Phoenix

Phoenix is an independent military organization, founded shortly after the fall of the Antarean Unity.

## Phoenix

Artistic interpretation of faction's heraldry

## History

### Antarean Sunset

Even before the Split, the Thousand Worlds, one third of which represented huge planetary metropolises, were already engulfed by the flames of civil war - total militarization, commenced by the new high command became the last straw, which forged the growing flow of dissent into a direct force of opposition. The research fleet, which rapidly unified human civilizations in universes with an average difference coefficient - was replaced by totalitarianism. Antarean envoys were travelling from planet to planet, offering technologies beyond the science fiction limits in exchange for unquestionable cooperation and full-scaled resource support. They offered solutions for all the problems, followed humanity's existence: immortality, upgraded immune system, the final resolution of the environmental and food issues, and much, much more. With an individual exceptions, which in historical records are mentioned quite vague and indirectly - the Antares, with an unprecedented ease, one by one, displaced the planetary governments, setting up their own afterwards and transforming entire societies as they pleased, in less than ten years engulfing more than thirty human civilizations in twenty six universes, while their territorial expansy covered about seven hundred star systems.

But shortly before the Split, for reasons that were never unraveled, the administration, which founded the Unity, suddenly disappears together with the entire First Research Fleet, leaving it's vast domains in hands of the former governors association - Commissariat. In pursuit of their own ambitions, Commissariat distorts the policy of the original leadership - every day the percentage of it's interference in aspects of human life grew unchecked, and the dogmas of the free will and devotion to science slowly, but confidently almost turned into distopya. Several decades will pass, before the first blood spills, but one spark was more than enough to light a fire - financed and incessantly incited by behind-the-scene forces, long sought for a way to take the place of the Commissariat, the opposition quickly expanded to the number of the whole legion whose only significant disadvantage was it's decentralization.

While the insurgents ranks were rapidly growing with new and new antarean deserters, and the Commissariat, fearing the loss of the most valuable technologies, could not dare to use weapons of mass destruction, the external forces made their move: innumerable armadas of extraterrestrial races, pirates, and human communities, miraculously escaped punishment after refusing to join the Unity, pissed off by countless defeats they suffered in struggling the Red Star influence - they attacked. Using the stolen acess code to the chronoengines network, they swarmed antarean defences, stretched by the bloody Civil War. They stroke precisely - using their spies, the invaders reliably studied the weak points of their enemy, multiplied in the time of feud. While having no chance in direct confrontation, united alien forces aimed at the Achilles' heel of the Antarean Unity, rapidly destroying the infrastructure and main technology centers. The catastrophic chain reaction the enemy caused - wiped out whole nations from the face of the multiverse, and the creatures escaped from the laboratories turned the worlds they touched into a living nightmare.

### The Split

Catastrophic event, that later will be named as The Split, will put an end to the existence of Antarean Unity as a government state. Using a diversion, the alien forces will laid siege to the Castellum base, which was the first antarean dyson sphere prototype and the most heavily protected facility within entire Unity itself. Breach in it's defense will release the creatures, imprisoned with the station's laboratories from the very beginning of it's construction - ethereals, these mysterious forms of life, completely consisting of pure energy, in the same time have one specific peculiarity: an extremely aggressive reaction to the proximity of complex information carriers. Destroying the energetic entity is almost impossible, while it will never lose the track of it's victim, whether it's an archaic hard drive or human brain - once marked, ethereal, like an incarnation of daemonic force, will pursue it for all the eternity. A theory states, that this form of a predator entity is synthetic, born during the experiments, while the orginial ethereal's form is pure, idle energy lifeforms, feeding off the sun corona.

Completely absorbing the Castellum base in a matter of minutes, ethereals will pursue those who released them in the first place. Surrounded by the loyalists forces on the one side, and by the etherials on the other - the intervents will be forced to flee, using the same method they earlier used to come. Unfortunately, a zealous energy clot will appear onboard of a pirate corvette during it's jump preparations, and ethereal presence within the chronoengine network will lead to an overload. The coordinate system, established on the devices much older than humanity itself - will be reset, severing the connection between the united worlds of the Red Star once and for all.

### Risen from the ashes

The most terrible fate will befall onto the metropolis worlds surrounding the "original" Antares, where it all once began - until recently the teeming with life planets will be turned into deserts, and abandoned space stations will turn into frightening tombs, while the red giant itself will be suddenly surrounded by an impenetrable spherical barrier.

The reign of chaos will lead to the reign of total anarchy - apocalyptic gangs and religious sects will continuosly appear throughout the sector. A few survivors will remain at the mercy of the boundless cosmic wastelands, and they will either perish, or became slaves of those who could manage to scavenge the wreckage of the fallen war machine.

And it would be all over with, but soon the scene will present a mysterious major of one of the central world's self-defense forces, which defenders have long vanished, alongside with their own homeworld. Called himself Markus - he will appear literally from the void - no one could ever trace his true origin - especially amidst prevailing chaos of those days. Whole squadron of the antarean elite guard will be found, and convinced that Antares has not yet said it's last word. Demonstrating an outstanding oratorical skills and sophisticated approach to recruitment - Markus, with the support of the elite guardian forces, will bring together more than three hundred soldiers and scientists, scattered throughout the doomed sector, all - in less, than a month. And when the first campaign, aimed at collecting and restoring the technological achievements of the Unity, will broke out - Phoenix will rush into it's first flight.

## Structure

First it was planned that Phoenix's organisation model could entirely be based of an antarean regimental standard, but a small and fixed (~ 450 units) number of personnel will lead to a serious simplification of the standart in question.

The main army of Phoenix is divided into corps, battalions and platoons, based on the antarean ranking system. All of them are directly subordinate to the War Council, which includes the supreme commander-in-chief, deputy commander-in-chief, a tactical officer and honored veterans group. All the priority decisions requires executive confirmation of the commander-in-chief or his deputy. Separation on fleet, ground forces, marines and etc. is usually redacted according to the situation and scales of manpower usage.

But, in fact, the ranking system, (except for the commanding officers), like the regimental standard in principle, in this case has purely motivational and symbolic meaning - any soldier, according to the skills required by the situation, can take a role which is most appropriate for him.

**Formal schematic representation:**

**Corps - 100 units > Battalion (2 per corps) - 50 units > Platoon (5 per battalion) - 10 units > Squad (2 per platoon) - 5 units**

### **War Machine**

The Phoenix prevails not in quantity, but in quality - each soldier, before earning the honorable title of the organisation's member, undergoes a series of genetic modifications and implantations that, without changing visual appearance, significantly enhancing human natural abilities. Each of the Markus's followers possesses actual biological immortality and an immune system capable of neutralizing the strongest diseases, and even biological weapons. Thanks to the materialization technology - soldiers, fallen in battle, are able to be ressurected in a specialized reassembling chamber, displaced and, atom after atom, restored again. In order to kill a soldier of the Firebird, it is necessary to interrupt his connection with the materializer system, which is incredibly difficult, though it is possible to achieve. It is also known that particle transportation is unrealizable in proximity of gravitational anomalies, such as black holes or neutron stars. In case of carrier's complete decomposition, the "backup" of soldier's memories can be uploaded into a clone, guaranteeing a second chance for his personality, but more than 40% of the organization's participants neglect this method due to philosophical and ethical points of view.

Phoenix is ​​an extraordinarily cohesive organization, united by the years of struggle, and for it's entire history there was only one real betrayal, which collective of the Firebird prefer not to be remembered.

The ground troops of the Phoenix also distinguishes in their versatility - in case of complete isolation, the ground forces are able to deploy the fortifications and military vechicles conveyor directly on the battlefield, using and transforming resources nearby. Knowledge and energy - are the main weapons inherited by the Phoenix from the Antarean Unity - the organization relies on relic vacuum-generators and powerful plasma batteries, which are usually enough to provide a stable supply of any weapon or device available. Also, Phoenix has the technology of cheap and rapid production of nuclear weapons from 300 to 2000 megatons in TNT equivalent - it is possible to produce both atomic and thermonuclear variants. And although nuclear weapons in vacuum are much less effective than they are within atmosphere - techology's cheapness and modified armor-piercing ammunition easily compensates any present limitations. Other types of mass destruction weapons, including artificial microsingularity tech - are considered as relic and are used only in most dire situations due to a complex or even completely lost replenishment methods.

## The Fleet

The Phoenix's Fleet consists of six reconnaissance (multipurpose), two assault and two automated flotillas. The each fleet directly obeys to members of the War Council, and 70% of ships are controlled by an on-board computers. While the fully automated fleet is under direct control of the Supreme Commander or his deputy. At the same time, in a critical situation, any War Council's member is authorized to take command of any part of the Fleet.

Taking into account the genus and sphere of activity of the Phoenix as an organization - the space fleet is the most disciplined and elaborated branch of it's whole military structure. The Fleet of Phoenix is ​​it's most valuable asset, which, if necessary, can act both as a single, and as a completely decentralized system.

### **Flagship**

Initially, the Fleet had no certain flagship, and the largest cruisers were alternately serving as the command centers. But, at the beginning of the Thirty Years Campaign, almost untouched antarean superdreadnoughts, obviously affected by the strongest electromagnetic influence, were found in the middle of a forgotten spaceship graveyard. The electronic stuffing of those space leviathans was completely destroyed, but some of it was successfully saved by replacing most damaged parts with more primitive technologies. A multipurposal combat vehicle, equipped with numerous interchangeable weapon systems, a phase forward gun and a unique spatial compactificator- will soon successfully leave the Orion Shipyard. As soon as the first streams of energy rushed into Seraphim's FTL-drive - the fate of Phoenix's rivals were already sealed down for good.

### **Specialized subdivisions**

Except the basic parts, the Fleet also includes a number of special operative units with a narrower field of tasks, such as marine, tactical and special operations groups.

### **Famous ships**

Seraphim - the Phoenix flagship, assembled in the middle of the Thirty Years Campaign from the remains of partially preserved antarean superdreadnoughts. It's the largest and most high-teched vessel in the entire organization, disappeared without a trace during the Siege of Aelim.

Carrier "Lazurite" - is a tactical combat unit for precision and orbital strikes. The ship is equipped with eighteen nuclear launchers and a drone hangar. The onboard materialization system, unique for ships of classes lesser than dreadnoughts, allows to create ammunition and construction materials "on the go", which, in conjunction with the stealth system, makes Lazurite a true tool of tactical void combat. During the Siege of Aelim, Lazurite will be critically damaged, destroying six enemy dreadnoughts and over half a thousand fighters in the subsequent suicidal attack.

Battleship "Khnum" - a specialized ship with relic tachyon weaponry. Khnum has a different design from the standard Phoenix's shipline concepts, since it was originally created with the idea of ​​disguising oneself as part of an alternative human civilization fleet.

The Zaug cruiser - is a special operative vessel and former flagship of the first reconnaissance flotilla. Equipped with a relic shield stabilizer, the ship is able to move freely in the atmosphere at completely unlimited speeds. Thanks to the Zaug, the last ships of the Sahn'Kar cult, transformed into ground defense of their main planetary fortress, were destroyed with zero casualties on Phoenix's side.

Battleship "Tariel" - a ship, that alongside with it's captain, will forever remain in honorable lists. "Tariel", led by Captain Veliar, managed to expose the power-corrupted nature of Vargas himself, notifying the War Council about the Keeper's readinness to initiate the Siege of Aelim - this act must have saved Phoenix from total destruction, providing the organization with an opportunity to make the most of it's defense capabilities in the moment of siege's very beginning. Neither Tariel nor it's captain survived the retribution of the fallen Knowledge Keeper, who discovered them soon after the message reached Markus' HQ - Vargas captured the ship and sent it into a black hole, making the process of rematerializing impossible.

Light carrier "Tarantul" - a ship what's crew significantly distinguished themselves during the Thirty Years Campaign, personally putting an end to the existence of two thousand automated antarean vessels, captured and reprogrammed by the cultists of Sakhn'Kar. Destroyed during the Siege of Aelim.

The Ladainn cruiser - is the only fully preserved antarean spaceship, discovered and requisitioned by the Phoenix Fleet. The cruiser played more symbolic, than military role, and was never involved in any battles. Reported missing after the patrol around Star of Kaptein. Neither the possible enemy sights, nor the ship's remains were ever found.

## Thirty Years Campaign

*"The Thirty Year Campaign is what we all owe for what we are today. The thirty years of unending war, thirty years of combat, not ceasing even for a single minute. An ordinary person would have lost it a long time ago in this hollow void, swept by fires of war, but not Phoenix. No one could oppose Markus' desire to bring the Antarean Unity back. We knew that it was impossible - we knew it from the very beginning, but we continued anyway. We continued to walk there, where even once stumbled the gods themselves."*

*Avarius Gresko*

The Thirty Years Campaign is a series of prolonged conflicts, also called as the post-antarean chaos period. After successfully clearing out petty anarchy kings, Markus' followers will find that they not the only organization that has managed to stock up preserved antarean tech. Most of such minor associations and warbands will be completely eradicated in the first five years, but their remains will soon merge into a single united formation - Oris. Proclaiming the very existence of the Antarean Unity as a universal-scale evil, and the idea of ​​it's restoration - an unacceptable crime against humanity as a species, Oris, using the support of the former governor of one of the antaraen capital worlds - will get their hands on a small mechanical fleet, almost equal to the Phoenix's automated armada. The war will drag on for long fifteen years, until Oris will not be defeated, and it's key figures will not be on the run.

The last ten years of the Thirty Years Campaign Phoenix will dedicate to the purge of the most distant parts of the galaxy, confronting on it's way hundreds of deadly armies and tools of war, abandoned by their former masters and went cranky. During the Thirty Years Campaign, Phoenix will grow to such an extent that the insignificant losses that the organization will inevitably incur in the process will quickly recede into the background, and those who hardened themselves during the years of battles will finally accept realities of the new world, turning into real artisans of war.

The ending of the Campaign is considered to be the elimination of the largest cult "Sakhn'Kar", at whose disposal was a real working chronoengine, presumably salvaged from the antarean science vessel, crashed in the sands of Great Desert. The same could explain the source of ultra-modern cultists equipment, as well as the presence of a real space fleet in their hands.

Although the Phoenix's doctrine does not limit the views of their staff in any way, if it does not affect the immediate organization goals, the events of the past thirty years will form within it's members a clear hostility to the slightest manifestations of religiosity.

## Changelings Invasion

The last enemies of the Thirty Years Campaign were defeated, and it seemed now that Phoenix could finally focus on their main goal - the search for the original Antarean Unity's leadership, as suddenly a new enemy appears on the scene, much more dangerous than all previous altogether. Unique creatures, called changelings, rushed into the devastated sectors, chasing the collapsing Order cruiser. Changelings will occupy many ruined planets, sucking out the last signs of organic life. Phoenix will have to mobilize all available forces to contain the spread of this vile infection, but the outstanding abilities of changelings to adapt and survive will not allow them to be completely viped out. At the same time, the Order themselves will appear on the scene, interested in the fate of their own ship, at which, at the time of it's destruction, were a number of people close enough to their Grand Master. Realizing that Phoenix is ​​the only active force that exerts any significant influence in the galaxy as such, the Order will suspect them of deceit, and will decide to include Phoenix in its own mass chronoengine confiscation programm. Since the Order founders were originally the real antarean officer, once subordinated to the Commissariat - this organization will be especially tough to struggle with.

The Order excelled Phoenix in everything: the numbers, the technology, they even preserved coordinates of several other universes who felt Unity's affection once before. But, acting in accordance with the canons of antarean military tactics, the Order will fatally underestimate the ability of Phoenix to adapt, and afterwards will desperately attempt to extricate themselves from the guerrilla war Markus imposed. Later, the grand master will decide to retreat from the capital sector, where his followers will plan to lure Phoenix into a trap, that will allow the Order to bring down their new rival once and for all. Since then, armed conflicts will arise only during the struggle for another preserved technology of the past - both sides will be under serious pressure from changelings side, which somehow became able to replicate the basic principles of plasma-based weapons, and neither the Order nor the Phoenix won't have time for their petty showdown.

In the end, the superiority of changelings will play a bad joke against themselves. The worlds, devastated by war, will not be able to maintain the replicant's eternal need in alien DNA for a long time, while the biological laboratories discovered and occupied by them will be destroyed with a biological weapon, deployed by the Order's highest ranks.

Changelings will be defeated, but will never disappear - the rare sheets of formless violet organic matter that can feed on the sunlinght for several million years will remain in the darkest corners of abandoned worlds and space stations. And if changeling will touch a living matter again - it's eternal hunger will be awakened.

## The Shadow Conflict

A long-term study of the surface structures on the ROT-2102 planetoid will open up to Phoenix a number of previously hidden aspects of the antarean research legions activity, who have plowed new and new universes in search of easily accessible resources and methods for expanding their empire's influence. In the hands of Phoenix came information, that the First Research Fleet led a program of artificial intelligence developing since the very dawn of their foundation. And it was this intelligence that was currently managing the wandering Server - a ship, which contained almost all scientific achievements, the extracted technologies and tactical data, which the Antarean Unity have ever had.

Confirmation that the Server was located within the Scorpion subsector outskirt, will shake the metropolitan worlds with waves of fire that never occured since the civil war itself. Using the Order's network between several universes, dozens of smaller organizations will appear on the antarean territory. Negative forces will float the capital sector like flies, forces of different shapes and sizes, from modest corsairs to representatives of huge-scaled clans and pirate kingdoms, formed in the most stable off-universe regions, to which the Order gained a direct access.

A short but brutal war, with a several dozen star systems turned into ashes, will lead the rival parties to barchans of the Great Desert. Under it's unending sands, a whole secret antaraen complex will be discovered - the only one of it's kind, still maintaining periodic synchronization with the Server itself and allowing both to track and to predict the movement of legendary database. Unceasing battles will soon occupy both the ground and the skies. Markus will personally converge in battle with the Order's Supreme Master - possessing a serious psionic potential, the second one will win the battle, but will lose his vigilance before the last strike, setting his mental track of the situation in orbit on pause, which will lead to his imminent death from a precisive Seraphim's shot.

It is unknown how the battle for the Great Desert would end if Dmitry Kazovski, one of the former antarean first officers, who had previously taken the side of Phoenix, would not decide to reject any. Using his unique biometric key, he, as promised, will summon the Server, but a few minutes later, accompanied by a powerful energy surge, will disappear forever along with the database itself, while the underground complex will initiate a self-destruct protocol, turning a part of the desert into glass. The battle will cease, and each side of the Shadow Conflict will be forced to retreat with nothing achieved.

## Rebirth

Before leaving, Dmitry Kazovski tells Markus that the original leadership of the Antarean Unity, which Phoenix's leader was so desired to find, was completely different from the image of the messengers of truth and transhumanism they imposed. In fact, neither the founders of the Unity nor their inner circles ever intended to implement the antarean ideology, striving exclusively for their own evolution. All this time, they simply used the Unity as a source of unlimited resources and a universal tool to achieve their goals. And when the time has came - the founders of the Antarean Empire, having gathered the chosen ones, simply left their creation, following much more promising ways to fullfill their plans.

The cruel truth will change the life of Phoenix members forever, refuting what the organization fought for all these years. What was previously considered as axioms will be distorted, and the truth will be turned upside down. The realization that everything you were dedicated for appeared to be a lie from the very beginning, for a long time will put the Firebird into depression, and it will hide among the shadows.

It will take some time before Phoenix's revival from the ashes - the organization will be rebuilt from the scratch, and the last mention of the old ideology will be viped out so that it will never come back again. Not a single trace of previous fanatism will remain, but the revelation experienced will only strengthen the cohesion of the Phoenix's ranks. However, it will take far more time before the Firebird will trully find it's own way.

## Vargas Expansion

After the battle for the Great Desert, four years of relative peace will come, for which the ruined and devastated capital sector will finally become completely deserted, no longer representing a slightest material interest. The unapproachable barrier around the Antares system however, will remain still, and it's nature, despite countless theories arisen, will remain a dark mystery.

The long silence will be interrupted by a sudden biological strike on the Phoenix research station. The reagent will be neutralized, but only later it will become clear that this attack was intended to play no more than a distracting role, designed to lure all the Firebird forces into relatively compact deep space region. After a few days of confusion and fruitless search for an unknown aggressor who no longer took any action, Markus' followers will discover that they, along with all their fleet, planetary fortresses and stations, were *moved*. Antares in this universe will appear to be absolutely empty, and the territory of the capital and external sectors will be occupied by a young human civilization, which just recently overcomed the speed of light. To everyone's surprise, the new Supreme Master of the Order will appear on communications, stating that his people were also subjected to a mysterious transfer, but will refuse to jointly investigate this matter.

Meanwhile, the aggressor, who, until now, remained in the shadows, will make his next move - the same biological weapon that were unsuccessfully used on Phoenix research station will be used on the border planets of the indigenous civilization, with far more significant effect. Affected planet's population will be completely decimated, alongside with the most of the infrastructure, but this event will allow the Phoenix Research Department to detect a familiar signature of antarean tech inside an unexploded capsule with nanovirus, so researches could trace the source of activation signal. As it turned out, the mysterious aggressor was none other than Vargas, also known as the Knowledge Keeper. Once attached to the guard of the Server, which previously considered to be a myth - Vargas had an impressive reputation as a guardian of the treasure of treasures. It was believed that it was he who sent the server to a free travel right before the Split, and during the civil war, he never took anyone's side, and only later he will occasionally remind about his existence to post-antarean organizations absorbed by chaos, who sought to break as many each other bones as possible. Immediately after the investigation of the biological attack, the indigenous worlds will be attacked by creatures, reminding those who just left the biological laboratories, converted into war conveyor: the borders of the space civilization will be flooded with legions of cyber-soldiers and monsters, as if they had just stepped off the screens of an abstruse arcade. Completely stupid from a tactical point of view, numbers-relying armada will not pose a slightest threat for either the Phoenix or the Order, but those armadas will be more than enough to smash the local defensive front and in a matter of days capture a dozen star systems.

Vargas' motivation will remain an incomprehensible mystery for a long time - his actions will more applicable to a sadist with a god complex of a universal scale than to a keeper of knowledge. He will fully focus on the indigenous civilization, as if trying to destroy it in a most slow and painful of the ways. To protect the locals, at the cost of revealing it's invisible presence, the wandering fleet of Confidence will come, but the rest of characters, including Markus himself, will remain aloof, waiting for the moment when Vargas will finally reveal his true cards - it was too obvious, that the whole invasion - is just one huge spectacle, designed to turn everyone's eyes away from real behind-the-scenes manipulations.

The situation will change when right in the middle of War Council meeting, ignoring the incredibly advanced Seraphim's protection, literally from nowhere, Lyra Witte will appear. Lyra will immediately put Markus before the ultimatum: either Phoenix come to aid the indigenous civilization, or the fallen Keeper instantly receives methods of hacking each ship in the Firebird's fleet. Markus agrees to the deal, and soon Phoenix, despite of all their prejudices, will clear the worlds captured by legions of Vargas and take a defensive position, successfully eliminating each of the unending enemy reinforcements.

Lyra will also keep her part of the contract, and will tell that Vargas, while observing the active organizations from the shadows, discovered that in their research, Phoenix got unacceptably close to the bottom of ROT-2102 true secret: the key to the network of gates left for the autonomous antarean expedition, still remained under control of  an experimental artificial intelligence. Deprived of connection with it's creators, the expeditionary fleet continued it's original program: the search and definition of the most promising, from it's point of view, universes, with the aim of subsequently substantially facilitating access to them. But the highlight was still ahead: this network was exactly what could find the current location of the disappeared founders of the Red Star Empire. Lyra knew where to press - the whole Phoenix craved for revenge, and the key, capable of taking control over any AI ever developed by the Unity - allowed Phoenix to gain power that exceeded even the famous First Research Fleet. At least that was the case at the time of First Fleet's disappearance - but Markus was willing to take a risk. All you had to do was activate one of the gateways of the network, one of which was right in this universe.

The actions of Lyra Witte led to complete annulment of Vargas' maneuvers - unable to destroy evidence, he moved entire fleets to another universe with their bases and fortresses, and now that information, which he so tried to hide - was given right into the enemy's hands. The fury of the fallen Keeper had no bounds - he used all available resources, and broke off the improvised Phoenix's defense, cutting out everything except a few central worlds within the Solar System - Lyra managed to save them by moving entire planets right under Vargas' nose, using his own transportation method.

Vargas must be, justifying the title, followed the preservation of the true motives of the original Unity's top from the very moment of their disappearance, and could not allow any contact with their former leadership. And he really was ready for anything.

## Siege of Aelim

Lyra Witte words will turn out to be true - the gates of the new antarean network were present in this universe, set in the orbit of the planet-jungle Aelim - the only celestial body of the same-name star system. And this gates in fact could be powered on, using the concept presented by the red-haired stranger. Phoenix, the Order and Confidence will unite against the common enemy, turning the Aelim system into a real fortress. Death itself will invade Aelim: Vargas will lure many old rivals of the Unity into this universe, rivals, who once directly participated in Empire's demise, and who will eagerly want to destroy those who still remained. The long-forgotten parts of the regular antarean armies, whose minds was affected by ethereal's influence, will descend upon the field of battle. Fleeing from energy-made predators to another universe - soldiers saved their bodies, but for their minds - it was already too late, and they've turned into bloodthirsty berserkers, pursuing only one goal: kill.

Even combined efforts of the two post-antarean organizations and the wandering fleet will not be able to hold a force, unleashed by the fallen Knowledge Keeper. The only hope remained in gate's activation - once communication is established, Phoenix will be able to contact antarean expeditionary AI, immediately bringing it into the fold. No matter how strong the enemy was - he simply could not confront a latest creation of an empire, that once was collecting multiverse technology, as if in a single burst of kleptomania.

Vargas, realizing that his rivals will not surrender under any circumstances, decides to destroy the gate, despite all of it's technological value. He leads his Stellar City directly to Aelim's star, intending to turn it into a supernova, thus getting rid of all the pressing problems with one single strike. His plan will be interrupted by Markus, who will lead Seraphim into a desperate leap. Phoenix's founder will overload the flagship's chronoengine, hoping to de-energize the invulnerable stronghold, but as a result, his attempt provokes an unforeseen scenario leading to the complete disappearance of Markus and his ship.

Nevertheless, the burst generated by the overload of the ancient device will appear not to be electromagnetic - the spatial distortion will tear the Stellar City from within, launching an irreversible chain reaction inside it's power grid. Vargas, trying to evacuate, confornts Lyra Witte. Unable to forgive Vargas the death of billions, she intercepts him before the Keeper could escape, but fails, realizing that Vargas' body was long possessed by a much older essence than it's original owner. The fallen Keeper, savoring the victory, informs Lyra that he left the strongest biological weapon from his arsenal on each of the worlds she moved, and that the activation timer will expire in the next few minutes. But, already intending to make the last hit - Vargas will be betrayed by his own servant.

The fall of the Stellar City, which was equipped with phase shields and was practically invulnerable - will cause the alien armada to tremble, and at the same time the Aelim's gate was activated, releasing thousands of the most powerful antarean ships, controlled by a supreme artifical intelligence.

At the cost of huge losses, the allied forces will take a final victory. But the truth is that in this war there are no winners or losers - in this war there are only those who managed to survive it.

Phoenix will lose seventy percent of it's personnel and almost whole main fleet; The Order, which voluntarily stood at the frontline, will found themselves on the verge of total annihilation, and all what will remain from the Confidence's wandering fleet - is several battered battleships and transport vessels. Literally shrouded in ashes, the allies, giving the word to never cross again, will use the gates, and disappear in different directions.

## Groundhog Day

The Phoenix's leadership will pass into the hands of Markus' deputy - Avarius Gresko. For a while, the part that remained from the organization will remain in absolute uncertainty, but soon the research team assigned to the study of the newly acquired AI databases will find an evidence about the First Research Fleet experiments with time, which will explain the existence of an impenetrable barrier around the "original" Antares. All this time travel, all forty years - the goal sought by Phoenix, was right under their noses. Previously it was believed that the barrier was a desperate Comissariat's attempt to save their own skins, but new evidence obtained by Phoenix changed the theory forever. Moreover, the gravitational reading from a drone sent to Antares will sound an unambiguous hint of the formation of a singularity within the system's barrier.

The Firebird, burning with thirst for revenge, for everything that each of it's members had to go through - will lead the acquired mechanical armada of the fallen empire against it's own creators. But right during the transition, the network will be temporarely deactivated, and no one could connect to the gates of main antarean universe ever again.

The entire manned fleet of Phoenix at the time of emergency shutdown was within the gate's network, and it's further fate remains unknown.

## References

1. ↑ see Dyson Sphere
2. ↑ Space compression technology
3. ↑ Hangar bay with capability of assembling small AI-controlled combat drones
4. ↑ A philosophical concept that supports the use of science and technology to improve the mental and physical capabilities of a person, with the aim of eliminating those aspects of human existence that transhumanists consider undesirable - suffering, disease, aging and death.