-What's this about Huldeiver?- I directly /asked Kylee Rantha. She was one of Inigo's helpers, robbing from the rich and giving to us, tracking down those assholes who thought they were hidden and so could do wicked things without anyone knowing, and going to it on them. The Crew infiltrated and put in place hardware the Goldilocks could exploit into the computer networks of others, and did all sorts of blatantly illegal stuff while sleeping very soundly at night. There was a whole slew of Ranthas and Briggs with rainbow Claws, after all, even as dangerous as that could be in this place.

The Crew could be rebellious as they wanted, we were all still family, and they still wanted to help. If they could swashbuckle as they did so, they were definitely going to, even if the only people who knew anything about them were certain of the Marked.

-I boosted his personal safe. He had a couple of Mi-Go datacores hidden among his bug-out jewels, I didn't notice them until we were doing the lattice-wipes to make the gems untraceable. I turned them over to the Umbrans through a couple of the sisters, and it turns out he's been working with aliens.-

-The Mi-Go?- I had to /ask. -What's the stat analysis on his holdings say?-

-Based on statistical analysis of all his holdings versus combat that has occurred and expansion of the Xenos, there's a 92% chance he's got some agreement with the cerevores, too. We're pretty sure it's centered in Deiver Technology, which has some substantial Underspire holdings that mysteriously haven't been ravaged at all. The bloks around his home Spire were among the most infested in the city, but his Spire itself only had moderate infestations... that we know of.-

The richest unbacked individual in the biggest city on a grimdark mining world was colluding with psionic aliens. Somehow, it didn't surprise me at all.

-The Umbrans are going to do a deep penetration. We're already fairly certain we're going to find Necrojump Drives on some Huldeiver ships. Colby is damn sure they've been pumping biomatter into the deep Underspire to fuel the rise of xenos. There's some deep investigation into his finances going on, and we're finding some ominous stuff...-

Kylee loved her drama, so I bit. -Yeah?...- I /prompted her.

-Well, among other things, we're pretty sure he's the one who pulled the strings to get you drafted.-

-Huh.- Nobody had noticed I was gone, of course. Marilyn Rantha was a Natural Actress, took about two seconds to change her face, maxed out her Charisma, and simply overwhelmed anyone dealing with Colonel Sama Rantha in short order, while the other girls basically ran everything and she front-faced for them, having a great time as a military officer. I already had a great rep as a trainer, and she was giving me a good reputation as a field commander too, despite not really making many decisions outside making sure the girls got their way in the command structure. She was really good at both charm and invective, and my name was definitely spreading through the command structure in new and deadly ways during the last few weeks she'd been playing my part.

The price of her taking my place was that I had to promise that she could play me in the eventual biopic about me...

I devoted two thought-streams to sieving through all the Huldeiver data, and fixed on something.

-We want that yacht,- I /grinned into the Marktell, looking at the story on Huldeiver's newest playtoy. It was a pleasure craft, an extreme rarity in the Empire, a hundred meters of auric-plated gaudiness with far, far too many armaments on it for a civilian craft or someone without a noble title at even a glance.

It also was non-AMT coded, which meant it was even more expensive to make, but that just indicated the owner was reliant on other things.

I could tell a pirate crew was instantly forming among the kids, and they were even starting to compose new shanties already.

-We'll clear it through the Coronals. Somebody confirm it's got a Necrojam Drive before we kill everyone on board, will you?-

-On it, Mom! Yo ho ho!- Kaylee /said happily, already gathering some deadly and independent-minded folks for a little privateering.

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Galactic History – Since we're starting to move into larger scale deeds and conflicts, and Sama has access to the Tribute's files to recover all that lost pre-Empire history that's been firmly downplayed...

-20,000+ to -12,000 Years before the present: The Ruk Federation rules the galaxy, its Forge Worlds and Fortress ships dominating all, as does their mastery of high technology, unity, and willingness to fight. Humanity is barely reaching out to the stars.

-12,000 years to -10,000 years: The downfall of the Ruk Federation. One of the Clans starts dealing with the Aberrants and unleashes their psionic powers, which they use against other Clans in a bid for power. The unshakeable unity of the Ruk race is broken.

At the same time, the first invasions of the Xenos, aided by the cerevores, are unleashed upon the galaxy. The tunnel homes and mountain cities of the Ruk are ideal terrain for the Xenos, and they plague the Ruk for centuries, along with their brain-eating masters. Xenos are spread across the galaxy randomly at this point, and encountered by many races.

Finally, a massive Goblin incursion rebuilds itself from the Rim of the Galaxy, and engages their ancient foes all over the galaxy. While the Ruk are targeted the most, other races are not spared the hunger for war, slaves, and killing of the tripartite race, including humanity.

The elvar begin their rise as the bastions of the Ruk fall, one after another, to the triple threat. Their Wild Hunts of enemies on the swiftest ships in the galaxy become legends.

-10,000 years to -9000 years: The golden age of the Elvar. As the Ruk are reduced to a fraction of their numbers and retreat behind ever more zealous and xenophobic defenses, the Elvar rise and flourish. They hunt the goblins across the galaxy, and do not spare the Xenos or the cerevores, or other Aberrant races. Their beautiful solar-sailed ships are soon recognized as the masters of the galaxy.

Humanity is in an expansion phase. While the Elvar are a dominating force, many worlds have been left abandoned and ravaged by the thousands of years of war. Humanity starts crossing the void and settling these new worlds. The Ruk often become their inspiration and unwitting aids in bettering their technology as they plunder old ruins of the race, and learn their vast and glorious history. A lack of interaction with the remnants of the Ruk generally means that humanity considers the stalwart defenders of the galaxy in a positive light, despite having almost no dealings with them.

-9000 to -8000 years: The Fall of the Elvar, culminating in the Apotheosis of Amourae, whose influence promptly begins to extend into the past and future. The Elvar, naturally aligned to Chaos and Good, are corrupted by the Warp Gods at their height of their success, dividing into four competing factions as their skin darkens with the debasement of their desires. The arrogance and unbridled sinister intentions of the black-skinned drow are soon known across the galaxy, while Elvar society tears itself apart from within.

The Apotheosis of Amourae forms the Abyss, a section of the near-Core that devours all light, sweeping up many of the elven Lifeworlds with it. Only Elvar settlements in distant parts of the galaxy, or those who had given up soaring the stars for a more primitive life far from the worlds of their people, manage to survive... and only then if they give up all the magic that is their birthright, as they are no longer able to resist the corruption that comes with its use, as they could previously.

The majority of the drow are also slaughtered and fed upon by Amourae during his rise, as they are intensely magical and make perfect fuel for the God of Desire. Those who survive flee into the Gloom, the twilight realm erected by the great spellweavers of the Elvar between shadow, reality, and the Warp, thought to draw on the essence of long-vanished fey spirits, and their principle means for getting about the galaxy. They too, must give up all magical usage, and even the psionic powers which rose to replace them, as they make the realm their home, and evolve into a physically-obsessed, dark technology realm still split among service to the Warp Gods, whose desires they feed with endless wars for slaves and sacrifices, hopefully staving off their own endings.

This period is known as The Fall among humans, and also the Dark Age of the Machines. Empowered by the Apotheosis, the first mass Warp Incursions occur across the galaxy, and in response the many AI's of humanity's highest technology go Axiomatic and rogue. Caught between these forces, trillions of humans die on worlds unnumbered.

The widespread rise of rogue psions is soon matched by the evolution of the first mindblades, who study the secrets of their mindblades and raw psionic power, and spread them widely. Their knowledge of such powers also gives birth to operators who prefer to move in stealth against the obvious presence of the others, and the Coronals and Umbrans rise in tandem, different in style, yet similar in goals, and their odd partnership continues for millennia. Psionic empowerment wages war against machine and demon for centuries in the void.

-7000 Years – The Emperor, the greatest psion to ever live, is crowned on ancient Tellus, the homeworld of humanity. His legions of gene-augmented, power-armored warriors set forth to take back the lost worlds, and most importantly, so do his disciplined psions, who have harnessed and controlled the power of psionics, forming the first true order of human psionic masters, the Mentats.

For the next thousand years, the Emperor expands throughout the galaxy, into the vacuum of power that exists out there. Rapacious aliens, creatures of the Warp, Aberrants and Things of the Void; his armies face them all and emerge victorious. The last AI's are crushed by psionic might, and he brings the Coronal Knights and the Umbrans in to support him on this great crusade across the stars. They become the Right and Left Hands of the Emperor, while the Mechanist Guild supports him as they take command of the Forgeworlds and produce endless ships and arms for him.

Being aware of the horrible scale and nature of the forces he is opposing, the Empire abandons his gene-soldiers, many of them augmented with animal DNA, and forms new legions of soldiers, augmented by his own perfect genetic code. To command these legions, he grows thirteen Primogenitors, literally sons of his own flesh, to help him in commanding the galaxy and defying the shadowed forces out there, believing his own perfect DNA will overcome the problems with the Vat-born.

-6000 years – the Empire is at its height and the Emperor is trying to devise a drive system that will ignore warp space, when he finds out, to his horror, that his Primogenitor sons, lacking any connection to the rest of humanity or the human akasha, have rebelled, taking many of their Legionnaires with them. To counter the power of human psions, the Coronals, and the Umbrans, they turn to Warp Sorcery, and their rebellion eventually reaches all the way to Tellus itself.

In a final confrontation with four of his demonified Sons, the Emperor obliterates them with the help of the Grandmasters of the Mentats, Coronals, and Umbrans, but is shattered by fell Warp power channeled by his fallen sons. He is bound upon his Crystal Throne to power the Celestial Beacon, also allowing him to look across the galaxy and ply his power and will where it is needed for humanity's future. His thoughts rapidly slipping away and above most mortal matters, administration of the Empire falls to a council of mere humans.

With the death of multiple Primogenitors, the six demonized surviving sons of the Emperor retreat into the Abyss with their forces. The Imperial Legions never recover from the shame brought upon them by those meant to lead them, and spend the next millennia working to assuage their guilt, trying to reclaim their place as the Emperor's Sons.

-5000 Years – Humanity has regained much of what it has lost on paper, but the galaxy is a dark place. Warp incursions are incessant, and the Aberrant and races of the void, as well as the drow, are preying on everything across the galaxy. Brutal discipline and sacrifice are the existence of the Empire as there are threats on all sides.

The first (fatal) encounter with a Tekron Crecheworld is logged around this time, by distant psionic message. No trace is ever found of the ship that sent it, and only the most subtle probing of the system is ever made to confirm the danger of what they faced.

-4000 years – The first mass Xenos Swarm fleet is discovered traversing beneath the galaxy, and immediately sets the whole Empire on edge at its sheer size. Soon, other alien all-consuming Swarms are identified in different extra-galactic flight paths. It is believed that the Tekrons might be dissuading them from simply invading en masse.

-3000 years: Janus III and its continual warpstorm are discovered, but the Energized mines make it worth the investing.

The Goblins begin to make resurgences across the galaxy as humanity expands to the Rim, and soon their population is exploding as they make war on everyone. Their rise spurs the Elvar, hidden in dark corners for their safety, to return to their Hunting, and they are not overly discriminate in who they hunt, as they thirst for the brief glory of their great age.

-2000 years – Warp Storms intermittently cut off different parts of the galaxy, blocking the Celestial Beacon and making travel impossible. Regions so cut off often suffer horrible fates, and crusades are soon mounted to take them back from the ills which have befallen them.

The Empire officially enters a stagnate phase, unable to produce enough warpower to advance against all their foes, claiming new worlds, only to lose others with the same frequency. Technological advancement in the hands of the Mekkers has begun to regress as the aged TL15+ technology they have fails, and cannot be replicated. High-end duties once accomplished by technology are more and more often done by psionics, which increases Warp incursions and the activity of Aberrants and the Void Races.

-1000 years – Following an Abyssal Crusade plunging into the galactic core, the warfleets of the Empire come across the last holdings of the Ruk. There is only careful and distant contact, as the ancient race trusts none of the new ones, and have also lost much of their ancient knowledge after all these millennia of being besieged. Still, adventurous Ruk are about the only alien race accepted in the Human Empire.

-17 years from story start: A massive Warpstorm breach slices the galaxy in half, severing whole sectors from the Celestial Beacon. Dreams and nightmares of both hope and fear plague psions throughout the Empire, and the origins of the catastrophe are hotly debated as an opportunity, or a sign of the end times. Thousands of systems are forced into unprecedented levels of independence from the Tellusian Throne, and those who know of the Rift (for most of the populated worlds do not) wonder if they can survive whatever it portends.