their occupants, and many people remained inside for years at a time. Wealth had

become extremely polarized, and life was increasingly arduous for the majority of the populace who

could not afford the safe confines of the complexes. Criminals banded together like small armies and in

some areas had more control over the streets than the police.

In 2314 most of the Earth's major nations allied to quell the rising tide of crime within their borders. The

Global Commonwealth established a rudimentary dome colony on Jupiter's moon Io and began shipping

violent criminals there. Heavily armed Commonwealth forces seized criminals in the streets and poured

them into processing facilities. After quick assembly line trials, those deemed "dangerous and

irredeemable" were shipped to the penal colony on Io to live out the remainder of their lives. The

experiment was extremely successful politically. An international regulatory body, the Jovian Detention

Administration, was established and granted primary claim to all prisoners. The JDA also had an

autonomous police force that by 2362 was the largest standing army in the world. By 2400 almost a

million people were expelled to Io annually. Additional colonies were added on Callisto and Ganymede,

as well as on Neptune's moon Triton. Although some felt that the enterprise had little to do with meting

out justice and was simply an escape valve for population runoff, the program was very popular, and the

JDA had come to hold more political and military sway than any single world government.

In 2447 a rocket containing nuclear waste for deep space disposal malfunctioned and crashed near

Bombay, killing over four million people in the first few months. Food stores were contaminated across

the continent. Resulting worldwide famines led to widespread rioting and organized assaults against

fortified urban complexes where food supplies were not seriously affected. The JDA, which by this time

was the de facto global government, stepped in to suppress the uprisings, but it was becoming clear to

world leaders that the future of Earth was bleak. Interplanetary colonization, however, was a dangerous

and arduous affair. A large private campaign to promote colonization by the Ramsdell Corporation in the

early twenty-third century had resulted in thousands of deaths and only a few scattered ramshackle

societies. The prisoner colonies, while self-supporting, were barren, desolate outposts. Few private

citizens were willing to confront the hazards of colonization.

The acting president of the JDA, Edward Dalen, negotiated a deal with the residents of the four penal

colonies. In exchange for exploring and colonizing new worlds for Earth's inhabitants, the prisoners

would be granted their freedom. The prisoners were expendable and experienced at living off-world.

Although counting on the off-world prisoners was less than popular, the citizens of Earth were willing to

attempt somewhat desperate measures. Dalen realized that control of Earth's sole implement of

colonization, in addition to the political and military influence he already wielded, would place the JDA in

a position of near absolute sovereignty. Dalen also had no intention of ever releasing the prisoners. He

knew they would never be accepted into the societies on the Earth-based colonies, and they were too

independent and well organized to be given their own planet. They had shown surprising

resourcefulness on the prison colonies. Rather than slipping into violence and chaos as expected, the

prisoners had developed efficient, productive communities with the limited means provided them. Dalen

knew this would make them able pioneers, but he also realized they would represent a threat to the JDA

if ever given their autonomy.

THE PIONEER AGE

Scientists quickly located a number of promising host planets in Earth's sector of the galaxy. The

Exploratory Corps, as the prisoner colonists were called, set out in massive cargo vessels, each the size of

a large city, loaded with provisions, robotic terra-forming machinery, and enough genetic material to

recreate self-sustaining ecosystems. Dalen provided the prisoners with only enough water for a few

years so that if they could not prepare their planet for habitation within that time they would perish.

Although some worlds proved unable to support life, and thousands of the Exploratory Corps died, a

handful of worlds were soon ready and the first Earth settlers began to inhabit their new homes. The

Corps, when finished with one planet, were picked up and transported to the next. The JDA moved into

each new world and established themselves as the governing body and policing force. They assumed

control of each planet's water supply and instituted water rationing. Some planets did not have large

enough viable water sources to support their populations, so those worlds with excess water were

required to give up their surplus. In fact, there was more than enough water, but the JDA's control of

water distribution gave them unchallenged leverage over the individual governments established on

each planet. The JDA began stockpiling the excess water in huge, asteroid-sized storage tanks orbiting a

number of undeveloped worlds.

The Exploratory Corps pushed deeper into the galaxy, with mankind trailing behind, seeping into every

crack the Corps opened. Hungry from centuries of limited space and resources, the human race

devoured the galaxy. Within a generation a hundred planets were inhabited. Within two generations, a

thousand. The JDA declared itself the official galactic government and was renamed the Imperium.

Although some worlds chafed at the Imperium's continued dominion over all water supplies, none defied

them.

THE MARKED

In 2507 a regiment of Exploratory Corps aboard an Imperium cruiser en route to a new colonization

assignment mutinied, seizing the ship and abandoning the crew on an undeveloped world. The dissidents

then took refuge on a nearby planet, Teron, whose populace had grown tired of the Imperium's ever

increasing demands on their water supply. An Imperium fleet was quickly dispatched to the planet and

determined the city in which the stolen ship had landed. Three regiments of Imperium infantry

descended to the planet and seized the city. The ship was located, and the Corps members guarding the

ship were tortured until they revealed the location of the rest of their unit. The remaining Corps

personnel were tracked down and all were killed in an open courtyard. The Imperium left the city intact,

but a sizable force of Imperium troops remained on Teron, and the planet's water ration was halved.

The Imperium's ruling Directorate feared that similar incidents would continue to occur, and determined

to institute a more decisive means of controlling the Exploratory Corps. Imperium geneticists had been

developing enzyme keys which, when injected into the bloodstream, could crack and alter the DNA code

of every cell in the body in a prescribed manner. Exploratory Corps personnel had been receiving

periodic injections of these substances to improve their immunity to alien bacteria and other

microscopic life forms encountered while colonizing new worlds. In response to the Teron incident, a

new, more ambitious strain of genetic keys was developed which created a chemical clock in the brain

stem that caused life functions to cease at the age of 25. These agents were systematically introduced

into all Exploratory Corps members along with the standard immunity treatments. In addition, the

changes in the genetic code made the left eye of each member of the Exploratory Corps completely

black. In this way, the Imperium could easily identify Exploratory Corps members and make it nearly

impossible for them to escape. In addition, the fact that they would only live to the age of 25 made it

difficult to organize any sustained effort at rebellion.

The scheme was more successful than anticipated. Within a few decades, the Exploratory Corps came to

be known as the Marked and began to think of themselves as cursed. There were no further outbreaks of

violence, and the Marked largely gave up hope of ever being granted their freedom. As the business of

colonizing the galaxy became less risky and less vital, the Marked, who were now viewed as a separate

caste from the rest of human society, were used to perform many of the menial tasks needed by

humanity. In time, many among the Marked did not even believe they deserved to be free.

THE DAWN OF WAR

In the late twenty-sixth century, an extraordinary boy, Perigil Ilacas, was born to Marked parents. Living

in the household of a noted educator, Lajos Cardat, for whom his parents worked as servants, young

Ilacas spoke seven languages by the age of five and was versed in a number of sciences. As the parents

approached 25, they made a deal with Cardat, who was sympathetic to the plight of the Marked, to raise

the boy as his own. Only in this way could Ilacas continue his education. To pass the boy off as a citizen,

his mark would somehow have to be removed, but the marks had been engineered to be resistant to

removal, even by techniques such as tissue replacement. Once the new tissue was accepted by the body,

the enzyme keys, which remained in the bloodstream of every marked human, would simply alter the

new cells, and the mark would reappear. Cardat arranged for the boy's eye to be removed and replaced

with a cybernetic replica, a procedure that was extremely expensive and, if discovered, would have

resulted in death for all involved. By the age of 19, Ilacas had become a leading scholar in the field of

genetics. Although he never told his adoptive father, the real motivation behind his study was to uncover

the genetic basis for the mark.

Ilacas eventually found the enzyme keys that were responsible for the differences in the DNA and

deduced that these were man-made agents that had at some point been deliberately introduced into the

Marked population. However, now age 22, Ilacas feared that he would not be able to discover how to

counteract the keys in the few years he had left and feared also that if his research was ever uncovered

by the Imperium, it would be destroyed. He decided to make his discovery public in the hope that other

scientists would join his endeavor or even that public knowledge of the fact that the mark was a

manufactured product of the Imperium would force them to release his people from their genetic

bondage.

Within a week of the announcement, Ilacas, Cardat, and all those associated with his research were

dead. However, news of the incident spread, and quickly small uprisings flared up around the galaxy. The

Marked found support on numerous planets. Some viewed the Marked as mankind's pioneers who had

delivered humanity from their doomed homeland of Earth. Some believed their subservience was

unnecessary. Some simply saw an opportunity to throw off the yoke of the Imperium and reap the

profits of their own bounty. Imperium warships were hijacked, complexes sabotaged, water convoys

seized. Several planets, including Teron, raged into full revolt. The rebellion slowly grew more organized,

and within a decade the Marked had become a dedicated revolutionary army. Calling themselves the

Freedom Guard, they coordinated the efforts of a hundred insurgent worlds into a unified endeavor.

Although outnumbered, technologically inferior, and lacking strategic strongholds, the vastness of the

Imperium's domain worked to the rebels' advantage. The Freedom Guard struck at strategic targets and

then moved on, never facing the formidable Imperium war machine head on. After years of trying to

smother the growing tide of insurrection, the Imperium found itself facing full-fledged civil war.

THE DESICCATOR

In 2618 Imperium General Gregor Trilkin approached the Imperium's Ruling Directorate and requested

permission to develop a new weapon. Tired of pursuing smaller Freedom Guard forces across the

breadth of the galaxy only to engage them in inconsequential skirmishes, he wanted a potent new tool

to turn the course of the war. Trilkin's arms research scientists had actually already designed a

devastating new chemical weapon, a catalyzing compound that sheared the hydrogen atoms from water

molecules. The compound then incorporated the free hydrogen atoms, thereby reproducing itself and

continuing to divide any water molecules it came in contact with. The effect could be transferred

through airborne water molecules and even through water in living organisms. One molecule of the

compound could therefore consume all the moisture in an entire planet in a matter of minutes. The

Ruling Directorate was hesitant to develop a weapon whose function was to destroy the very implement

of their control, but Trilkin assured them that they would only need use the Desiccator once. Once its

force was demonstrated, Trilkin claimed, the Freedom Guard would relent. Trilkin ultimately planned to

use the weapon to seize control of the Imperium. With sole command of the Desiccator, the Ruling

Directorate would have no choice but to submit to his authority. The Directorate Chairman, Albrach

Boas, was aware of Trilkin's new weapon from several of his personal moles in Trilkin's command. He

also suspected the general's intentions for the Desiccator, but needed someone to put an end to the war

and knew Trilkin was the best man for the job. Trilkin was a ruthless and efficient tactician, but a

predictable politician, and Boas felt he could deal with Trilkin after he had put down the Freedom Guard.

THE TOGRANS

The Togran Foundation was founded in 2382 by molecular physicist Alpheus Togra, son of Petrak Togra,

the third and last Chancellor of the Global Commonwealth. Petrak's assassination in 2356 led to the

Rubicon rebellions and ultimately to the demise of the Commonwealth. JDA president Grote Reber

suppressed the rebellions in four short days without consulting any of the national governments

involved. The JDA's position of global leadership was cemented. Reber negotiated the dissolution of the

Global Commonwealth and the transfer of its remaining authority, mostly bureaucratic, to the JDA.

Alpheus, only nine at the time of his father's death, studied under his mother, physicist Gisela Togra,

who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 2349 for her neutrino reactor. By his early twenties Togra had

surpassed his mother in reputation. His Foundation, which he established at the age of 35, was

dedicated to the development of a new paradigm of human understanding of the physical universe.

Togra rejected the five hundred year old reductionist approach to science. Togra believed that matter

could be easily and permanently altered at the molecular level and steadfastly maintained that the

necessary knowledge and tools to allow such conversion could be uncovered in his lifetime. Matter, he

claimed, like all of reality, is more than a sum of its parts. His research focused on element 115,

discovered in the outer planets in the early days of exploration of the solar system. Element 115 was the

only stable member of the very heavy elements. Other elements over atomic weight of 92 undergo

spontaneous fission almost immediately. In addition, the "strong" force in element 115, the force that

binds the nucleus together, was unusually powerful and similar enough to gravity that the force could be

tapped and amplified and used to make a gravity drive for interstellar travel. The drive bent space in the

same way that gravity does and actually pulled the destination point to the traveler. While the peculiar

properties of element 115 were accepted by most scientists, none had been able to unravel its

mysteries. Togra claimed that the element represented proof that our understanding of the nature of

the physical world was flawed, and claimed that by unlocking the secret of element 115, he could

transform Earth, even the entire galaxy, into a paradise. Although considered one of the great thinkers of

his age, Togra's obsession with element 115 was mocked as yet another megalomaniacal attempt to turn

lead into gold. Togra countered, "If I can tame the soul of matter, what need would I have for gold?"

A man of considerable charisma and rare genius, Togra developed a dedicated following and became a

spiritual as well as scientific leader. Togra claimed that the great scientists were simply discovering what

the great mystics had always known in a less literal way. He believed that inquiry into the metaphysical

realm was as important to mankind's development as scientific advancement. Many of the world's

leading minds abandoned their own work to join the Togran Foundation. By 2387, Foundation members

numbered nearly one thousand, and Togra's work on matter conversion was making great strides. Togra

became increasingly withdrawn and secretive about the Foundation's research. He suspected that

several Foundation members were leaking information to the JDA. Togra stopped accepting new

members and expelled three Foundationers he believed were selling his secrets. He began working

entirely alone, often fasting and meditating for days at a time. He was rarely seen in public and grew

increasingly paranoid.

In 2391, Togra confided to a few of his closest associates that he had cracked element 115's secret.

Before Einstein it was believed that energy and mass, as well as linear and angular momentum, were

each independently conserved; that is, none could be created or destroyed. Einstein showed that energy

and mass were in fact interchangeable and united them under a single conservation law. Through his

work with element 115, Togra found that linear and angular momentum were also equivalent to mass

and energy, as well as charge, quark number, and several other variables. All of these, he claimed, are

aspects of a single essence that obeys a single conservation law. The unusual nuclear forces of element

115 were due to the fact that the momentum of the electrons of its atoms was being converted to the

"strong" force in the nucleus and back at an incredibly fast rate. Based on this discovery Togra was able,

in a small scale reactor, to convert the angular momentum in the electrons of an atom of hydrogen into

mass. He estimated that a single atom of hydrogen could produce as much matter as a fair-sized

asteroid. He needed only to refine the process to make the reaction produce the desired element, and

build a number of large-scale reactors to allow near unlimited matter conversion. He was certain,

however, that the JDA was about to seize his research, and he decided to abandon his home planet and

move the Foundation to an off-world colony.

Togra claimed to have found a host planet near the galactic center on which a habitable ecosystem could

be developed within a few years. Within a generation, he claimed, they could build their own heaven.

Four hundred thirty-seven Foundation members, some of the world's foremost biologists, chemists,

physicists, mathematicians, doctors, and philosophers agreed to accompany Togra. Within a few months

Togra organized a small expeditionary force of cargo vessels with light warship support. Togra had

expected the JDA to resist the endeavor, but they seemed to view the departure of the Foundation as

simply an opportunity to be rid of some of their most influential, outspoken agitators. However, as the

Togran expedition reached the outskirts of the solar system, Togra's paranoia proved valid. An attack

force of JDA ships ambushed the convoy, engaging the warship escort while cutting off Togra's ship and

attempting to board it. Unknown to even the other members of the expedition, Togra was armed and

prepared for the attack. He killed two JDA agents and placed a small explosive device on the boarding

vessel. His ship was damaged in the explosion, but he managed to escape the skirmish, leaving the

remaining Tograns behind. When the remaining JDA ships realized what had happened, they disengaged

and attempted to follow Togra, but no trace of him was found. The Togran vessels, without their leader

but unable to return to Earth for fear of the JDA, decided to continue on to their destination and hope

that Togra would somehow find his way there. A few days later the Tograns received a garbled

transmission from Togra. His ship was damaged beyond repair. His navigation systems were not

functioning, and he had barely managed to ditch the ship on an unknown planet.

By the time of the Freedom Wars the Tograns were merely a curious anecdote in the Imperium's Neuro-

Historical Archives. However, the Tograns had flourished on their new home planet. By genetically

engineering offspring, they developed a society of more than one hundred thousand within a few

generations. Most of the subsistence work was done by machines, and the need for government was

minimal. To avoid pollution, the Togran industrial complex was maintained in massive factory vessels

that orbited the planet. Togran society grew increasingly insular and monastic. The majority of the

society's resources was dedicated to scientific research, and citizens did little but work, study, and pray.

With disease all but conquered, the Foundation members survived for hundreds of years, pursuing the

limits of human knowledge with a dedication approaching madness. However, although Togran

technology far surpassed that of the Imperium worlds, the Foundation scientists had been unable to

reproduce Togra's breakthrough in matter conversion.

For generations the Tograns scoured the galaxy for their lost leader but found no trace of him. Togra

eventually rose to a mythical status in Togran society, and his followers stopped searching for him. They

believed that their lost prophet would return to deliver them without need of their intervention, but as

the centuries rolled by, Togra did not appear.

The war between the Imperium and the Freedom Guard raged across the galaxy, destroying everything

in its wake. Eventually the war spread to the remote Togran home worlds. Although superior

technologically, the Tograns had no experience with warfare and their society was crushed in the

onslaught.

OBJECTIVE

As your planet and all you know is destroyed, you escape in a solitary scout vessel. Adrift in space you

encounter a probe sent by Togra himself. The probe brings you a message from Togra and the ability to

transport you back in time. Centuries earlier the planet on which Togra had crash landed, was consumed

by the Imperium's Desiccator weapon. Unable to save himself, Togra sent out the probe with the hope

that one of his followers would happen upon it and unlock the key that could save him. The probe can

open a dimensional port that will transport you to the moment just before Togra was killed and provide

you with the technology to create an army to defeat both of the warring factions, but the mechanism

can work only once. If you are unable to accomplish the task, then history will continue unaltered and

Togra's fate, as well as your own, will be sealed. The probe contains a number of recorded battles of the

Imperium-Freedom Guard war. These battles will be presented to you as a series of trials. If you are

unable to conquer them, if you are unable to demonstrate that you are worthy to fight the final conflict

to save Togra, the probe will not transport you back in time. Togra will not allow his one chance for

survival to be wasted.

To save your society, to save your lost messiah, to save yourself, you must open the dimension door and

alter the destiny of a galaxy.

BIOGRAPHIES

Jeb Radec

Stiv Baator

Gil Karoch

Gregor Trilkin

Gerhad Bantrill

Benth Martel

JEB RADEC

Jebediah Radec was born in 2588 to Marked parents in the Remus cluster. At the age of twelve he was

assigned to new colonization duty after paralyzing a teenage boy in a street fight. The Pioneer Age was

over, and planetary exploration was of marginal importance to the Imperium. Colonization remained a

hazardous endeavor and was used primarily as punishment for members of the Marked class who

resisted the regime, but whose crimes did not warrant execution. Radec was among the youngest to ever

be assigned colonization duty.

At 16, Radec escaped by sabotaging a nuclear waste facility on a colony near the Algo Rim and stowing

away in an Imperium cruiser in the confusion that followed. Hundreds were killed in the fallout from the

explosion of the waste dump, mostly members of the Marked crew that Radec worked with. Years later,

when Radec was questioned about the incident as a Freedom Guard commander, he said, "I won't fight

for the freedom of any man who doesn't have the dignity to fight for it himself."

The Imperium hunted Radec unsuccessfully for several years. When the Freedom Guard revolution

began, Radec was smuggling black market goods on Teron, the heart of the rebellion. He led a mob of

rioters who seized the capitol city of Borrud and captured and executed hundreds of Imperium soldiers.

Shortly thereafter, a volunteer army was organized on Teron, and Radec was asked by Gerhad Bantrill to

serve as a field commander for the region. Bantrill, the newly appointed Freedom Guard Synod councilor

on Teron, was a respected statesman and former Imperium officer who had joined the cause of the

revolutionaries. Radec accepted, confiding to Bantrill that his motivation was not justice but vengeance.

His success as a military leader was remarkable. In spite of the urgings of his superiors, Radec always

fought on the front lines with his men. He rarely lost a conflict, and as his military victories convinced the

masses that the Imperium dominion could be challenged, the ranks of the Freedom Guard swelled.

Within a year the Synod had placed him in command of the entire standing army. Within three years, he

had taken control of the Synod.

Throughout his career as a commander, Radec was known for his refusal to take prisoners. Radec's

troops fought with barbarous ferocity, and some believed this was because his soldiers were more afraid

of him than they were the enemy. Radec once offered to relinquish his command to any man that could

best him in a fair fight, and he was taken up on the challenge several times until he threw one of his

officers out the window of a forty story Command Center on Perlen.

Radec lived well past the age of twenty five. Although members of the Marked did occasionally live past

their twenty fifth year, it was extremely rare and generally provided only a few extra months of life.

Radec's longevity caused many to believe that the commander was super-human. Others thought that

the force of his will simply would not allow him to die until he had seen the Imperium defeated.

STIV BAATOR

Like most Shadowhand operatives, Stiv Baator was genetically engineered from donor DNA to be ideally

suited for intelligence work. From birth he was property of the Shadowhand and was trained even as an

infant to excel in basic pre-cognitive functions like hand-eye coordination, reflex latency, and pattern

recognition. Even among the ranks of the Shadowhand, the galaxy's most efficient and remorseless

soldiers, Baator was clearly superior. By the age of 18, he had committed countless assassinations and

infiltrations without a failure.

Some in the upper ranks of the Shadowhand worried that Baator was too good. They feared that were

he ever to defect, there was no one in the ranks of the Imperium he couldn't kill if he chose to. Those

that had worked with Baator understood that this was impossible. His loyalty was absolute. He was

emotionless, single-minded, and barely human. Nonetheless, the Ruling Directorate instructed the

Shadowhand to assign Baator to a suicide mission. He was injected with the enzyme keys that caused the

Mark and was instructed to penetrate the Freedom Guard Command. Baator was successful, but the

introduction of the Mark into his system meant that he would not live past age 25 unless a counter-

agent to the Mark was developed.

GIL KAROCH

Gil Karoch, one of the leading geneticists in the entire galaxy, was recruited by the Imperium Ruling

Directorate to research new strains of catalytic enzyme keys like the one used to make the Mark. The

Directorate secretly planned to develop more subtle keys that would make people more intelligent, but

less willful and less concerned with their own well being. They could then introduce these agents into

entire populations to make them more productive and easier to control. This would require a much more

advanced type of enzyme than that used to produce the Mark. Geneticists had long been able to

introduce catalysts that would alter an organism at the genetic level, and therefore carry the

modification into the organism's offspring. However, a change like the Mark, which made the carrier die

at age 25, was a basic addition to the genetic code. Altering an intangible entity like personality or

intellect was a far trickier undertaking.

Many scientists believed that thoughts and actions could not be directly mapped to physiological

occurrences. Karoch, however, had meticulously recorded long term neural firing patterns within

individuals, and demonstrated that for any person a model could be extrapolated from the data that

would predict behavior within reasonable statistical parameters. Karoch further discovered that the

behavior models of family members were surprisingly similar. Clearly, personality was at least partially

inherited. For almost a decade, Karoch attempted, with enormous Imperium funding, to determine the

exact genetic underpinnings of human character.

As Karoch approached what he was looking for, he learned of the Ruling Directorate's plans for his work.

He uncovered several experiments where genetic keys had been developed based on his findings and

introduced into Imperium soldiers to make them less concerned for their own safety. Karoch was

appalled when he realized the magnitude of what could be done with his research. He secretly

sabotaged his work and attempted to leak a cure for the Mark, which was also being developed under

his direction, to the Freedom Guard.

GREGOR TRILKIN

Gregor Trilkin was the youngest of four sons born to a poor nuclear technician in a small cluster of

planets near the galactic rim. Gregor's mother passed away when he was an infant, and by the time

Trilkin was in his early teens, all of his brothers had died of radiation related illnesses. At seventeen,

Trilkin left his father, who was institutionalized and almost completely senile, and joined the Imperium

Galactic Fleet. During his basic training, Trilkin gained favor with his superiors by reporting several

soldiers who were distributing contraband material to the cadets. Several days later, Trilkin was savagely

beaten by the same soldiers, who were subsequently court-martialed and imprisoned.

Trilkin demonstrated an immediate talent for military tactics and was offered a position as an instructor

at the military academy on Shenton. He refused, requesting active duty, and was placed in command of a

small company of Interceptor class light warships patrolling for smugglers near the Turndorf Nebula.

Within a year, almost all smuggling in the region had been eliminated. Imperium law allowed for

immediate execution of any individual caught trading illegal goods, but the provision was almost never

exercised. Some regions survived on black market trade, and most policing officials simply ignored the

practice. Trilkin, however, did not. He captured dozens of smugglers and executed them all.

By the time the Freedom Guard revolution began, Trilkin had reached the rank of colonel. While many

Imperium officers wished to avoid combat duty, Trilkin immediately requested front line duty. In the

early years of the conflict, the Freedom Guard was poorly equipped and unorganized, and Trilkin dealt

them crushing defeats whenever he was able to engage their forces squarely. What Trilkin lacked in

tactical subtlety, he made up for with unflagging tenacity and merciless brutality.

Trilkin was quickly promoted to general and shortly thereafter was the driving force behind The Purge.

As the Freedom Guard began to enjoy its first military victories, pressure was high within Imperium ranks

to find scapegoats. Trilkin accused several of his fellow commanders of being Freedom Guard

sympathizers. Although there was no evidence to support his indictment, the men were discharged, and

the phenomenon quickly spread. Eventually hundreds of high ranking Imperium officials and military

commanders were accused of treason. Most of the accused were relieved of office, and a number were

even executed. At the age of 32, after less than 15 years in the military, Trilkin was placed in charge of

the entire Imperium armed forces. One of Trilkin's first acts in his new position was to commission the

creation of a super weapon to put a final end to the Freedom Guard. A little over a year later, Imperium

scientists developed the Desiccator.

GERHAD BANTRILL

Gerhad Bantrill was the son of an Imperium senator. At age 18 he joined the Imperium Army, but retired

four years later shortly after an incident in the Calderine system when he ordered the slaughter of a

group of Marked workers who had escaped from an agricultural labor colony. He then studied political

and military history at the great University of Utrecht where he graduated with honors. Bantrill's family

pushed him to move into politics, but he took a position as a professor at a university on Teron instead.

Bantrill was a great orator, and his reputation grew within the intellectual community. At age 37 he was

made president of the Central University Alliance and established the Great Library Cycle.

Unknown to most of Bantrill's friends and colleagues, he had become increasingly disenchanted with the

Imperium regime and had organized a small group of politicians and intellectuals who were running an

underground for escaped members of the Marked class. When the revolution began, Bantrill was still

living on Teron, and he established the Freedom Guard resistance there. For this act a bounty was

placed on his head by the Imperium Ruling Directorate, of which his father was now a member. Bantrill

recruited the young Jeb Radec to lead his forces, and the two became good friends. Eventually Radec and

Bantrill came to control the Synod and guide the fate of the entire Freedom Guard cause. While Radec

was the military commander and had ultimate authority, Bantrill was the Freedom Guard's great orator

and diplomat, and Radec entrusted him with all matters of negotiation and administration.

BENTH MARTEL

Benth Martel was the son of decorated Imperium General JT Martel. From early youth, Benth was

trained in the finest military academies. In his late twenties, Martel published a treatise titled "Modern

Ground Tactics." The volume was the first detailed analysis on the effects of hover technology on ground

based engagement strategy, and it almost immediately became standard reference material for military

officers around the galaxy. Freedom Guard Commander Gerhad Bantrill called Martel "one of the most

remarkable military minds of our age." Martel and Bantrill faced each other in the siege of Resnick.

Although outnumbered nearly four to one and without supplies, Martel was able to hold the city for over

six weeks until reinforcements arrived. Martel was also one of the few Imperium Generals to ever defeat

Freedom Guard Commander Radec in combat.

Shortly after General Trilkin was placed in charge of the entire war effort, Colonel Martel was recalled

from front line duty and was assigned to escort supply convoys. Although most of his colleagues

understood that Martel had been reassigned because Trilkin feared his subordinate's reputation and

ability, Martel accepted his duty without hesitation, stating "In the battle to preserve order, no role is

insignificant."

UNIT SPECIFICATIONS

Freedom Guard: Infantry

o Raider

o Mercenary

o Scout

o Sniper

o Infiltrator

o Flak Jack

o Field Medic

o Mechanic

o Saboteur

o Martyr

Freedom Guard: Vehicles

o Spider Bike

o Skirmish Tank

o Triple Hover Rail

o Tank Hunter

o Sky Bike

o Outrider

o Hellstorm Artillery

o Phase Tank

o Rapid Armored Transport

o Phase Runner

Imperium: Infantry

o Guardian

o Bion

o Exterminator

o Infiltrator

o Amper

Imperium: Vehicles

o Scout Runner

o Plasma Tank

o Tachyon Tank

o Cyclone

o Shredder

o S.C.A.R.A.B.

o Invader Troop Transport

o Mobile Air Defense

o Sky Fortress

o Hostage Taker

FREEDOM GUARD: INFANTRY

RAIDER

Type: March

Speed: Slow

Weapon: Dobek Heavy Laser Rifle

Range: Short

Armor: Light

"Raider" is the kindest of the labels employed by the Imperium Directorate to generally describe

Freedom Guard ground units. Over time, it was a label that the standard Freedom Guard infantry came

to wear proudly. Raiders were also the first units supplied with remote phasing transceivers. These

devices allowed them to use the Freedom Guard's most revolutionary technology: solid phase

transportation. "Phasing", as it is more commonly known, creates an electron field around a specified

body or object, allowing it to "sink into" objects of low to medium density as if they were liquid. (A

phase-equipped unit could not, for instance, phase into a steel wall, but could phase into the ground.)

While the Freedom Guard devised a number of fighting techniques and technologies, the phase-

equipped Raider remained the backbone of the Freedom Guard war effort for the duration of the

conflict.

MERCENARY: THE STORY OF JON BARD

Type: March

Speed: Slow

Weapon: 10J Shoulder Mount Rail Gun

Range: Short

Armor: Medium

While greatly outnumbered and under-equipped, the Freedom Guard was not without its powerful

benefactors. Indeed, it soon became clear to the Imperium directorate that for the Freedom Guard to

produce material and soldiers at the rate they were demonstrating, they must be enjoying substantial

outside help. And it was no secret that any of a number of large colonial manufacturing and shipping

operations might well see the potential of the Imperium's loss of direct control over their day to day

affairs as a positive development. It was in fact the case that one such large shipping concern did decide

to secretly aid the Freedom Guard. They recognized that the principal thing the Freedom Guard lacked,

other than equipment, was experienced fighters - and they knew just where to find them.

Renowned for his feats of strength and cunning, the fiery Jon Bard had become a legend throughout

much of the galaxy. Bard had been trained in the Imperium military and was in fact a young officer on a

transport ship when he made the most fateful decision of his life. When his ship came into port in

Peyrak, he found that several of the items being unloaded from the hold did not appear on his manifest.

Upon investigation, he discovered several crates containing neat stacks of humans who were being

shipped, frozen, to some nearby mining colonies. There they would drone away in caves in a condition of

virtual slavery. Horrified by the discovery of this secret cargo, Bard ordered the crates reloaded. He then

single-handedly seized control of the ship, killing the captain and physically throwing his crewmates out

onto the loading platform. Once away, he "thawed" the captive passengers who instantly became his

first followers.

For years Bard and his group lived as fugitives and as such were forced to train themselves to always be

prepared for combat. When they were approached by Encryton Shipping about joining the Freedom

Guard war effort as guns for hire, Bard and his band readily assented. It was in fact Jon Bard who

introduced the Freedom Guard to the effectiveness of the Rail Gun, and it was this type of weapon that

Bard's Mercenaries used to deadly effect for the remainder of the conflict.

SCOUT

Type: March

Speed: Medium

Weapon: None

Range: SN/C

Armor: Light

The Freedom Guard Synod recognized early in their struggle against the Imperium that they would never

be able to match their enemy's armored might. Instead, they focused their efforts on the development

of alternate stealth technologies. An entire secret research facility, Ascension Labs, was constructed for

this purpose. Their investigation of energized holoshielding produced a way to project a kind of 360

degree holographic image in a confined area, allowing units to "disguise" themselves as other objects.

The image field is projected from a kind of special energy suit. The earliest models of these were

distributed to troops involved in scouting and reconnaissance actions and permitted the wearer to

"morph" into virtually any similarly sized inanimate object.

SNIPER

Type: March

Speed: Medium

Weapon: 10J Site-fitted Rail Gun

Range: Long

Armor: Light

The Synod found it useful to develop a team of specialized sharpshooters to cut down on the Imperium's

ability to spread out their infantry over a wide area. These Snipers were outfitted with the same

"morphing" equipment as Freedom Guard Scouts.

INFILTRATOR

Type: March

Speed: Medium

Weapon: None

Range: SN/C

Armor: Light

Employing a hybrid of the Freedom Guard's earliest morphing technology, Infiltrators can create an

"active holoshield" around themselves using a very specialized energy suit. The Infiltrator's device is

sufficiently focused that it can create an image that exactly matches the contours of the user, allowing

him take on the appearance of other people. This breakthrough was immediately put to the test by

Freedom Guard intelligence agents, who used it to infiltrate the Imperium's hover research center on

Malik.

FLAK JACK

Type: March

Speed: Slow

Weapon: Twin Hailstorm Chaff Launchers

Range: Long

Armor: Light

The Freedom Guard's ingenuity was constantly put to the test in their attempts to figure out new ways

to create vehicles and weapons using the limited materials available to them. One of their more clever

creations was a small anti-aircraft unit that came into being when in the middle of their attack on

Ternalin, Freedom Guard general Lineas Drey, desperate to fend off marauding Imperium Cyclones, had

makeshift chaff launchers strapped to the shoulders of Construction Rigs. This arrangement was soon

standardized and the Freedom Guard continued to manufacture these "Flak Jacks" for the remainder of

the war.

FIELD MEDIC

Type: March

Speed: Slow

Weapon: None

Range: SN/C

Armor: Light

The Freedom Guard did the best they could to save the lives of their wounded soldiers in their grim war

against the monolithic Imperium. Field Medics were mostly volunteers with limited medical training who

braved storms of plasma fire to get to injured troops and, if possible, return them to fighting condition.

Many Field Medics drew criticism for a seeming lack of compassion when treating patients, but battle

after battle of bandaging wounds and re-attaching arms could make anyone jaded.

MECHANIC

Type: March

Speed: Slow

Weapon: None

Range: SN/C

Armor: Light

While the Freedom Guard often ran up against shortages in men and armaments, one thing they had in

good supply was skilled mechanics and field technicians. This was due in part to the fact that so many of

the Freedom Guard's number were descended from the old Exploratory Corps, which through bravery

and ingenuity colonized the galaxy. By necessity, members of the Exploratory Corps over the years

achieved a high level of technical self-sufficiency, and this tradition has been carried on in the Mechanic

Corps of the Freedom Guard.

SABOTEUR

Type: March

Speed: Slow

Weapon: None

Range: SN/C

Armor: Light

A number of Freedom Guard mechanics actually had pre-war experience working on Imperium

machinery and equipment. Their knowledge of Imperium construction technology meant in many cases

that they knew precisely how to quickly damage Imperium facilities.

MARTYR

Type: March

Speed: Medium

Range: None

Weapon: Concussive Plasma Detonator

(variable grade)

Armor: Light

It was in the Freedom Guard's desperate defense of their water processing facilities on Kendrick that the

tradition of Freedom Guard suicide bombers was born. One badly wounded Raider, Kit Aphaus,

considered his position as he crouched in a ditch waiting for the medics to arrive. What was the point of

the medics risking their lives to get to him and then wasting their precious supplies on him? He was

nearly twenty-five years old, and because he was among the "marked", he would soon die anyway. Then

a desperate idea came to him. He had with him several of the concussion detonators he and his group

had been hoping to attach to the bottoms of Tachyon Tanks as they hovered by. This strategy had failed,

but maybe his new idea would work. If he was going to die anyway, why not take as many Imperium

troops and vehicles as he could with him. With a defiant yell, he suddenly sprang up from his ditch with

three detonators and ran screaming toward a mass of Imperium tanks and Guardians. His comrades

looked up from their hiding places, fascinated and horrified by their own identification with the feelings

that must have driven their friend to such a desperate action. Suddenly, there was a gigantic, bright

plasma blast. The ground shook. Half dozen Guardians were strewn in pieces in the pass below, and a

Tachyon Tank was flipped over on its turret. In response, a cloud of Bions and Guardians emerged into

the pass like angry bees.\n\n

"That's it!" cried the group leader, "We're goin'". Following his lead, each Raider deactivated his phasing

transceiver and ran straight into the Imperium ranks. Several were cut down by Bion fire on the way, but

many made it through. The massive explosion could be seen from the portals of Imperium ships in orbit

above the planet. After the battle, Aphaus and his comrades were accorded the highest honors and were

even designated as Martyrs for the Cause. In ensuing battles, a number of marked 24-year-old Freedom

Guard soldiers followed their examples. These suicide runs in fact came to be seen as the most

honorable way to die, and Freedom Guard Martyrs remained a serious base defense problem for the

Imperium for the rest of the conflict.

FREEDOM GUARD: VEHICLES

SPIDER BIKE

Type: On Special Wheels

Speed: High

Weapon: Two 30J Berrik Rail Guns

Range: Medium

Armor: Medium

Propulsion: Duff 540G Lowpiper engine

Spider Bikes first appeared in the early days of the uprisings around the remote settlement of New Star

Colony on Gilwoch in 2589. The Bikes were constructed to take maximum advantage of the steep grades

of Gilwoch's rough, hill-rippled terrain. So successful were their relentless lightning raids that the

Imperium, whose hover tanks were helpless to pursue the insurgents up the winding slopes, was forced

to abandon Gilwoch for good three years later.

SKIRMISH TANK

Type: On track land rails

Speed: Medium

Weapon: Twin Arclaunch missile launchers

Range: Medium

Armor: Medium

Propulsion: Hurveth 7.2 Rider

Eccentric tinkerer Ravor Hurveth was originally a designer of agricultural machinery on Teron in the years

before the Freedom Guard uprising. As the war expanded, Hurveth was approached by his younger

brother Jom, a Freedom Guard officer, about the possibility of developing some kind of armored vehicle

that could provide sufficient support for his troops that they could stand and fight against Imperium

Plasma Tanks. Hurveth agreed to try to put something together using parts from some of his heavy-

tracked land clearing equipment. The result was the sturdy, versatile little Skirmish Tank, which Hurveth

outfitted with twin rotating missile launchers. Many Skirmish Tanks came to be affectionately referred to

by their drivers as "Hurveys".

TRIPLE HOVER RAIL TANK

Type: Hover

Speed: Medium

Weapon: Three 50J Berrik Rail Guns

Range: Long

Armor: Heavy

Propulsion: Arenson Waveloader

Resistance Engine

While rumors had circulated for months in the halls in the Imperium Directorate that key schematics for

a new style of hover vehicle had been intercepted by Freedom Guard infiltrators during the raid on

Malik, Imperium commanders were nonetheless stunned when rail gun armed Freedom Guard tanks

using hover technology suddenly appeared skimming over the sulfurous sludge of the Waerlmarsh lake

on Teedan. The new Triple Rail Hover Tanks easily wiped out a squad of Plasma tanks that regularly

guarded the convoys of Hover Freighters ferrying freshwater over the marsh to the central launch site in

Hobeth.

TANK HUNTER


Speed: Medium

Weapon: Fieldwall Spitcharger

Range: Medium

Armor: Medium

Propulsion: Hurveth 7.2 Rider

When first introduced, Imperium Plasma Tanks boasted such great weapon range and such heavy armor

that they often went into action without infantry or air support. They seemed virtually invincible. It was a

year before the Freedom Guard was able to counter, but when they did, the results were dramatic. It

was during the Imperium's Rehnnish counter-offensive that a column of Plasma Tanks on patrol in the

narrow lanes of the "haunted forest" of Yepradii were suddenly overwhelmed by what one Imperium

survivor of the encounter described as "rolling sheets of lightning". What wiped out the armored column

was in fact a new kind of Freedom Guard vehicle equipped with a short range electrostatic weapon that

crippled the Imperium's field absorption armor. These quick little scorpion-like monsters could be

devastating in close combat, but their powerful weapon had extremely short range and was therefore

most effective in confined areas.

SKY BIKE

Type: Aerial

Speed: High

Weapon: Twin Stip Mini-Missile Launchers

Range: Short

Armor: Light

Propulsion: Airvorc Streamjet

Ravor Hurveth's Skirmish Tank design was so lauded that the odd little inventor was next asked to figure

out a way to make a "flying Spider Bike". Hurveth's design was clean and elegant. The heavy wheels and

spring axles were removed from the bike body, and strong, lightweight berrite wings were added.

Common Streamjet engines, standard equipment on many recreational vehicles, were installed in the

rear. The first models also carried rail guns, but their firing mechanism caused so much in-flight

instability that they had to be replaced with high-velocity Stip missiles.

OUTRIDER

Type: Aerial

Speed: High

Weapon: Boardog Missiles

Range: Short

Armor: Heavy

Propulsion: Airvorc Skywinder

In addition to the darting Sky Bikes, the Freedom Guard Synod determined they would also need some

heavier aircraft to help break up columns of Imperium armor at long range. At first they were skeptical of

the plans presented to them by Fenton Duchslyn, whose design appeared unflightworthy. A corps of

brave volunteers was recruited to test pilot his odd fixed-wing fliers. Much to the Synod's surprise and

relief, the new craft, though awkward looking, performed acceptably and easily pummeled their practice

targets. The young pilots who tested them bound themselves together in a kind of fraternity, dubbing

themselves "the outriders", and the name soon came to be identified with the aircraft themselves.

(Many of these courageous young pilots were lost during the Freedom Guard's attempt to break the

siege of Indra.) For the remainder of the war, Freedom Guard infantry hemmed in by Imperium armor

would regularly call in airstrikes, knowing that the Outrider "cavalry" would soon be on its way to rescue

them.

HELLSTORM ARTILLERY


Speed: Slow

Weapon: K900 Range Warden Howitzer

Range: Extreme

Armor: Medium

Propulsion: Duff C70 “Crawler”

It became clear after the advent of the Tachyon Tank that Imperium forces were best engaged at long

range. During their successful attack on Corlbad, the Freedom Guard encountered little-used Imperium

S.C.A.R.A.B.s (mobile heavy artillery), and it occurred to them that it made perfect sense for them to

develop this type of long-range weaponry for themselves. The result was "Hellstorm" Artillery, which

fired a rifled fragmentation shell that had an extremely wide area of effect. The Hellstorms are vicious

from great distance, but move slowly and are very lightly armored, rendering them rather hapless

targets at short range.

PHASE TANK


Speed: Medium

Weapon: Newell Heavy Laser Cannons

Range: Medium

Armor: Light

Propulsion: Duff C50 “Grinder”

The ultimate tool for ambushing, Phase Tanks were modified versions of the Freedoms Guard's earliest

armored vehicle model, the T1 Reaper. Using the same phasing technology employed by Raiders and

Barden Mercenaries, a group of them could completely nullify the range advantage of Tachyon Tanks by

"popping up" right next to them. Relatively inexpensive, the Freedom Guard ended up producing large

quantities of these little "barn roofed" tanks for much of the war.

RAPID ARMORED TRANSPORT

Type: On Wheels

Speed: Medium

Weapon: None

Range: SN/C

Armor: Medium

Propulsion: Duff All-Terrain Rider

The workhorse of the Freedom Guard infantry, Rapid Armored Transports (more commonly referred to

by their acronym, "Rats") can move over almost any surface, including water. (Special navigation fins

were added after the first production run.) The Rats can carry up to five infantry units and use a

technology similar to that used by Freedom Guard Scouts that allows them to optically "blend in" with

the surrounding terrain.

PHASE RUNNER

Type: Underground

Speed: Slow

Weapon: None

Range: SN/C

Armor: SN/C

Propulsion: High EDN Field Inverter

The highest achievement in phasing technology, the Phase Transport came into being as part of the

Freedom Guard's strategy for breaking through the defenses of the Imperium's Desiccator research

facility on Corlbad. Hezekiah Smith, chief of development at the Freedom Guard's secret Ascension Labs,

is credited with having found the way to enable a vehicle to shift the active radius of its phasing shield

and therefore allow it to move through "solid" ground. Phase Transports became extremely valuable

tactical tools, but could never be used in large quantities because of the tremendous expense of building

the generators that were necessary to project the Transport's inversion field.

IMPERIUM: INFANTRY

GUARDIAN

Type: March

Speed: Slow

Weapon: Issue 5

Standard Laser Rifle

Range: Short

Armor: Light

For nearly a century, they were known as "The Guardians of Order", "Guardians of the Order", or simply

"Guardians". They were the colonial police force, a faceless symbol of Imperium policy and the will to

enforce it. Equipped with masked helmets, powered body armor, and years of rigorous training, the

Guardians are in appearance and action the embodiment of the Order's creed: "the many as one."

BION

Type: March

Speed: Slow

Weapon: Heavy Plasma Rifle

Range: Short

Armor: Medium

Bions, bionetic fighting "men", were originally manufactured by Insignus in small quantities and were

intended to be anti-tank units and base guards. So effective were they in their first engagements,

however, that they were soon being produced in large numbers. Bions are hard to bring down and are

useful against infantry, armor, air units, and even structures.

EXTERMINATOR

Type: Hover Suit/March

Speed: Medium

Weapon: Roll-lock Disalunion Grenades

Range: Short

Armor: Light

At first Imperium engineers were uncertain as to how to make the best use of their new acid-based

metal dissolving foaming agent. The advent of hover suit troops provided the perfect delivery

mechanism. The foam was packed into pressurized grenades which explode into a cloud of burning acid

upon impact. The term "Exterminator" was coined by Marshal Ignatius Arryat, who often referred to

Freedom Guard Spider Bikes as "little insects".

INFILTRATOR

Type: March

Speed: Medium

Weapon: None

Range: SN/C

Armor: Light

It was some time before several arrogant members of the Imperium Shadowhand came to accept that

the Freedom Guard had in fact developed technology that they were interested in acquiring. After being

outwitted on Malik in the Freedom Guard Infiltrator's theft of hoverdrive technical specs, the

Shadowhand determined to use similarly equipped units to gather technical information concerning

some of the new Freedom Guard innovations. Powered holofield suits were rapidly developed, and

disguised Shadowhand operatives made several successful acquisitions. Most of the technology stealing,

however, was still carried on by the Freedom Guard.

AMPER

Type: March

Speed: Slow

Weapon: Biodarts

Range: Short

Armor: Light

On the cloud-shrouded world of Amataur there is a massive edifice that dominates one of the larger

islands in the phosphorescent Regen Sea. Inside is one of the Imperium Directorate's most closely

guarded secrets: the Arcundrel Life Research Center. Despite its benign name, it is rumored that the

center is home to some of the most deplorable human research experiments ever conceived. Many of

the technicians who staff the facility are in fact products of some of the cybernetic research that is

carried on there. (It can be fairly assumed that much of the research that went into the development of

Bions took place at the Arcundrel Center.)

It was the Shadowhand that initially suggested to the directorate that some of the Center's research into

biotoxins might be put to good use on the battlefield. Soldiers who were badly wounded could be shot

full of a kind of adrenal booster, giving them a burst of fighting energy. The boosters were toxic, and

ultimately fatal, but the idea was appealing to the military because it meant that engaged troops could

stay in the field longer. For the delivery of the required biodarts, the Shadowhand recommended using

some of the cyber genetic creations that worked in Arcundrel. Accepting the Shadowhand's suggestions,

the Imperium High Command soon put into action several teams of these tri-legged, half-human

monsters. In time they found that the "Ampers", as they came to be called, could even be used

effectively against healthy Freedom Guard infantry. Upon seeing these creatures in battle, Freedom

Guard leader Gerhad Bantrill observed, "If any are still in doubt as to the justice and urgency of our

cause, they need only see this horror and the infected character of our enemy will be made undeniably

plain."

IMPERIUM: VEHICLES

SCOUT RUNNER

Type: Hover

Speed: Medium

Weapon: DF Set Laser Cannon

Range: Medium

Armor: Medium

Propulsion: Nebolite Micro-reactor

Precursors of their heavier cousins the Plasma and Tachyon Tanks, the original Scout Runners had been

created as armored single-manned patrol craft to support light infantry actions during the Healean

disturbance on Feisis nearly twenty years before the emergence of the Freedom Guard. Refined and

refitted with a new propulsion system and special long-range scanning equipment, the Scout Runner is

now the perfect tool for probing enemy defenses and uncovering the strike bases of Freedom Guard

raiding parties.

PLASMA TANK

Type: Hover

Speed: Medium

Weapon: 3000P Plasma Cannon

Range: Medium

Armor: Heavy

Propulsion: Ditanium Accelerator

Plasma Tanks became the principal symbol of Imperium enforcement during the early years of the

Freedom Guard uprising. Their smooth black outline was the product of the streamlined design concept

that was the trademark of their manufacturer, Insignus, and gave the tanks an especially cold, inhuman

appearance.

TACHYON TANK

Type: Hover

Speed: Medium

Weapon: 5000G Tachyon Cannon

Range: Long

Armor: Very Heavy

Propulsion: Ditanium Float Reactor

The most awesome war machine ever created, by Insignus for their Imperium clients, the Tachyon Tank,

with its revolutionary field-absorption armor and powerful Tachyon cannon, stood as the unchallenged

behemoth of the battlefield for nearly a year until the Freedom Guard was able to counter with new

technologies of their own. Even when cut off or surrounded, the Tachyon Tank is far from helpless: the

Imperium high command directed that it be outfitted with a powerful nucleonic disruption self-destruct

mechanism to prevent its ever being captured and replicated.

CYCLONE

Type: Aerial

Speed: High

Weapon: Wat T11 Neutron Cannon

Propulsion: Pulsipher Reverse Injection Core

Range: Medium

Armor: Medium

Small military aircraft had been largely unnecessary for the Imperium until the advent of the Freedom

Guard insurgency. In 2609, Insignus, the Imperium's principal military engineering firm, offered a new

design: a light, fast attack flyer that could break and spin at full running speed and come to a dead stop

in mid-air. These "Cyclones" proved the perfect tool for chasing down swift Freedom Guard Spider Bikes

as they scurried back to their hilltop hide-outs after raiding expeditions.

SHREDDER

Type: Hover

Speed: Medium

Weapon: Modified Quarry-saw

Range: At contact

Armor: Medium

Propulsion: Nebolite Airmount

Perhaps the best example of the Imperium's twisted ingenuity, the Shredder existed in fantasy before it

existed in fact. As legend has it, many years ago, unruly prisoners interred at the old Jovian Detention

Facility were shipped off to work in the quarries on Callisto. Those who were captured trying to escape

were said to have been slowly dismembered in front of the other prisoners with the huge circular saws

used to cut out large sections of the rock. (While this may have never really happened, the stories were

well known to generations of misbehaving children descended from the ranks of the old Exploratory

Corps.) Imperium General Feileen Hextar decided it would be clever to revive these rumors as a prelude

to the introduction of the frightening new anti-infantry weapon that the old story had inspired. Many of

the earlier models of Hextar's new "Shredders" were in fact manufactured using re-tooled circular

quarrysaw blades. These fiendish unmanned disks of death cut down scores of Freedom Guard Raiders in

their first action on Teron.

S.C.A.R.A.B.

Type: Hover

Speed: Slow

Weapon: Tarl-lined Heavy Strike-cannon

Range: Extreme

Armor: Medium

Propulsion: Air-cooled Ditanium

Accelerator

The S.C.A.R.A.B.s (Self Contained Armored Ranged Artillery Battery) were one of the earlier projects

undertaken by Insignus. They were actually little used in the first years of the conflict because Imperium

commanders had such difficulty identifying fixed Freedom Guard targets at long range. In the defense of

Corlbad, however, they proved to be of great value when they were used for the first time in

combination with new Imperium Recon Drones, which supplied them with the necessary targeting

information. S.C.A.R.A.B.s were also the first vehicle to employ Insignus' experimental exoskeletal

shielding. The shield provides extremely effective protection, but is impractical for use with tanks

because it prevents movement and weapon fire.

INVADER TROOP TRANSPORT

Type: Hover

Speed: Medium

Weapon: DF Set Heavy Laser Rifle

Range: Short

Armor: Medium

Propulsion: Nebolite Micro-reactor

A common sight in all the colonial administrative districts, these sleek hover transports could rapidly

bring packs of Guardians to any spot where there was trouble. Modified at the time of the Freedom

Guard uprising to include a heavy turret mounted laser rifle, the Invaders were often able to wade into

ranks of heavily armed Freedom Guard Mercenaries and deliver their passengers into the center of the

battle.

MOBILE AIR DEFENSE

Type: Hover

Speed: Medium

Weapon: Orbitran Stingers

Range: Long

Armor: Light

Propulsion: Ditanium Accelerator

The new M.A.D.s came off the Insignus production lines just in time to help defend Imperium tanks at

the siege of Indra against airstrikes by heavy hitting Freedom Guard Outriders. The M.A.D.s’ weapon is of

the more curious employed by the Imperium: a charged, bladed orb that could, if scoring a direct hit, cut

an Outrider or Sky Bike to pieces. Most Insignus vehicles are equipped with hover capability, and the

M.A.D.s are no exception. They are excellent for defending artillery batteries from sudden air attacks.

SKY FORTRESS

Type: Aerial

Speed: Slow

Weapon: Ariax Plasma Compressor

Range: Medium

Armor: Heavy

Propulsion: Pulsipher Read Reactor

The Imperium High Command was determined to use every weapon at their disposal to ensure that their

campaign to take Gunawan was successful. To this end, they unleashed their newest air terror, the "Sky

Fortress". These massive ring-shaped behemoths float over the landscape as placidly as old-style

dirigibles, but this image of tranquility is shattered when they let loose a discharge from their massive

plasma compression weapons. Despite its tremendous firepower, the Sky Fortress is ponderously slow

and makes an easy target for ground based Freedom Guard Flak Jacks who scan the skies searching for

signs of these hulking monsters looming over the horizon.

HOSTAGE TAKER

Type: On Wheels

Speed: Medium

Weapon: None/Vivisection

Range: Medium

Armor: Heavy

Propulsion: Unknown

Despite the fact of the Directorate's growing concern over the increasingly independent activity of the

Shadowhand in Imperium affairs, Imperium field commanders continue to support the cooperative use

of the Shadowhand's Hostage Taker vehicles in military campaigns. Their desire to continue in this

relationship stemmed in part from their frustration in trying to find a way to respond to the suicide

attacks of Freedom Guard Martyrs. Representatives of the Shadowhand had promised the High

Command they had a way to serve the Freedom Guard a taste of their own poison. Few details were

offered. When Imperium generals expressed their reservations, the Shadowhand responded by arriving

uninvited on the battlefield with a whole platoon of these evil, body-sucking monsters.

"Demonstrations" were first made of a small group of Freedom Guard prisoners being guarded nearby.

Almost in an instant, each man was sucked into the dark maw of the hump-backed beast. The officer in

charge was incensed. "We were going to question those people!" he protested. "Questioning?"

responded the unnamed Shadowhand operative. "It is fortunate for the Directorate that our methods

are not so primitive. If you want to know what they knew... Ah, yes. It's coming across just now." He

handed his personal console to the dumbfounded Imperium commander. "And now, observe." He

gestured toward the rear of the vehicle, where one by one the men who had so recently been sucked in

suddenly emerged. Each had a kind of pack strapped to his back. They did not speak and barely even

twitched as they stared blankly outward. "And now," intoned the operative softly as he gently struck a

key on his console. Suddenly the prisoners' eyed shot fully open and each man spun on his heel and

began running full speed out of the encampment and back in the direction of the Freedom Guard's base.

Moments later, loud concussions could be heard from the same direction. The officer in charge smiled at

the operative, and the partnership was born.

JOURNAL

Togran Calendar: 102-37, 2712

I haven't slept for days. When I close my eyes horrible images seize my mind, tearing at the very tissues

of my brain. I see my brethren slaughtered in giant waves of fire that sweep across the horizon. I see

their broken corpses and smell their seared flesh. I feel our planet shudder under the ominous weight of

the invading armies.

All I have known is destroyed. Everything is stripped from me but my life. Some base instinct, some

mechanical, genetic obligation to survive at any cost carried me to my ship, drew me away from the

burning carcass of my home. And now here, adrift in the silent oblivion, I have found my Messiah, and he

wants me to save him.


This game of war is alien to me. I fumble to command these machines, these tools of destruction.

Control escapes me. They slip though my fingers like sand. But I will learn. I will master these weapons. I

will bend them to my will. I am consumed with a motivation I have never known. A new force grips me, a

diamond sharp spike of fire in the bowels of my soul. I now know the savage power of hatred.


I tried to circumvent the encryption key, but the probe's mechanisms are incomprehensible to me. In

fact, it doesn't seem to have any mechanisms at all. The core of the probe is made up of some

inexplicable form of matter. I hesitate to even call it that. It's opaque but somehow colorless. It seems to

resist my gaze, as if it rests always in the blind spot of my eye. It has no texture or temperature. In fact, I

am only aware I am touching it by a complete lack of sensation wherever I come into contact with it. It's

almost as if the substance is actually denying its own existence. My instruments can detect no electric,

chemical or atomic activity in the material. No light, no sound, no emissions, no motion, no energy of any

kind. And yet somehow it has taken control of my ship. My power reserves are untapped. Life support

continues to function although my entire onboard support system is off-line. The navigation systems no

longer respond to my commands, yet the ship moves safely through space on its own. Not that it

matters. It's not as if I have anywhere to go.


I wonder who Togra really is. I had always thought of him as a symbol, a mythical ideal. But now it seems

there is really a man behind the ideas that have formed so much of my knowledge. Does he really

possess the power that history claims he has?


I have found a routine here in my new world. I have explored every angle and inch of this ship. I have

seen and heard all there is to see and hear. All my needs are silently and automatically tended to. Day

and night no longer exist for me. I am never hot or cold, never bored or happy. I have survived so long on

nutrient injections; I no longer remember the taste or texture of food. When I feel hunger I think only of

the sharp prick of the needle. I rarely sleep. My universe is contained, predictable, homogenous. Except

for my mission. Strangely I only feel alive in a neural simulation of battles that are centuries old. I am

becoming my purpose. I am becoming Togra's tool. I will be his vengeance.


I am finding the answers I need. Both the Imperium and Freedom Guard have flaws that I can exploit.

The Imperium's armies are strong and relentless. They seek to overrun their enemy with limitless force.

To err against them means certain death. But they are predictable. I have watched them attack so many

times I can feel when and where they will strike. While the head of the beast is missing me I am cutting

off its tail. The Freedom Guard is cleverer. They have to be. Their troops move about the battlefield like

apparitions. Their attacks are swift and precise. But they rely too heavily on trickery. When their deceits

fail, they are vulnerable. And I am more resourceful an opponent than they have faced.


I have changed. All the peace is gone from my soul, and, to be honest, I don't miss it. The strength I once

knew strength of will and patience has been replaced by a cheaper but more satisfying strength, strength

of action, strength of deeds. I am no longer fighting to save Togra, or to save my way of life, or even to

save myself. I am fighting simply because I enjoy it.


What will become of me if I succeed? Will Togra be able to send me back to my own time and place?

Would I even want to go back? Or will all of this change history enough that my home will not even exist

when I am through?


Supplies are running low. I can survive only a few more weeks, I think. It should be long enough. I will

succeed or die at these controls.


The end of all this is near. In a way, none of it seems real. It is hard to believe that I am going to travel

through this wormhole or dimensional portal or whatever it is that Togra has devised for me. It is

unfathomable that I am to lead an army into this great conflict, that my actions may alter the substance

of time. Sometimes I fear that I have gone mad, that my body lies drooling and wracked with spasms,

strapped to a bed in some institution while my mind conjures this whole lunatic phantasm of war and

time travel and lost prophets. On the other hand, what is happening to me seems more real than

anything I have ever experienced.


Galactic war and dimensional portals are all fine and good, but I could sure go for some pie.


I have found my way. I am honed, vicious, prepared. I feel their machines of war flow though me like my

very blood. I can focus them to a knife's edge. Their implements are simple, their motivations

transparent, their methods mundane. I can control their armies better than they can. I will strangle them

with their own hand. I will fulfill my destiny.

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Dark Reign the Future of War Novel

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