Chains of Uriel

The crest of the Chains of Uriel

The summation of numerous allied actions by the Houses Crux and Fornax, the Chains of Uriel was officially inaugurated in 3101 during the reign of the Shining Star. Bound in the defense of the Empire, and the blood spilled to protect it, the two Houses have fought side by side both on the battlefield and in the halls of law, licensing and protecting the vessels of Acheron Rho and bolstering the defense of outlying worlds.

## Noblesse Oblige

On the one hundredth anniversary of the Chains of Uriel’s founding, 3201, House Fornax and House Crux unveiled the *Noblesse Oblige,* a large, roaming fleet crewed primarily by the two Houses. The fleet included a number of existing and newly finished vessels, gathered together in a mobile base and symbol of the Empire’s will and justice. The outer reaches of the Sector can be inhospitable and unwelcoming, and from the *Noblesse Oblige* the Empire can respond to threats, unrest, and disasters from a position of exceptional power and safety. While the fleet does not represent the significant firepower of a capital armada, it carries the resources and tools necessary to protect the outer reaches.

## Wax Seal of the Chains of Uriel

The seal is also sometimes used as an armor decal

A joint initiative between House Fornax and House Crux, SCRAP focuses on the registration and tracking of existing spacefaring vessels. Previously, it also included searching for and reacquiring stolen craft and recording those that had been destroyed.

Each vessel in the Empire has both a transponder signal and what is referred to as a “maker’s mark.” The transponder signal is what is most often used for docking and identification, but this can be tampered with, modified, or faked with the right equipment and know-how. The maker’s mark, however, is physically part of a vessel, buried deep within the bowels, and far more difficult to remove or tamper with without being an immediate giveaway to inspectors that some sort of modification or tampering has taken place. A lot of time is required to scan the mark, and even the smallest alteration will often be easily noticeable. That said, most average inspectors won’t think to call for official inspection of this mark, and as it is physical and not electronic, many criminals simply leave the mark intact and steer clear of highly-guarded spaceports and stations. Damaging or removing the Mark also makes a vessel more difficult to accurately identify, even if it may be obvious some sort of tampering took place.

Legally registered vessels automatically send transponder data to House Fornax, including docking, repair requests, and system entry and departure pings. House Crux may request data on single ships, groups of ships, or entire systems as part of investigations, but otherwise interacts in less direct ways, making sure registration documents are regularly renewed and legal.

Before the War Against the Artificials, Houses Crux and Fornax also handled the business of searching for and reacquiring stolen vessels and recording those that had been destroyed. But with both Houses severely set back by the War Against the Artificials, it proved difficult for either to keep up with the enormous number of vessels reported stolen or possibly destroyed following the War.

To alleviate this problem, House Fornax reached out to the then “House,” Vagrant, a pirate force the Empire had already been considering for legitimization to hopefully prevent their forces from joining the side of the STO. House Fornax proposed “House,” Vagrant be allowed to perform legally recognized salvage operations, including retrieving stolen vessels and dealing with destroyed ones. House Crux, once informed, was initially opposed, but eventually agreed on the grounds of supporting Vagrant’s legitimization and admitting their own inability to fulfill the large task following the setbacks they had experienced through the War against Cygnus. The Confederation of the Upright Vagrant, as the pirate fleets would be known following the activation of the Cerberus Protocols, were provided with the appropriate terms and contracts of salvage by Houses Crux and Fornax.

Paperwork is still processed by Crux and Fornax following retrieval of vessels or reports of destruction, but whether or not Vagrant provides accurate information in every instance is difficult to say.

Additionally, any criminal activities that have taken place on vessels are technically required by law to be reported to House Crux and House Fornax. Murders, smuggling, vandalism, kidnapping, the harboring of Synthetic Humans, and other, lesser crimes should be declared to House Crux either via communications or at the nearest port of call. Depending on the nature of the crime, a team of Crucian forensics experts and Fornax ship examiners may be dispatched to comb the scene of the crime and discover what happened. That said, many crimes of the void go unreported or inaccurately reported. As long as a distress beacon is not activated or its transmission is interrupted, and any survivors keep their mouths shut, House Crux may never learn of nefarious deeds that take place during spike drive travel or in the quiet darkness of distant star systems.

## The Account of Haele's Gambit

Towards the end of the 31st century, the Empire was in a state of relative peace. From the Masked Emperox of House Lyra the new Emperox, Vela’s Shining Star, inherited a functioning conglomerate of working systems in the core, though people were still wary of the wars fought in the not-so-distant past. With prudence and intelligence did Emperox Vela Padma Noy lead the Empire into a safe and peaceful time, the then-glorious synthetic humans starting to revolutionize labor and every imperial citizen’s daily life.

No great tragedies or political disasters would disrupt the peace, but smaller incidents occurred and tested the Empire’s brittle unity. One of these was Haele’s Gambit, two noble houses striking out against insurgents only to find themselves both beaten and betrayed.

In 3096, far outside of the core in the Meneus system, a momentous exile took place. A man, nowadays known only by his chosen name, left the planet of Ias in disgrace. The local governor of Boomtyn Sergelt, mostly known for his mining operations, the man was voted out of office, and would become none other than the infamous Meneus Khan, as he would soon style himself. Born into a miner’s family, and a miner himself with a knack for explosives, “Khan,” worked his way up from the dirt underground to the leader of a miner’s union, and finally into the political position of the region’s local governor. Miners looked up to him, as he took many of their woes to heart, and he had known most of them himself when he worked in the mines. Yet the success of his early days quickly waned, as politics tends to swallow those not careful enough - and Khan was everything but careful.

His loud, honest mouth got him into trouble with other officials, and finally the liege lord he worked under. Proposals of his were shut down one by one, as his liege lord toyed with Khan for his own amusement. Much too quickly did other serfs in administrative positions shift their allegiances toward their liege lord and their sympathies away from Meneus Khan, to his despair. They were bought like dirt with cheap promises and the suggestion that appeasing one’s lord is always more important and helpful than to stand on the side of a serf who dabbled in political games he had no place in.

Ultimately voted out of office, Khan left in anger - and took with him dozens of loyal men, mining equipment, weapons stolen from noble guards and, most concerning and impressive at the same time, starships. Only then did his liege lord find out that Meneus Khan had been embezzling large funds for months and months.

Leaving Ias, the former local governor and his men now took root in the asteroid belt called 29 Copernicus, they built a hidden base and started their new lives in freedom - as pirates called Khan Mịn (‘Khan’s Dynamite’). This group of criminals would have rang alarm bells all over the core, if they had raised their flag there. Alas, far outside of most travel lanes and transport lines, the Meneus system was never one to be much in the focus of anyone. And so the pirates not only took root but ran very successful operations. They captured other ships, smuggled goods, and even attempted, and twice succeeded in, freeing prisoners en route to Gleipnir.

Slowly but steadily they swelled in size and number, and with them grew Meneus Khan’s ambition as well. Life in freedom was the original goal, but soon Khan looked past that. Would it not be reasonable to bring down those who played him so dirty? And wouldn’t it be justified if the people responsible, truly responsible, those in the Core, would suffer like “Khan,” had?

Fueled by not only anger but burning ardour, the Khan Mịn started to prepare for more than just small scale pirate operations. They discovered ways into the core away from most of the Empire’s scrying eyes, and released pamphlets on Hiera, Gats and Imperial Prime, but to no avail. Imperial security bureaus quickly caught on and suppressed any of the badly written political statements of Khan’s followers. This act brought the organization onto the radar of the Empire, but with their homebase so far away, the nobles of the core worlds and the Imperial House decided not to act immediately. Compared to the forces of the Empire, the pirates posed no actual threat, and thus were they treated. Those of them who were captured were imprisoned on Gleipnir without much furor.

Even after the pirates managed a surprise raid on the Hieran moon Throphe, a home of relaxation and enjoyment for the rich, leaving an entire shopping district near the spaceport devastated and dozens of Crucian nobles shaken to their core by their violence and foul mouths, Imperial Prime and its government seemed to remain uninterested.

Then, in 3101, the Khan Mịn overstepped their boundaries and blew up one of the major mining projects on Arago in the Imperial Prime system. No less than six different mines suffered from crude explosives triggered from the pirates, burying and destroying thousands of expensive mining robots and some human serf workers. The mines were run by House Fornax, who relied on the steady supply of different polymers won from them. The Senate on Maja rushed to decide how to react to such an attack. While rumors until today persist that the nobles blew up at least a small number of the mines themselves along with the pirate attack, no proof was ever found.

In a hastily arranged meeting with some of the Emperox’s officials on Imperial Prime, the Shining Star themselves not present as they were travelling, Fornax nobles were disappointed to find the Empire as a whole feigned no interest in quick retaliation. None of the other noble houses acted as if the deaths of Majan serfs and destruction of noble property were enough of a problem to act, except for House Crux, who were quick to take Fornax’s side. The attacks on transports to Gleipnir, the pirates’ insolence in attacking Throphe, and their attempts to become a powerful political entity even in the core and on Hiera itself angered House Crux, as did the apparent ignorance from the Empire of such a potential threat.

Disappointed with the imperial officials, House Crux and House Fornax quietly and without imperial demand put together a small fleet of ships to enforce the law and rip out the root of the problem, a strike force called “Haele’s Fist” to eliminate Meneus Khan and his followers in the 29 Copernicus asteroid belt.

Armed with the most modern weapons and defenses, the ships entered the Meneus system and took course towards the asteroid belt. 29 Copernicus was vast, larger than older data had accurately depicted, and the possibilities to hide were countless. It took Haele’s Fist months to finally get key energy signatures of ships trying to stealthily fly in and out of the system. Following detection, the strike force bulldozed directly into a particularly dense field of rocky satellites to find and destroy the pirate base. One decisive hit would be all that was needed to end Meneus Khan and his follies.

Yet what the fleet flew into was nothing but an ambush. With primitive slings the pirates hurled large rocks, chunks of asteroid and debris, into the approaching ships, an attack that Fornax itself had used in the war against the Blood Eagle only a 150 years ago. Stolen defense systems of almost planetary proportions fired lasers and rockets at the noble vessels from hidden nests amongst the asteroids. The battle was short, brutal and never truly winnable for the houses Crux and Fornax. In the end, Meneus Khan himself even joined the fight in his battleship, a converted prison transport. Yet the arrogance he showed to enter the battle in his own ship was his downfall, as even in defeat the trained pilots of the noble houses proved their discipline. As soon as they identified the ship, the entirety of the remaining forces shifted focus towards it, and Khan and his vessel were shot to bits and pieces, nothing remaining but a dust cloud in space.

The aftermath of that battle was a harsh reality check for House Crux and House Fornax; it took months for them to receive news of their defeat. And only days after such news hit the worlds of Hiera and Maja, an imperial pardon was issued that angered the two noble houses so much that to this day they refuse to speak about it. In an attempt to stop unnecessary violent escalations, officials working under the Shining Star pardoned the leading figures remaining from Khan Mịn, former pirates and sworn brothers to the terrorist Meneus Khan. Unbeknownst to Crux and Fornax, Imperial officials had worked to find a peaceful solution and a disarmament of Khan’s followers for months, starting even before the attack on Throphe. The Khan Mịn were well-connected, and their bases in other systems proved useful smuggling operations for many nobles in the core.

Enraged at the apparent indifference from other noble houses to the losses suffered, House Fornax and House Crux came together and decided not to let this inglorious chapter end there. Instead, they amassed a large fleet of battleships, supported by hundreds of Crucian law enforcement ships and took course toward the Meneus system once more. Their information was accurate. Even after the royal pardons, the pirate bases in the asteroid belt were still used by those not lucky enough to be part of the upper levels of Khan’s organization. This time the fleet took no chances and demanded occupants of the asteroid belt to surrender or be blasted to bits. Around four hundred pirates, smugglers and criminals gave up in the sight of such an overwhelming force, their defensive systems not yet put back in place. The pirate bases were carefully cleared and every pirate found convicted to work to atone for their sins.

Without the knowledge of the Imperial House and most other nobles, House Crux and House Fornax transported these people to the Imperial Prime system - and imprisoned them in mining projects on Arago. The mines that were destroyed by Meneus Khan and his men were rebuilt and would forever be worked by those who offended the Houses Crux and Fornax and shamed them in a battle ill prepared. Never again would that occur, and in the history books of the two houses so experienced in warfare it would forever be called ‘Haele’s Gambit’, a reminder to always rather send more guns than maybe needed.

The successful second mission into the Meneus system brought House Crux and House Fornax closer together, and both houses agreed that even in the outer systems and rimworlds of Acheron Rho, a strong imperial force should always be felt. To create a reminder of the Empire's might to all its citizens everywhere, the two houses formed the Chains of Uriel.

Quietly, Houses Crux and Fornax also mourn those lost against Meneus Khan in an unofficial holiday, the Ash Month. Nobles of both Houses may wear small sprigs of juniper, showing their support and solidarity with the choices made back then, and honoring those who gave their lives in an attempt to make the Empire a safer place.