History
The First WaveIn the 10th month of 3301 the Minor Faction EXO had become a growing power in the Piscium/Tascheter border region. From their home, Wolf 1301, nestling in the natural protection of a massive brown dwarf field. They methodically began to annex nearby systems just as they had seized Saunders's Dive from the local Pirate Lord.
As the Faction grew they began expanding their opperations far and wide, drawing the attention of the criminal organizations of the galaxy. After long and protracted assaults and repelling numerous invasion attempts the strongest of the offending factions, worshipers of the Raven, Corvos, bent and appealed to the Galactic Powers for a cease fire. After much debate and contention the Treaty of the Ravens Tears was signed, allowing Corvos to retreat in safety.
During this time another criminal organization, The Coalition, had been quite noisily selling the strange Unknown Artefacts to the local Black Market. As local law enforcement began to encounter the Artefacts they became exposed to the gasses they emitted. Something deep in the genetics of these commanders Awakened, and for the first time the Meow was heard. Although to those first Adherents it was more of a Roar of Rage. It was during this time that Larzok received the Edicts, from within the Meow.
The local security forces had been firmly against the Treaty and warned that allowing their enemies a respite would come back to bite them. Shortly there after The First Space Cat Rebellion was launched. Commanders Larzok, Kahliban, Phoenix, and Pilot, left their quarters at Saunders's Dive and in some cases leaving unsecured UA's in their quarters to disperse the enlightening gasses through the station, so others might also Hear the Meow as they had.
During the last few weeks of 3301 the Adherents of the Meow waged bloody conflicts through out the galaxy untill the High Priest Larzok (Later to be named Prophet of the Meow) lost himself in a Nip induced haze within the black hole fields of NGC 7822. Clarity of thought returned to Larzok after bathing in the Hawking's radiation that soaked the nebula. He quietly returned from exile and met with the EXO Emergency Council to try and convince them to return the Adherents to the fold, and with a plan to do it.
With a touch of a button and the waggling of an Orca's tail the First Space Cat Rebellion came to a mostly bloodless end, the Pilot and Phoenix answered Larzoks beacon, while Kahliban offered caution from a safe distance. He would later go on to form the Freelancers of 109 Piscium while still under the full effects of the Nip. It is unknown to this day whether Kahliban has ever felt the moderating effects of the Hawking's Bath.
It was not a smooth re-integration, many members of EXO had fallen to the Claws of the Catist during the previous weeks. This left quite a few open wounds unhealed. By mid February the Meow had begun making itself heard to many more Commanders within EXO's ranks. 6 of these Commanders took the holy dueling ship, the Imperial Eagle, to oppose the illegal invasion and freeing of Imperial Slaves by the Paladin Consortium in LFT 37, fiercly interdicting and destroying multiple commanders who failed to show their Paws, or submit to dumping their cargoes of water purifiers and to not return.
Many of the more pacifistic members of EXO felt the actions of the 6 would reflect badly on the organization that had recently cut all ties and retracted all former cease fires, and would be seen as an opening gambit for further aggression by EXO. The pilots who flew this mission while heavily Catist, where also all members of the command structure, making up the leads of multiple flights. And made it clear that the crippling of a profitable trade route in LFT 37 would expose their guarded and secret route to discovery. The Vote, did not agree. As tensions grew within EXO between different internal factions the Adherents devised a plan.
The Second Wave
By March of 3302 rumblings of a second rebellion had started to be noticed. But this time it wasn't contained to a few commanders. A large portion of EXOs command structure had begun to Hear the Meow.
On March 11th, 3302 after a productive meeting about the future of EXO the inevitable, and to some unthinkable happened. EXO Fleet Comms began to glitch heavily and went dead, only to be returned some moments later to reveal the Edicts. The highest ranking Cat in the EXO Command Structure Junior Operations Officer Larzok appeared over the Comms channels of all commanders within the EXO Fleet Comms Network.
He announced to the fleet that the Adherents of the Meow would be withdrawing from EXO, removing themselves from all positions of command and withdrawing from EXO territory to wander the darkness. Each Adherent said their goodbyes, and made their parting words, some harsher than others. Within 30 minutes EXO Fleet Comms returned. In the confusion and chaos most of EXOs senior command structure slipped into the Darkness and followed the Purr to true freedom. During these first crazy weeks the Church named Adherent Pilot as the Paw of the Space Cat, the ceremonial leader of the Church.
In the following weeks bloodshed and confusion ran rampant. While a few of the Catists wanted nothing more than to quietly leave EXO space the majority felt that now was the perfect time to settle scores that had developed over the previous months. The chaos of the Schism and the “First Inspection” would hold sway for weeks, until the April Fools Day Incursion. On April 1st 3302 spies uncovered the location of the Vail home system, news spread like wild fire, arms on all sides of the EXO-Church conflict where re-aligned as jump drives spun up for the raid. The Vail had no idea what hit them as the combined EXO-Freelancer-Church fleet dropped in system and laid waste. Over the next few weeks things calmed between the two organizations, and their Churches long time medical advisor and current Deputy Wing Commander of EXO officially joined the Church upon completing his duels. Things where looking calm for a time, and the Church began to settle in their chosen home of HR 17.
The Third Wave
In the weeks after the April Fools Day Incursion, EXO was declared “Have Paws” and many newcomers began to hear the Meow. Some were drawn by the idea of opposition to EXO, others drawn by the soothing Purr heard in the deep dark. Tensions remained muted, and talks where even underway to bring EXO as a whole into the warm fuzzy embrace of Space Cat. Although, as they have a way of doing, politics reared their ugly head. EXO had been approached by a fledgling Mega-Corp flying the long dead banner of the Galcop. All EXO had to do to join? Renounce all ties to the Church, and force any members with ties to abandon them. This turn of events did not sit well with the newly appointed Paw of the Space Cat Toxickiller, who subsequently initiated a war of irritation, which eventually boiled over into a contract dispute, and full blown warfare, as the Church and the Freelancers stalked and destroyed EXO Ships across the sector during what came to be known as the EXO-Freelancer War of Poor Aim. There were many casualties and stations fell to arms lobbed by allies on both sides of the conflict. As a ceasefire was declared between the Lancers and EXO the Church watched on and tended their systems.
While things settled down on the external faction diplomacy front, internally the Church was in uproar. The reason for the dispute is lost to time, but in the end, Toxickiller, The Paw of the Space Cat renounced of his title and position within the Church, and chose to walk his own path, joining the ranks of the Stray Cats, and later EXO.
As the galactic event “The Dangerous Games” wore on and the Church ran inspections on two of Galcops Founding Factions, the Church was approached by the Border Coalition in an attempt to rally forces against the overwhelming monster that was GalCop. Some members wholeheartedly joined the effort, seeing it as a natural pairing to their current media campaign against religious persecution.
By time the Games ended Galcop was a shadow of its former self, the demoralizing defeat in the games having taken much of the bluster and anti-religious sentiment out of their sails as the groups members scattered back to their own neglected projects and notable and founding groups left, now that the dream of Galcop had failed. While tensions remained high across the sector, open conflict was avoided as a mutual avoidant disdain settled over the neighboring powers.
By mid year the Church had grown to include many new members, and a new sect had risen up under the banner of The Order of the Wandering Siamese, who made their home in the newly dubbed Colonia Bubble and who’s mission was to wander the darkness looking for the secret treasures left to us by Space Cat.
The Fourth Wave
In the fourth quarter of the year, rumblings of war again came out of the goliath that was Galcops husk. The Phoenix Ascension, whose pilots had often flown counter to the Churches warriors, took offense to EXO and broke ties. They immediately sought the council of the Church, who had previously shown they could stand against the might of EXO. As talks commenced between leadership of PA and the Church, 2 ranking members of the Ascended heard a startling variant of the Meow, dubbed the Roar of War, and in what would become The First Meowacle was announced. The Space Cat had chosen to manifest to CMDR Nezrec, who would become Lord Fwoosh, Founder of the Order of the Fire Cat, a sect devoted to the burning of the Pawless wherever they might be found. But due to conflicts and the ugly specter of Anti-Catist Propaganda lurking on the Galnet, The Ascended chose to spurn the advice they were given. The Church could do nothing but issue an Inspection of Paws upon the Ascended, and deemed them Pawless after numerous instances of Trans-Dimensional Drive usage where documented. Shortly the Church would Inspect this time the Taco Corp was the intended target, which to the surprise of many, showed their Paws with much success, and where inducted into the ranks of the Pawed. As the year draws to a close, the Church grows slowly, and spreads in many unforeseen ways, from their birth place in Wolf 1301, to their home of HR 17, to the bar of the Cyborg half way across the galaxy, they spread. As a new year comes, it can only be asked, “What will the 5th wave bring?”
{more to come}