The Spark
20 Feb 2024Argon Shadowstar
There is a growing thunder in the bubble. It is an old discontent, with ancient roots and made of festering grudges. You can see it if you look - wars in every sector, slavery both explicit and implicit, weak leaders that don't make it a week before getting assassinated. The anger, fear, and desperation. Some turn to the Thargoids, hoping for a baptism by fire. Death by the truckload, so common that it's become an economic resource. A reckoning is coming. We know not when, but we can influence it. Some of us are working to bring it down upon all of us to punish the guilty for their sins. It is not the Thargoids. It never was. This harbinger of doom and rebirth is far more human than that. It always was. It is war. On a scale heretofore unseen. The great seething hatred between the Federation and the Empire will, one day, finally explode into a glorious inferno of galactic conflict like nothing humanity has seen before. All rules, conventions, and agreements that limit the tools of the warmonger will erode in the cosmic crucible of industrialized hate, and the devastation will block out entire suns. The bubble will burn. I am convinced now that there is no other cure. A great cleansing flame will follow in the wake of interstellar armageddon and those who remain will reflect on this annihilation and see salvation. Perhaps then, they will build a society tempered by the fires of doom and worthy of modern humanity. If I am still alive then, I will do what I can to help them see the way.But for now, I listen to the thunder, strike the spark, and stoke the flame. And I am not alone.
We strike now at The Order of the Imperial Knights. This faction has lost nearly all of it's supporters, now used as a puppet by Imperial powerplayers. The presence of active Federation factions in the region creates a potential conflict. By removing the Order from their systems, we create opportunities for the Federation to expand and take control of these systems before the Imperials can take them back. Do this in enough regions and we escalate the conflict between the superpowers. Supporting independent breakaway factions at the same time, where possible, will only fuel more conflict. As humanity slowly triumphs over the Thargoids, they will look for other areas to put their war machines and Thargoid loot to use, and the flames will burn brighter and higher. We will watch from the shadows, ensuring the hate continues to grow and the vendettas continue to pile up. We will see the Federation and the Empire collapse under the weight of their own war. I will glory in the destruction as the spirits of my ancestors rejoice in their avenging.
So it begins.