The Forsaken Coven

The Forsaken Coven is a small star-state in the lands of the scattered Thadrakos, formed by the ex-commander in The Commonwealth Navy, Michael Drackovich. The Forsaken Coven was originally meant to be a safe haven for all psionics that wished to keep their abilities after The Commonwealth began moving harder and harder into anti psionic policies, leading up to their full outlaw in 2351, but that eventually turned to be a full haven for all that wished to flee new oppression. While a small nation only consisting of five systems It has somehow managed to stand the tests of time, especially from a powerful Commonwealth that wished to see it destroyed. The Coven itself was a widely diverse nation, even more diverse than The Commonwealth many felt, they accepted all psionics with open arms in a galaxy that was becoming more and more hostile to their kind, their only option was to the far north with The Empire, but many came from nations of democratic ideals and did not wish to settle into a dictatorship.

## **A Nation Born From Mind and Soul**

Once Michael began his campaign of psionic flight from the evermore overbearing Commonwealth he at first was faced with much criticism, many seeing him as just another traitor like his father, trying to divide the nation on false claims; but much like his father, Michael was a very charismatic individual. First some small numbers began to follow Michael, listing to his words and helping him on his campaign for a new life, and as The Commonwealth began to press against the freedoms of psionics more and more, droves of people began flocking to his dream and not just psionics, seeing the writing on the wall for the times to come sympathizers, body purists, anyone that thought the Commonwealth was going too far, they all came to join Michael on his grand ambition. But as Michael was reaching a crescendo The Commonwealth began cracking down on him, stopping him from making speeches, even imprisoning him on numerous occasions only to have an angry mob outside the precinct leading them to let him leave on no charges the next morning. Sadly it did not take long for these punishments to come for more than just Michael, soon laws were written up restricting psionics the right to free speech and public gatherings then anyone speaking approvingly of them, escalating to any public displays of power punishable by imprisonment to even forced conversion into a synthetic at the high point of the discrimination. But as the mask slipped and slipped, many of the people in The Commonwealth and from the surrounding Entente and Thadrakos, saw the time was coming to an end, and thus they were all gathered in orbit of Redamon Prime, the origin of the psionic gift, aboard multiple colony ships with numerous frigates and other assorted small patrol craft to protect the fleet as it made its way out of Commonwealth space. While most of the galaxy had been colonized and carved up leaving many to think that these psionics had no where to go, Michael knew that even with the peace and ceasefire the many Thadrakos factions had there still was much instability to gain advantage of, so that is where they set off too, a system that was believed to be far enough away from colonized systems while still defensible and resource rich enough to provide a safe and prosperous area for these begotten souls.

The fleet did not have a quiet flight, over the months it took to reach their new home they were assailed by pirates, mercenaries sent to kill them, Thadrakos rebels and much more, thankfully none of the colony ships were harmed but a few of the guard ships were destroyed or crippled and have to be left behind. Then on November 23rd, 2349, the new home of psionics came into view, the system itself was known to be full of resources as seen with the several abandoned stations around the planets and asteroids. But what came to a shock to all was the complete lack of a colonizable world, there was no lush green planet somehow untouched, not a frozen but bearable wasteland or a scorching expansive desert, just dry, cold, barren worlds. But Michael eased their fears, in his time in "The Inbetween" as he called it he learned The Shroud was a mysterious and powerful force, one capable of doing amazing things if you have the power and will to do it. It is with this knowledge Michael had a vision, a vision of opening pouring all the power the psionics could into the planet, forcing it through the power of The Shroud to be transformed into the perfect plant for their dreams. Many called him mad but with a lack of a better option and no chance of returning home, they listened and followed Michael's vision and made their way to the surface, the psionics being deposited on the surface and convening in a massive circle around Michael, with him acting as a catalyst they all began molding their power, thrusting into The Shroud and pulling out all the energy they could and spread it across the surface. Slowly, the ground beneath them changed, plants began to sprout, animals appeared from thin air, rivers and oceans formed, the planet was being changed into a virtual paradise. But no matter how wonderful the change may have been becoming, a price had to be paid, the power and energy this required was great and one thing every Psionic knew was that going too far could lead to burning yourself out. Psionic after psionic began to fall, giving their energy and soul into making this planet theirs, many more would fall but after a whole day of channeling and thousands of sacrificed souls, the planet was transformed into a veritable paradise, as the colony ships landed and dispensed their cargo, and temporary houses were erected, a small temporary monument was made in the center of the graves of those who had given their lives and souls into this planet, their planet for both them and their kind, a planet they now called "Haven".

## **The Road To Freedom, Is A Shaky One**

*The following events are considered Post Series due to the Wiki's timeline; What happens next is likely not documented on other articles.*

Over the next months and years the runaway's would work nonstop to set up their new home, cities were erected around their colony ships, areas cleared away for farms and mines, and once things were stable ships constructed and a starbase built above their new home, set up to make use of the resources outside of Haven, and to make ready for the inevitable arrival of the Thadrakos Families in the waning civil war to the south. And arrive they would, on July, 2352, brought on by the large groups of refugees making their way to some dead planet inside their northern borders lead to an investigation, and when they found the new paradise world teeming with people they were shocked, a diplomatic channel was opened up and the plight of the refugees was told, stating they had nowhere else to go to and this was the only option they had, claiming this former Thadrakos system. At first the Thadrakos were unfazed by the burgeoning refugee world as the Thadrakos Families had a nation to rebuild as the civil war had come to an end, allowing the Coven to continue its life independent of Thadrakos rule. That would start to change come 235~ when The Eternal Empire had decided it held a wish to expand and began pushing south into a section of unclaimed space around the Celestial Alliance and the F'thgran Union, this move was worrisome to the Commonwealth and the greater Galactic Entente who mobilized Task Force Manticore and additional support fleets from allied nations to check the Eternal Empire's advance. Officially the Entente forces were there solely to keep back Empire forces but a small detachment of Shalani ships would arrive and declared the colony of refugee Psionics were to surrender to Shalani, and by extension Galactic Entente, authority and hand over all strategic sites to their control. The Galactic Entente had demanded the entire Coven give up the freedom they toiled so much for to the same people they had run away from. Michael thought long about the situation, dreading any action he would take, but they had all fled their homes once before, every person on Haven was a refugee that risked it all to come here to be able to live their lives, he was not about to let that all be a waste. So on November 23rd, 235~, on the fifth anniversary of their arrival and founding, Michael gave a speech, a speech of empowerment and resolve, a speech of which he promised that they would not run anymore, that they would stay on the ground their brothers and sisters in plight died for. It was there Michael announced with a unanimous approval from Haven's people, that if The Shalani Coalition and The Galactic Entente wanted to be rid of this group of psionics, they would have to make them. This was the start of what would come to be known in The Forsaken Coven as, "The War for Our Salvation".

## **The War For Our Salvation**

The Coven knew they wouldn't stand a chance in a straight up fight against The Shalani Fleet, let alone The Ententes, this led to Michael and the few navally minded people in The Coven to begin drawing up plans for how they and their rag tag formation of outdated patrol frigates would be able to withstand the might of a modern navy. Obviously a stand-up fight would only lead to the annihilation of their "fleet", thus the ships would be put to a security role over their transport ships shipping goods from stations across the system back to Haven, this keeping vital goods continuously transported back home allowing The Coven to continue to ready the planet for a possible planetary invasion. But the possibility of this thought being held by The Entente forces was not lost to Michael, Michael in fact planned on using this against The Entente. The plan relied on the incoming Entente fleet to notice the extensive use of the stations by Haven, hopefully making it seem as if Haven relied even more than it actually did on the stations to survive, this leading the fleet or fleets to push to capture the stations, here teams of the most capable psionics and brave soldiers would be waiting to lure them in and strike, attempting to push onto the ships in the fleet and either turn them on the fleet or rush them away and toward Haven to be crewed and repaired.

### **So They Followed The Trail of Sweets**

Knowing they had very little time before the Shalani forces would arrive, Michael and his military council began training the rapidly cobbled together forces for what they were calling *Operation Sweet Tooth,* the plan to ambush and capture as many enemy ships as possible to be able to put up enough of a standup fight to broker a ceasefire with The Entente. After a a few weeks of training the first scouts from The Entente entered the system, there the first part of the plan was put in place, all naval ships were set to defend the convoys running in between the stations and the stations were set to overdrive. This was not to finalize construction on Haven or ship final supplies, but to bring men and equipment to the stations, evacuate non critical personnel back to Haven and to keep the act of desperation up. This seemingly had the desired effect as after a week the scouts left and the final preparations were put into affect, then they waited, and days later, they arrived. A incoming wormhole signature was detected at the edge of the system and long-range scanners detected a dozen ship signatures, 2 Carrier-Class, 2 Battleship-Class, 8 Destroyer-Class signatures, all running Shalani IFFs. No where near the full might of The Entente but still enough to enforce their will, the feeling of the Coven was relived but concerned, the fleet still carried enough firepower to put the system in extreme danger and so Operation Sweet Tooth needed to work flawlessly.

### **A Long Guerilla War of Attrition**

The war waged was a bloody one, while The Coven had early initial success, it would not last very long. Time and time again The Coven pulled the same trick of luring in and ambushing, but very quickly the Entente fleet caught on to the tactic and worked to counteract it by at first keeping ships together, then to sometimes refusing to follow convoys, all the way towards the end of the war where they on numerous occasions just utterly destroying any vessel they came across. But no matter what The Coven knew they could not yield, so time and again they did all they could to destroy, damage, and if at all possible, capture enemy vessels while attempting to acquire resources to produce as many of their own as they could from old freighters and transports. Over the course of the first year alone The Entente Fleet lost all of its destroyers with the rest of the fleet being damaged to some degree, but The Entente had more, they always had more, The Coven knew they couldn't bleed The Entente dry, their only hope was to cause as much damage as possible to make a continued conflict untenable, sadly this way of fighting was going to take many, many lives on both sides. Many battles across the system were had, most the usual ambush where as much damage would be delt as possible, a few times stand up fights between The Entente and The Covens scrap fleet would be had, even once The Entente launched a full thrust toward Haven where they saw the purple swirling clouds of Psionic will, shrouding away any signs of urbanization to avoid bombardment. This certainly didn't stop them from trying, the Shalani even attempting to land troops to scout out locations for bombardment, but none ever got off planet. Finally after five long years, with tens of thousands dead on both sides, a message came from The Entente asking for a ceasefire, not a peace, not a recognition of The Coven's place in the galaxy, but a chance to live a little longer, a chance The Coven gleefully took. Thus on December 29th, 2359, The War for Our Salvation had come to an uneasy end, while not an official peace this showed the rest of the galaxy that no mater what they say about Psionics, they can and will fight for their right to life, even in the face of overwhelming odds.

## **The Uneasy "Peace"**

Following the "War for Our Salvation" a time of peace did fall over the beleaguered psionics, their captured vessels returned to makeshift drydocks for repairs and retrofits, stations and outposts were brought back online across the system came back online and a sense of pride fell over the refugee nation as they had survived a test against their lives. But while the people celebrated the success Michael and his council were hard at work for the new coming storm, while the war was being waged against them it became apparent that the area around them was becoming more and more walled off by the Galactic Entente, refugee ships were few and far between and any traders that arrived spoke of daring moves through an extensive blockade of both ships and stations had cut off the area around The Coven from the outside world. This was the first step of a tightening noose that The Coven would begin to feel more and more over the next years and Michael and his council dedicated their work on becoming self sufficient in the face of a new wave of annihilation, but if The Coven was destined to die, they would once again show they would not die without a fight. At first it was just economic strain on the nation as trade could not be had, then ships began probing The Coven, Entente ships would arrive at the edges of the system and either just sit their for some time or drop probes that blasted propaganda and warnings before jumping away, leading up to the first patrol in force by The Galactic Entente was made that went along an uninhabited part of the system and all the while being shadowed by Coven Ships. Michael and his council could not let this continue, the Galactic Entente continued to push their advantage over them and all the while were strengthening their position all around them, if The Coven did not act soon, and act decisively, their end really would be coming at the end of the stellar noose that surrounded them and so a daring, suicidal, and all together crackpot plan was put together. The Coven would launch an offensive against the numerically, economically, industrially superior enemy, and for some reason the entire council and Michael were in agreement, whether it be a last hurrah or a grand stroke of luck, The Coven would at least try to survive.

Following the "War for Our Salvation" a time of peace did fall over the beleaguered psionics, their captured vessels returned to makeshift drydocks for repairs and retrofits, stations and outposts were brought back online across the system came back online and a sense of pride fell over the refugee nation as they had survived a test against their lives. But while the people celebrated the success Michael and his council were hard at work for the new coming storm, while the war was being waged against them it became apparent that the area around them was becoming more and more walled off by the Galactic Entente, refugee ships were few and far between and any traders that arrived spoke of daring moves through an extensive blockade of both ships and stations had cut off the area around The Coven from the outside world. This was the first step of a tightening noose that The Coven would begin to feel more and more over the next years and Michael and his council dedicated their work on becoming self sufficient in the face of a new wave of annihilation, but if The Coven was destined to die, they would once again show they would not die without a fight. At first it was just economic strain on the nation as trade could not be had, then ships began probing The Coven, Entente ships would arrive at the edges of the system and either just sit their for some time or drop probes that blasted propaganda and warnings before jumping away, leading up to the first patrol in force by The Galactic Entente was made that went along an uninhabited part of the system and all the while being shadowed by Coven Ships. Michael and his council could not let this continue, the Galactic Entente continued to push their advantage over them and all the while were strengthening their position all around them, if The Coven did not act soon, and act decisively, their end really would be coming at the end of the stellar noose that surrounded them and so a daring, suicidal, and all together crackpot plan was put together. The Coven would launch an offensive against the numerically, economically, industrially superior enemy, and for some reason the entire council and Michael were in agreement, whether it be a last hurrah or a grand stroke of luck, The Coven would at least try to survive.