Singularity Wars

## The Singularity Wars

A Combine fleet clashes with the Imperial Flotilla at a vital energy production facility

### Location

The war was massive, and touched every sector of the Milky Way galaxy.

### Result

Pyrrhic Razorbird Victory* Destruction of the Metaform Combine
* Metaform Genocide
* Creation of the Mindnet
* Destruction of multiple smaller interstellar nations
* The Razorbird Empire retreats into their surviving territory
* Lack of order results in a subsequent crime wave
* Formation of the Galactic Council

### Leaders

Razorbird Empire* Most Holy
* Triumvirate of Archlord Inquisitors

Metaform Combine

* Archon Chrysanthos
* Combine-General Solon
* Combine-Admiral Anargyros

## Casualties

### Total

The casualties of this war were immense, and have not actually been accurately measure. In addition to the total destruction of the Metaform race and the massive numbers of Razorbird deaths, collateral damage was also incredibly high. Overall, this war was the most deadly in Milky Way history.

The Singularity Wars live on in infamy within the Milky Way, a black mark upon the galaxy's history. While many factions participated in this massive war, the undisputed instigators and driving forces behind it were the highly intellectual Metaform Combine, and the ultra-zealous Razorbird Empire. While this war did bring about unprecedented destruction, it resulted in the formation of the Galactic Council, which grew in power and would later bring about an era of order and cooperation.

There was no corner of the Milky Way that the Singularity Wars supposedly did not touch. Star systems were destroyed, black holes created, weapons of truly massive destruction that laid waste to entire regions of space. What followed was a dark age, very few pockets of civilization left, and the rest of the galaxy in a state of anarchy, with pirates and warlords ruling in the shadows of the ruins of two galactic powers. It is believed that, had the war continued, the two sides would have destroyed one another, and it would have taken many thousands of years for new civilizations to spread back into the stars.

## Prior to the War

The Razorbird Empire and the Metaform Combine were the two galactic super-powers of that time, both owning vast tracts of space. Each was hugely influential and possessed of a very high level of technology. However, while the Metaform Combine relied on rationality and healthy skepticism as the foundation of its national philosophy, the Razorbirds relied on religion and unquestioning faith as theirs. This put them at philosophical odds, as well as being rivals based on influence and position. Power, after all, breeds conflict.

The Razorbird Empire and the Metaform Combine competed frequently for the favour of the smaller interstellar nations, not to mention the competition for resources and scientific discovery. Clandestine operations were commonplace in the days leading up to the war. Furthermore, this rivalry fueled greater research into the field of military technology, and newer and more devastating weapons were developed by both sides. Certain scientists on either side occasionally had moral objections to weaponry they were being asked to create. While occasionally these scientists got others to listen to them, more often than not they were shunted to the side where they couldn't interfere.

Things were brought to a head when the Combine sought to cripple the Razorbird Empire's very foundations by disproving the existence of the Razorbird god, Jiral. The Razorbirds, however, discovered this plot, and were outraged. They considered it a direct attack on their core philosophy, and the Empire's citizens called for war. A war which the Inquisition was only too happy to grant them. The smaller nations were soon scrambling to choose a side, though a fair few elected to remain neutral. Galactic news channels were soon flooded with reports on the declaration of war the Razorbirds issued, which the Metaforms responded to with a show of force, almost immediately mobilizing their fleets. The Singularity Wars had begun.

## Beginning of the War

Most of the details of the war have been lost to time. The general details of the war are known, thanks in large part to what the Mindnet and the Jolnari managed to preserve.

### The Roster

The following is a list of the known factions that participated in the war. It's probable that there were more. There was a small league of unaligned nations in the beginning, but as the war progressed, each was destroyed or joined one of the two sides. It's known that the Razorbird Empire courted the numerous hawkish, militaristic nations in the Milky Way of that time, whereas the Metaform Combine preferred to rely on its myriad subservient states. As a result, the Razorbird Empire's aligned factions were smaller, but harder to control.

#### Empire-Aligned

* Razorbird Empire
* Commissariat of Oma'Mak
* Lahtrepian Communities (vassal)
* Interstellar Cilxitac Junta
* Athallid Star Church (vassal)
* Pact of Xabir
* Supreme Hierarchy of Kar-zu
* Sacred Covenant of Cynndor

#### Combine-Aligned

* Metaform Combine
* Helvan Collective
* Reshethi Imperium
* Skanuri Hierarchy (protectorate)
* Jolnari Colleges (protectorate)
* Ubaric State (protectorate)
* Union of Othor (protectorate)

### The First Phase

The Metaforms launched the first attack of the war, with a substantial portion of their fleet hammering the Combine border of the Razorbird Empire, as smaller fleets supplemented by their more minor allies attacked the other sides of the Razorbird Empire which didn't border the edge of the galaxy. This resulted in a three pronged attack. The Razorbird's Grand Flotilla was quite readily mobilized, and arranged a fluid defense against the charging Metaform fleets.

To help understand the war, one must first understand the main participants. Both had at hand spectacular technologies, things that to us may well seem like magic. But each belligerent was as different strategically as they were philosophically. The Razorbirds brought to bear destructive weaponry, coupled with esoteric FTL drives and transportation technologies protected by powerful shield generators. Their fleets were capable of slipping past a number of defenses, launching lightning raids deep within enemy territory and vanishing as suddenly as they arrived. The Metaforms on the other hand bolstered their powerful warships with neutron armour generators and took a slower approach to combat. By deploying drydocks and fortifications as they advanced, they became a juggernaut. Slow moving, with each new front line leapfrogging the next, but virtually impossible to dislodge once they got a foot in the door.

This is the tactic the Razorbird Empire was forced to deal with as they launched their initial assault. While Razorbird ships utilised Ether drives to traverse that strange dimension, Metaform ships did not themselves have any sort of FTL drives. Their primary method of interstellar travel was the creation of temporary but stable artificial wormholes, which were generated by space stations with limited ranges. This is what caused the need for their slower, implacable method of advancing. At the opening of the war, a series of wormholes opened up across the border of the Razorbird Empire, carrying a good number of Metaform fleets through. The first planets to fall were Imperial ones.

After that, however, things only got steadily more complicated. The Razorbirds, being on the back foot, decided to engage a defence-in-depth rather than attempting to establish and hold any particular line in the sand. Their fleets would appear quite suddenly, trade vicious blows with the Metaforms, and melt away. Meanwhile, their ships would also appear behind Metaform lines, striking at wormhole stations, manufacturing zones, and so on, rendering the already slow-moving Metaform war machine downright soporific.

This was the longest phase of the war by far. Despite their hatred for each other, each of the two superpowers began playing fairly conservatively, especially in comparison with how they would turn out acting later in the war. They were still at this time considering the future, and their images. Though it saw many deaths, and many battles with awful casualty lists, it was nothing to what would be coming all too soon.

Somewhat surprisingly, it was with the smaller aligned factions that the war first started to really heat up. The smaller factions had just as much hatred for the other side, and sometimes each other, as the Empire and the Combine. Being smaller and oftentimes younger, they were also more dynamic and tended to have less to lose. The Razorbirds in particular, having courted the most aggressive, militaristic states, heard frequent reports from their allies of attacks on both the Metaform Combine and their allies, and the few unaligned states in the galaxy. On both sides, there were regular requests or demands to the superpowers for more powerful weapons and more direct support.

## Escalation

As the Metaform Combine pushed slowly into the Razorbird Empire, it was constantly beset by lightning raids from the Razorbirds, or more destructive long-term raids from its allies. It is known that the Combine's client states were not faring so well against the Empire's allies, and they were desperate for more support from their parent state. But neither side at this point was thrilled with its prospects. Each had hoped for a clear advantage in good order, as each was convinced that they were in the right. As the war ground on and each side found that they were worse off than before by a good margin, and no clear victor was emerging, each began turning towards more esoteric, and eventually, destructive tactics.

It is unknown who first turned to the use of superweapons. The Razorbirds insist that it was the Metaforms, giving them to their client states for use. The Mindnet says historical records indicated that the Razorbirds used the first weapons, but it's entirely likely that the Combine doctored that information. However, once that door was open, it couldn't be shut again. Each side began bringing disastrous weapons to bear on the other. At first your usual things, a cannon that would release a pulse wave that could cripple an entire fleet, bombs that could devastate continents. As the war progressed, this would expand into more vicious, more off-the-wall and massively destructive weaponry as each side diverted their research and resources to trying to develop the magic bullet to win.

As these weapons of mass destruction and other strange technologies were introduced, the Singularity Wars started to speed up. Particularly stubborn targets could be simply gotten rid of in the name of saving lives (your side's lives that is). Of course, as these weapons came into use, so did means of defending against them, but said defences often had trouble keeping pace.

One of the most infamous weapons, which came in many different flavours and was used by both sides, were the singularity generators which gave this conflict its name. Through various methods these would either collapse a star into a black hole or create an artificial one. These did not see common use until later, however.

### The Razorbird gateway

The most significant development during this phase of the war was actually not a weapon at all, not directly at least. The Psionic Colleges of the Empire managed to pool their research and power and, combined with advanced Razorbird technology, they were able to establish a permanent tunnel through the Ether into the Metaform Combine, allowing near instant travel for ships between the permanently positioned gateways. The first gateway manifested in the Razorbird Golden World of Chromia, and the other, in the system of Ardokos deep within the Combine.

The Razorbird fleet With Gentle Hand immediately passed through to Ardokos. Taken completely by surprise, and with most of its forces engaged in the offensive or supporting its allies, the Metaform Combine deployed the Home Fleet, the fleet dedicated to the defence of the Metaform capital planet known as the Nexus, to try to repel With Gentle Hand. Ardokos represented an important system for the Combine's power grid. However, With Gentle Hand had already captured most of the system's defences, and when the Home Fleet arrived, some of the Imperial Flotilla's finest were lying in wait. The Home Fleet was driven into retreat, as defence of the Nexus was decided to be more important than the recapture of Ardokos. With Gentle Hand was able to capture a number of systems around Ardokos before the reinforced Home Fleet was able to establish a perimeter they couldn't deal with on their own.

Additional support was requested from Noho to push towards the Nexus, however, the rest of the Imperial Flotilla was otherwise occupied. As such, while With Gentle Hand and the Home Fleet continued to trade occasional blows, neither side was willing to putting everything on the table for risk of losing it.

## Combine Spearhead

The Razorbirds had managed to launch their lightning raids fairly deep into the Metaform Combine before. However, this gateway opening up, so relatively near to the Nexus, sent the Metaform command into a state of panic, even as they kept the news from the general populace. The Razorbirds had not attacked simple to destroy or steal, but to capture, and they'd carved out a decent little chunk of the Combine before their progress was halted. While they'd conquered considerably more, each new planet they gained was paid for dearly, and the going was very slow with the Razorbird's strike-and-fade tactics and constant strikes on their production facilities and supply lines at every turn. The Razorbird gateway, meanwhile, had allowed them to capture a number of systems, quite swiftly and with relatively minimal casualties. With Gentle Hand had even jumped a battleship in just beyond the edges of what is now known as the Blue Sun system, which contains the Nexus. It only fired off a couple of warning shots at a perimeter defence station which dealt only minor damage before immediately jumping away again, but the point was not to cause damage, but to show the Metaforms that they could.

The Metaform Combine knew that the present state of the war was untenable in the long run. They needed a new strategy, something aggressive and dynamic to combat their mortal enemies. They decided to do to the Razorbirds what the Razorbirds had already sort of done to them, and go for the centre. Within the Razorbird Empire lay the Grasping Claw Nebula, the cradle in which lay their capital planet, Noho, and the Golden Worlds that represented the core of their empire, and of their faith. These Golden Worlds were still a fair distance away from the Razorbird frontlines, but the Metaforms had a plan.

The Combine manufactured a number of quick-deploy wormhole generator stations, ones not designed to be absolutely permanent nor serve any defence functions as many others were. They transported these to the frontlines along with heavily armed caravans, mostly consisting of new ships manufactured to replace their losses against the Imperial Flotilla. Along with the latest supwerweapons, including beginning the mass-deployment of singularity generators, they changed their tactics quite abruptly, focusing all of their effort on blitzing the Empire. Rather than launching an attack, capturing planets, fortifying their position and deploying new wormhole stations, they instead went for aggression and nothing else.

This was not just limited to the Metaform Combine's forces. They also instructed their client states and allies to disregard the defence of their own territories, or the Combine's, and launch similar all-out attacks on the Razorbird Empire's other borders, in the hope of overwhelming the Empire's defences. The Razorbirds were not prepared for this sudden shift in tactics. Their attack-and-fade delaying strategies weren't working as well against this new campaign, and rather than conquered, the Razorbirds had to watch far too many of their worlds simply be obliterated. While the Flotilla saw many victories during this period, it also suffered many losses, and the fleet On Hope Alone was almost completely destroyed.

The purpose of this spearhead was, eventually, realised, and the Metaform Combine found itself within striking distance of the Golden Worlds. The Eagle Claw Nebula's natural composition, coupled with advanced Razorbird obfuscation technology, made it very difficult for the Metaforms to map out the region. The precise locations of the Razorbird's homeworlds were unknown to them, save for one: Chromia. Utilising shielded stealth drones specially developed for this specific purpose, they had managed to sneak a few through the psionic gateway and discovered its entry point: Chromia. That information was delivered to the rest of the Combine, which knew the precise location of the planet, and its defences. They assembled the largest single force yet in the war and opened up a wormhole to Chromia.

### Battle of Chromia

The Metaform assault group, headed by Combine-Admiral Anargyros directly, opened a wormhole to the perimetre of the Chrono star system, which contained the planet Chromia. They were challenged by the remnants of On Hope Alone, as well as the fleet In Void Waiting. Chromia was a Golden World, and a Golden World near the edge of the Grasping Claw Nebula. It was defended and fortified, with a planetary shield generator and a myriad of defensive stations all around the system, and even minefields. It would not go down without a fight.

Most specific details of this fight are lost to history. What is known was mostly imparted to the rest of the galaxy by the Mindnet. The Metaform fleets came under fire from powerful long-ranged Razorbird particle lances, as well as the minefields set out for them. The Metaforms thus suffered first blood in the fight. Once they neared Chromia itself, the fight began in earnest, Razorbird ships, orbital stations, and surface-to-orbit weapon batteries on Chromia went weapons-free on the Metaform fleet, which opened fire with equal prejudice.

The Razorbird fleet With Gentle Hand, the majority of which was waiting just on the other side of the psionic tunnel in the Metaform Combine, sent a message to Noho asking if they should return through to Chromia to assist. They were told to stay put. Imperial High Command determined that while With Gentle Hand would make a difference, it likely wouldn't be enough to win, and it would force them to give up their foothold inside the Combine.

Though the Razorbirds fought beak and claw, the superior numbers of the Metaform fleet won the day. The attacking Metaforms suffered moderate casualties, while the fleet On Hope Alone was completely destroyed, and In Void Waiting suffered heavy losses and retreated to Noho. The Metaform fleet was not done however. It managed to board a Razorbird station and download a star Mao before it self-destructed, to plot out the Grasping Claw nebula. Once the Razorbirds had retreated, they turned their guns on the planetary shield, and once it was down, utilised their new superweapon, called the Carbonic Regressor.

When they fired this weapon, all carbon-based life on Chromia (in other words, all of it) was reduced to ash. The wave of power spread across the planet, leaving behind a ball of grey stone covered in ash. The psions maintaining the tunnel were slain instantly, and the tunnel closed, leaving With Gentle Hand stranded in the territory it had captured.

### Battle of Noho

In the wake of this victory, Combine-Admiral Anargyros, who was responsible for the Combine's new spearhead blitz as well as this success at Chromia, insisted to the Archon and Combine-General that the advantage needed to be pressed. The Empire was reeling, and they now had a complete map of the Grasping Claw nebula, with Noho's precise location. If they could make a decisive strike, here and now, they could use the Carbonic Regressor on Noho and shatter the Empire's will to fight. It was a hard sell, but the Combine-Admiral's passion and conviction, as well as the previous successes of their unorthodox tactics, led the Archon to sanction this bold move. They paused only to execute some repairs over ruined Chromia, before making the leap to Noho.

However, this would prove to be a critical mistake. The map may have included Noho's location, but it did not make particular the borderline psychotic level of defences around the Ekahi system, and Noho in particular. Furthermore, while the Metaform Combine primarily relied on drones, hacking, and scanners to gather intel, the Razorbirds preferred physical infiltration and especially converts. They already had an idea that this would be the move that the Metaforms would make, and plants within their navy confirmed it. They were prepared to defend their home world, Noho, the Hallowed Planet, with everything they had.

When the massive Combine fleet exited the wormhole into the Ekahi system, several things happened in rapid succession. It came under fire by a large perimetre defence fortress. It caused a fair bit of confusion and a few casualties, but was destroyed fairly quickly once the Metaforms organised. While that was going on, however, carefully positioned Razorbird ships launched suicide attacks on every nearby Combine wormhole generator, cutting off their chance of escape.

The Combine Fleet scanned the system. They didn't love what they saw. Disregarding all the weapons scattered around the system, around Noho specifically, there was a powerful planetary shield, an artificially constructed heavily armed planetary ring, no less than 80 orbital defence platforms, and powerful surface guns on Noho and both of its moons. On top of this, it was being defended by the fleets In Void Waiting, On Sunrays Sailing, and In Light Adorned. Nevertheless, Combine-Admiral Anargyros forged ahead, confident that he and his veteran forces could achieve victory.

Much to their surprise, the defending Razorbird fleets did not wait in orbit this time. They came out to meet them, nowhere near any planet. It was at this point that they realised their mistake, as the fleets In Fire Shaped, From Ash Risen, and Amongst the Brave jumped into the Ekahi system, making for the Metaform fleet as well. Realising their mistake, the retreat order was sent, but no wormhole was opened. The Razorbird fleets surrounded the trapped Metaforms.

In the battle that followed, the Metaforms attempted to use ship-to-ship superweapons, but the Razorbirds had counters for them. The Carbonic Regressor was destroyed, Combine-Admiral Anargyros went down with their ship, and the Metaform fleet was destroyed to the very last ship. Not even one shot plinked off the shield surrounding Noho.

The Metaforms had been given every opportunity to see the light, but whenever the Razorbirds reached out the hand of friendship, it was slapped away. Again and again they had spurned the faithful and committed heinous crimes, and now? Noe they had destroyed a Golden World, and tried to do the same to Noho. There is no greater sin possible. The Metaforms were declared to be living Demons by the Inquisition, worthy not even of conversion. The Razorbirds would work for the good of the galaxy, as they had always done. This time, by purging the Metaforms from it with holy fire.