The Order

**ALLIES:**

Blood Dragons, Bundschuh

**ENEMIES:**

The Core, LSF, Nomads, Wild

The Order is a powerful covert organization that controls several remote Omicron systems. They played an important role in the war against the Nomads (799-802 AS). Shortly after, they allied with the Corsairs, offering the cutting edge battleship Osiris blue-prints in exchange of military, personnel and ressource support. Due to ideological differences between the two, the ill-fated alliance collapsed in 818 AS After the loss of Toledo, the Order homeworld, and most of it's forces due to the bloody war with The Core and the Nomads, The Order once again faded into the shadows.

## Rumors

* I heared whispers of the Outcasts and Nomads cooperating in the deep Omicrons, usually against the Corsairs. If that is true, the implications are dire. The Outcasts have contacts throughout the colonies, and access to a wide range of resources. They could end up providing the Nomads with the one thing they lack: The resources to grow. If allowed to grow unchecked, the Nomad threat could regain it's strength in less then a decade.

* The Blood Dragons descend from the imperial honor guard of the Hideyoshi dynasty. They take their heritage very seriously, and I must admit, I would be hard pressed to find a more honorable group in Kusari. I am proud to have them as allies. They were the only people in Kusari who recognized the threat the Nomads posed after the Kusari government outlawed us.

* What do you want from me? The Order already knows everything. Me and many others were abandoned by the Core after they deemed Dabadoru to be lost. We were expendable! Sure, some of our own liked it here - given their options. Volunteers like me were sent to Order space but since I had wide knowledge of Dabadoru's maintenance they left me here. What about actual Core survivors? They fought to the end for the most part - those who did not, were executed anyway.

* I hope that Dabadoru is deemed expendable to the Core, as it is going to be a very valuable asset for the Order here in Delta. From here we stage raids against their supply convoys from Rho to Nauru and attempt to harass their fleets in and out of Omicron Minor. It gives our homefleet an invaluable advantage and more breathing ground which they can spend on countering Nomad threat in the immediate vicinity. Despite that, we are struggling with our supplies. Our convoys barely manage to get through Minor, so we mostly have to rely on the supplies from the Zoners on Freeport 11. It may not be a luxurious amount of supplies, but we have to work with it.

* Freeport 11 is the only more or less civilian settlement in the Nomad worlds - if you can call it that. The command believes that if it was not for our push on Dabadoru, the Core would take the Freeport as their own, making their claim of the system complete. We are really struggling down here, but the admiralty believes that our push will secure us the control over the majority of the system. Beyond the human influence of course, we have the Nomad infested nebula and the Omicron Minor jump hole. Given the unmet intensity of their raids ever since we got here, we have to assume they may have their own staging grounds hidden in the nebula. Unfortunately, I have to cut down the amount of scouts I send far from the trade paths. The command believes that this is nonsense, but I told them that this step is necessary if we still want to have Onuris fighters for the next battles.

* As far as our agents can tell, Core is just putting up a front to their shareholders about their situation here. Right now if you want to leave Delta back to House space you need to go either through Theta or Mu, there's no way they're not deeply in the red.

* We uncloaked right on remainders of Core defense force. With a full magnum launch, we cleared the entire hangar deck of the Apophis in mere seconds, commencing a blitzkrieg assault against Dabadoru. This was one of very few moments they let me kill as many scoundrels I want until they sadly turned around and hit the afterburner. We needed all forces on one very specific location to make the takeover as smooth as humanly possible.

* Core is running double escort duty on most of the convoys headed for Theta, so we don't really put much of a pressure on them and just enjoy the fact they can only ship at most half as much stuff as they could before. They'll collapse eventually even without us intervening. Saves us the strength against the real enemy, the Nomads.

* Omicron Rho is a Core stronghold, bordering to Sigma-15 on the other side. I am certain that the Rheinlanders are really afraid of the possibility of the Nomad menace pouring through to siege their worlds. The only thing between them and this place is wall composed of Core fleets that follow their own interests. To our benefit, we do have safe harbor with Bundschuh on the other side. I have heard rumours about unknown members planning to steal some of our ships to escape towards Rheinland. I won't judge them for it, I can understand why they would be doing it. When you lose many of your comrades to swarms of nomads, the general morale is very low.

* I bet some people would turn in their graves upon hearing about The Order marines walking freely within the halls of Dabadoru. The Apophis battlegroup has been sent all the way down here to keep the Core on their toes. We did suffer casualties on Toledo but so did they. We could remain hidden until we got a lifetime opportunity. The majority of the station's security departed towards Nauru, giving us a window to execute a strike. As our skipper gave the order, I knew that a new chapter for the Order dawned.

* I remember fairly well what happened before The Order arrived. As this infamous battle of Toledo happened, only a handful of survivors came back from the fleet. All but the injured were executed publicly before our very eyes for deserting their post. Those who were spared succumbed to their wounds or were sent back to the Houses for treatment. Failure was not an option. I tell you, this installation's story is written on its walls with blood.

* Dabadoru is one of three strategic points over here. Second is Nauru, orbiting the gas giant Tuvalu. It is a desert world settled originally by a small group of Corsairs. Yaren is a refuel depot and responsible for handling the traffic between the planet and its orbit. Back when our alliance was still the thing, it was often frequented by Zoners and The Order. Now that it dissolved, Corsairs apparently lost most of their interest in this corner of space. The Core relentlessly murdered everyone out there and reinforced their new colony. We tried to warn Corsairs about it and I bet that they regret not listening to us.

* The final onslaught was brutal. While we were explicitly ordered to not pursue those who made it out, we were given the privilege to kill everybody who didn't make it out in time. We choked whoever was left on board with the marines on Apophis. The few Core scoundrels we took alive were killed nonetheless. There were no prisoner accommodations accounted for and their loyalty to the cause was comparable only to our own. We did capture a lot of Core servants that were easily converted by them before. For them it was the Core or return to prison.

* Omicron Kappa is a wild undeveloped system one jump away from the Corsair homeworld itself. While it is highly dangerous, many convoys have to pass through there from either Gamma or 74. It is a perfect place for Nomads to assault traders passing by. Sometimes as we respond to distress calls, we arrive only to count the flaming husks left by a Nomad ambush. And lately, the same happens to the dispatched distress wings more often.

* The work of a scout in Omicrons can be really difficult enterprise, yet valued highly by the command and the rest of our squadrons. Sometimes they operate without any chances of back up so for the most part they rely on speed and evasion. After all their mission statement is not seek and destroy, hence the O50A Onuris fighter is their bread and butter. I am afraid that we are going to run out of them soon, though. Many ships get destroyed, and increasing numbers of pilots value their lifes more and refuse the suicide mission scouting in Delta is at the moment.

* So many dead...I just can't believe it. There were well over a million people on Toledo, and between the planet being destroyed and the attacking nomad fighters, I reckon no more than a hundred thousand made it out in the evacuation transports to this system. What the hell do we do now? This is just too big for us to handle alone...too big for all of us.

* As if the invasion of the Taus and Bretonia by this so-called kingdom of Gallia weren't bad enough, now the damn aliens are attacking us again! We're having to recall most of our forces that were scouting Gallia, in order to bolster the defences here after our horrendous losses at Toledo. The timing of all these events seems far too convenient, and I'm wondering if the Nomads haven't been planning this for years. Regardless, the Order will be a long time recovering from this...that's if we ever do.

* Hey man, I lost a lot of buddies out in Omicron Minor during the battle. I reckon at least some of their ships are still out there, or bits of them, maybe. Either way, if you find any of them, can you return their bodies to the nearest Order outpost? It'd be a personal favour to the families of those killed. You can keep whatever you salvage if you must, but please return the bodies. The last thing I want is to leave them out there drifting through space, alone in the dark.

* You want to know what happened to Toledo? It got blown up, that's what happened! I was a technician on a surface base, but I was lucky enough to be assigned to the same damn cruiser that Dr. Kendra Sinclair and her research staff were evacuated on! Lucky her, she got VIP clearance on the evacuation lists! My wife didn't! So how about instead of bothering me with your bloody questions, you actually go out there and see for your own damn self!

* Yeah man! We're gonna kick those Nomad bastards back into the fetid pit they crawled from! Sure, they may have beaten us back, but it's just a temporary setback, that's all. Once Orillion and the brass decide on The Plan, they'll be sending us fighter jocks right back at 'em! That's right, you're talking to Flight Lieutenant Manny Vargas, certified ace in the Order fighter corps! Me and my buddies destroyed dozens of those tentacled squid ships during the battle of Toledo! They die funny, too! Why, one of them exploded and splattered blueish white globs of stuff all over Pilot Officer Lewinsky's cockpit. Man, but that stuff doesn't wash off!

* Go away...I really don't want to talk to anyone, and that especially includes you. I lost a lot of good friends out in Omicron Minor. Not that I'd expect you to understand. You look like the fistful of credits type, if you ask me, so how about you go bother the Bounty Hunters over in Delta? I'm sure they'll be more accomodating.

* You know, a lot of guys around here don't like to admit it, especially in light of our truly horrendous losses, but we were losing the battle anyway. Those damnable Bounty Hunters brought in so many ships that we were hard pressed to hold them from the start. They were landing ground troops and heavy vehicles even as their main forces launched a frontal assault. Sure, they were taking losses, but they'd have won if the Nomads hadn't turned up. As it is, we were too busy killing each other in the tens of dozens before we noticed the alien fighter squadrons bearing down on us, and by then it was too late. They tore us up real badly, but the Bounty Hunters took the brunt of it, being trapped as they were between the Order and Nomad battle groups. I doubt many, if any, of them made it out alive. And so, the aliens used our petty human squabblings and divisiveness against us, and destroyed us both. Kind of stupid, huh?

* I fought at the Dyson Sphere in the First Nomad War, you know. It was a brutal battle, one in which I lost many friends. A Freelancer, Edison Trent, destroyed the generators powering the energy shield around the Daam K'vosh hypergate while we fought to cover him against the swarms of alien fighters. When he activated the hypergate network, we thought we'd dealt the Nomads a decisive blow, one that they might never recover from. But now...I have to wonder, did we really win after all? Perhaps activating the hypergate also activated other things that had lain dormant for eons, such as the weapon they used to destroy Toledo. If that's the case, we are all in for a rough future.

* Leave me alone! Can't you see I'm busy? That's right, I'm busy drinking this bottle of scotch, and I'd thank you to leave me alone until I've finished it! Is that too much to ask? Is it? Just get the hell out of my face!

* The Order needs to get its act together if we're going to take the fight back to the Nomads. I know we just took heavy losses, but so did the Bounty Hunters. And surely, between the two of us, those damn aliens took enough losses to make them think twice about engaging us again in open battle! I mean, I was in the fighting around Toledo and I definitely saw one of those Nomad battleships get destroyed, and the explosion took out an alien cruiser too...and I'm pretty damn sure that we took down a couple of hundred of their fighters also. We just need to strike back now, when they least expect it!

* Man, when the general order came over the comms calling for us to retreat, I was in shock...the Order have never retreated before, never! But I did what I was told and ran for the Omicron Mu jumphole. As I fired up my cruise engines, I noticed the Battleship Isis pulling out of orbit, back towards the same jumphole. Suddenly, a beam shot out from one of those damned alien warships, followed by a blinding flash of light, and then the Isis wasn't there any more. Just...just a slowly expanding cloud of debris...it must have hit the main fusion reactor dead on, because that ship was just...gone. After that...it seemed like our forces just fell apart...it wasn't a retreat...it was a bloody rout.

* Some of my compatriots feel that we should launch an immediate and massive counteroffensive, but I'm not so sure. I suspect that the Nomads will conclude that the Order will strike back as soon as possible, and so they will be guarding the jump holes in force. They may have taken heavy losses in the battle, but so did we. From all accounts, the Bounty Hunters took massive casualties as well and have retreated back to Dabadoru base in Omicron Delta to lick their wounds, so even if we were to accomodate some kind of truce and launch a joint attack, we just don't have the numbers.

* A number of our patrols in Omicron Delta and Omicron Minor have disappeared since the destruction of Toledo, and nobody knows what happened to them. Although to be honest, it is likely to have been either the Bounty Hunter's Guild or those Nomad aliens. They're the only two groups out here that have the numbers and firepower to pose any real challenge to Order forces.

* Hey man, I lost a lot of buddies out in Omicron Minor during the battle. I reckon at least some of their ships are still out there, or bits of them, maybe. Either way, if you find any of them, can you return their bodies to the nearest Order outpost? It'd be a personal favour to the families of those killed. You can keep whatever you salvage if you must, but please return the bodies. The last thing I want is to leave them out there drifting through space, alone in the dark.

* I was in charge of one of the transports that was detailed to pull out key personnel from the surface of Toledo. I haven't ever seen anything quite like it before, and I don't want to again. There just wasn't enough space for everyone, and security were forced to rifle butt people who were clamouring for spaces on the evacuation shuttles. As it is, we barely made it out of there alive anyway, as there were alien fighters everywhere as soon as we left the atmosphere.

* Go away...I really don't want to talk to anyone, and that especially includes you. I lost a lot of good friends out in Omicron Minor. Not that I'd expect you to understand. You look like the fistful of credits type, if you ask me, so how about you go bother the Bounty Hunters over in Delta? I'm sure they'll be more accomodating.

* You know, a lot of guys around here don't like to admit it, especially in light of our truly horrendous losses, but we were losing the battle anyway. Those damnable Bounty Hunters brought in so many ships that we were hard pressed to hold them from the start. They were landing ground troops and heavy vehicles even as their main forces launched a frontal assault. Sure, they were taking losses, but they'd have won if the Nomads hadn't turned up. As it is, we were too busy killing each other in the tens of dozens before we noticed the alien fighter squadrons bearing down on us, and by then it was too late. They tore us up real badly, but the Bounty Hunters took the brunt of it, being trapped as they were between the Order and Nomad battle groups. I doubt many, if any, of them made it out alive. And so, the aliens used our petty human squabblings and divisiveness against us, and destroyed us both. Kind of stupid, huh?

* We would have been able to defeat The Core at Toledo, but the alien assault took us all by surprise. While the aliens engaged our orbital defences and the remaining Core bounty hunters, we tried to evacuate the planet. Unfortunately, I don't think many transports made it out, as the alien fighter cover was too heavy.

* I heard that Orillion is furious over the destruction of Toledo, and more than a little worried. Mostly because none of us ever suspected that the Nomads had such a weapon available to them, nor that they would even push such an open confrontation with human fleets. The strange thing is, though, why have they not used it before now?

* The Order needs to get its act together if we're going to take the fight back to the Nomads. I know we just took heavy losses, but so did the Bounty Hunters. And surely, between the two of us, those damn aliens took enough losses to make them think twice about engaging us again in open battle! I mean, I was in the fighting around Toledo and I definitely saw one of those Nomad battleships get destroyed, and the explosion took out an alien cruiser too...and I'm pretty damn sure that we took down a couple of hundred of their fighters also. We just need to strike back now, when they least expect it!

* We can't let this affront to humanity stand! If we give those damned alien bastards an inch, they'll take us for all we're worth! We need to gather our forces and hit them back hard and fast, as quickly as possible. I'd be willing to bet that they took more casualties than they'd have liked in their attack on Toledo, especially with them fighting those bounty hunter swines at the same time. Now's our best chance. We beat them before, and we'll beat them again!

* Huh, they're calling it the "Battle of Toledo". The "Massacre of Toledo", more like. Or wait, how about "Genocide of Toledo"? Considering how many people died there, and we lost an entire damn planet to boot, I hardly think the word battle quite captures the gravity of the situation. But we'll recover, as we always have. Or we better hope we do, for humanity's sake. Who knows where the Nomads will strike next with their damn planet destroyer?

* Nauru? Oh yes, in the Omicron Delta system. Those ruins are quite impressive, and all the more so for not even knowing who built them. It definitely wasn't the Daam-K'Vosh or the Slomon K'Hara, and although some artifacts discovered match with technology used by the Phantom terrorist organisation, they did not create it and they did not build the ruins either. Quite a mystery, eh?

* Hey man, I lost a lot of buddies out in Omicron Minor during the battle. I reckon at least some of their ships are still out there, or bits of them, maybe. Either way, if you find any of them, can you return their bodies to the nearest Order outpost? It'd be a personal favour to the families of those killed. You can keep whatever you salvage if you must, but please return the bodies. The last thing I want is to leave them out there drifting through space, alone in the dark.

* After the end of the Nomad War, I decided that my skills and knowledge would be better served with the Order. Besides, I wanted to learn more about the Daam-K'Vosh! Oh, if only my peers at the Cambridge Institute could see me now! They'd die of envy.

* Go away...I really don't want to talk to anyone, and that especially includes you. I lost a lot of good friends out in Omicron Minor. Not that I'd expect you to understand. You look like the fistful of credits type, if you ask me, so how about you go bother the Bounty Hunters over in Delta? I'm sure they'll be more accomodating.

* My colleagues here on Toledo tell me that Tekagi's Arch has been inhabited once again by the infested humans known as the "Wild", but at this present time we do not have the available forces to mount any kind of attack against it. The Blood Dragons and the Golden Chrysanthemums have been alerted to the nature of the threat, and I can only hope that they are capable of keeping them in check for the time being.

* I hate the fact that the Order are so badly misrepresented by all the Sirius Houses, especially with all the work that has been done to keep them safe from the Nomads. I have been trying to use my contacts back on planet Cambridge to get the Queen to acknowledge their sacrifices for the good of humanity, and we seem to have some progress. The problem is actually getting someone close to the Queen to actually listen to us, before we can even consider getting an audience with the Queen herself.

* Yes, I remember Edison Trent. He was a bit too mercenary for my tastes, but he came through in the end for humanity. Whatever else that could be said about him, humanity owes him a great debt, as we couldn't have defeated the Nomads without all his help. As for where he is now? I have no idea. The last I heard he was in Liberty, working on something for the Order, but he could be anywhere now.

*NOTE: Page generated on the 28/10/2023 at 17:59:48 UTC*