Masterplan[]
In order to end the upcoming war, Gravius Gnissenkrassau was in charge of the Tyranny counteroffensive, and had pooled a powerful legion of ships that was more than enough to be able to crush entire civilizations. The capital ships, capable of standing to practically any ship in the First Gigauquadrant and winning, were pooled into a few strategic black holes which were to be used as launching points from which they couldn't be seen. It did not take a genius to figure out that the slaves were finally going on an offensive against Tyranny controlled worlds, and Gravius, a genius of IQ in excess of 1200, easily predicted the exact systems the slaves were going to attack, in which he made it purposefully easy for the slaves to take over.
The plan was that once the slaves had taken over the worlds, at some cost, and deployed ground troops to rescue slaves, that before they could know about conversion into biodrones, the Dominatus would arrive en force with there massive and advanced fleet that outnumbered the slaves by quite a bit, where countless other Mark 2s would go on a massive path of destruction of conquest among the slave planets to turn them into biodrones and to attack the other nuisances to the Tyranny while 50 million of the other Mark 2s would go to the planets and engage the slaves in what was to be a series of incredibly one sided pitched battles where the Dominatus would utterly crush the slave forces in a display of their raw power, intimidating everybody else.
Gravius had complete and utter faith in his plan, he had never lost a battle before, and his Mark 2s were powerful enough to go toe to toe with DCP ships of the same class. He merely faced slaves, revolting worms who had to be crushed and turned into biodrones. The massive armada gathered at the black holes where they awaited the strikes, where the Tyranny would finally emerge triumphant.
Steamroller[]
The first attacks started in the Milky Way, where the Tyranny had lost the most amount of colonies where the slaves were attacking with what was generally commandeered Mark 1 ships, which according to an official transmission from the Draconid Imperium, were classed as being able to go one on one with even the ships of the Draconid Imperium given their size. These slaves had the plan in which they would simultaneously attack all across a wide front on a campaign to take over the infrastructure of the Tyranny in the Milky Way, a plan they had absolute faith in. They however did not know much of the Dominatus counter plan, and had no idea what they were getting into.
The first attacks entered into a few worlds of the Tyranny only known by name to some, and unknown to most Dominatus generally, except the Dominatus knew of each planet in depth for this operation. Everything was intricately laid out, the biodrones hidden beneath the equator and the slaves would not know the consequences of invading the world. The first attacks started relatively gently, as the slaves launched probing attacks which they followed with massive strikes on Sentinel Class battlestations, where the Dominatus themselves weakened the shields in order to hasten the battle.
The slaves soon had space dominance and elated by this turn of events began landing troops onto the worlds where excited by the thrill of victory, they surged while only minimal amounts of Myrmidons and overseers were deployed against them, and soon enough, as they surged across the worlds, they knew that they were going to win, however, right as they found out the worlds infrastructure had been destroyed before and that the slaves were biodrones, the Tyranny fleet appeared over the planets and outnumbering and outclassing the slave ships, utterly and completely obliterated their forces with their system shattering firepower, as they used their baleful weaponry against less advanced and less numerous ships.
The slaves in the Milky Way were much too late to realize their folly, as Interdictor Class Dreadnaughts also prevented their hyperdrives from working to any extent, and they were trapped in one sided battles. This was accompanied by the Dominatus landing their own land forces in tandem with orbital bombardment on the slave armies, which were now forced into horrendous last stands in which they were all massacred or turned into biodrones, and the ichor and gore of their bodies fertilized the barren lands of the worlds.
The Tyranny ships also broke out across the slave colonies in a massive steamroller, completely and utterly destroying whatever resistance the slaves managed to put up with sheer brute force, and soon they were going through the slave colonies like a hot knife through butter. Gravius plan was working to his expectations, though anomalies happened in Andromeda.
Mark 2 Might[]
Mortrig Malevon was not in a pleasant mood, not a good one at all. He had been posted as a fleet commander in order to help support the attacks on the slaves, but he felt another urge, the genocide of a complete borderline tier 3 empire, the Federal Vilerg Council. Mortrig had under his command a million ships, and he diverted them from the slave campaign in order to completely subjugate the Federal Vilerg Council. He marshalled the ships and through a sheer display of force, marched through the Federal Vilerg Council's territory as an unstoppable wave, destroying the vastly outnumbered and vastly outclassed Vilerg ships with a massive flood of Mark 2s.
Worlds burned and fleets were destroyed as the scintillating fire of Gatling Hyperlasers went through their worlds, utterly destroying them and turning all survivors into biodrones. The massive blitzkrieg also came without warning, as the Vilerg had just been in friendly talks with the Dominatus. In minutes, the Vilerg were being wiped out by the vastly more powerful and numerous Mark 2s, and suddenly all there worlds were Dominatus.
The final world was one in the Milky Way, like all of their other colonies, and Mortrig himself led the ground assault, possessed by an inhuman rage, and he went to the palace of the Vilerg and with his bare hands killed the entire council. And with the dead who were not turned into biodrones by his order, displayed a message of gore, and across the burning planet, from space could be read a message, scrawled out in bodies, it read Ameius.
Meeting of Greats[]
On one of the spires of Demogorgon Prime, the entire Dominatus High Command convened in order to asses what to do with the new situation. Holographs or the real forms of the entire Drachonian, Grand Admiralty, and Installation Directorate were seated together for a meeting called for by Supreme Admiral Gravius Gnissenkrassau.
Medusa - What is the purpose of this meeting, Grand Admiral
Gravius - My Tyrant, the purpose of the meeting is to come to terms with the recent events that have transpired and figure out what to do with it.
Angrus - It appears that from an attack on one of our Andromedan outposts, that the AGC wants war with us. It is likely the preparatory attack for a massive campaign.
Gausivitis - My calculations suggest that if we are to war with the Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth, in the event of this coming down to a contest of industry, they will prevail, especially because of the massive loss of our infrastructure.
Gravius - There is also the matter of the FPC, lead by the mongrel Ikeben, who managed to defeat a Mark 2 fleet made of a few ten thousand of them.
Medusa - But we have a billion ships!
Gravius - You seem to disregard the existence of the AGC and the fact that this is the first loss of a Mark 2 fleet, it is a vast blow to our prestige. Not to mention that spending in research and the loss of around 40% of our industry during the revolts means that only a fraction of the Mark 2 fleet can remain resupplied.
Medusa - Hmph
Gaussivits - Superweapon development at our installations may entail a quick victory over the AGC.
Angrus - Superweapons are useless when the objective is to capture, not to destroy, something that we need to do for the AGC. A large use of subspace compression waves will not only deny us AGC industry but also starve our industry even more.
Gaussivitis - Valid Point.
Medusa - What is the warplan then, seeing that we need a quick victory.
Gravius - It would make sense to launch a well supplied and well guarded fleet of a relatively large amount of Mark 2s to crush the slaves and take our industry back, then turn our forces in an attack against the places where infrastructure is harbored in the AGC.
Angrus - A wise plan indeed, then once we get that infrastructure we can crush the AGC as a whole.
Gaussivitis - A logical argument.
Medisa - No, we need the AGC out of the war now, and our first priority should be to capture Alcanti to force a surrender.
Gravius - My liege, with all due respect wouldn't it be better to defer your plan to somebody with actual military experience?
Medusa - Silence! I am the Tyrant!
Gravius - As you wish.
At that, the meeting was adjourned.
Staring into the Abyss[]
On December 21, 2793, two years after the start of the slave revolts and what was being called the Great Tyranny War, the tables were turning against the Tyranny. Many thousands of Dominatus had been killed, most claimed in their offensive campaigns against the Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth, where the Dominatus had lost both Supreme Admiral Gravius Gnissenkrassau, Archon Angrus as well as all of it's colonial holdings in that Galaxy, along with a sizable portion of the Dominatus Fleet. In the Milky Way, the DCP had defeated them in the Battle of the Deathstorm and they would be evicted shortly. In the Borealis Galaxy, the Junction, their one-time ally, had abducted their science team, a fact made evident by the fact that their exchange scientists were no longer making reports to Grevitrov, and had beaten back their counter-attack at the battle of the Asphodel System and was grinding slowly but unstoppably towards the Tyranny's Borealis Capital. IN Bunsen, the TIAF had ground them down to a stalemate which they did not seem to be able to break. What this meant was that the Tyranny was in an existential war with 3 of the Gigaquadrant's foremost powers, the Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth, the Junction, and the Delpha Coalition of Planets in 3 different galaxies. This problem was exacerbated by the fact that there were numerous non-existential threats attacking the Tyranny in pretty much all of it's territories such as the Free People's Coalition, who launched the first decisive blows against the Tyranny, the Katar Sector, the Iron Systems Federation, and the Unified Alliance of Enlightenment. It was, with the exception of Cyrannus, the Entire Gigaquadrant facing down the Tyranny. On this day, on commemoration of her father's death, Medusa had called a meeting with the Tyranny's military, political, and scientific leadership to ascertain the state of the Tyranny and the actions that she needed to take.
Medusa - We come together to address the existential dangers facing the Tyranny as of this moment, dangers we must extinguish lest we let the Tyranny fade into the oblivion of failed empires.
Grand Admiral Aloftractis - Indeed, we have never been in a more perilous position than ever before. While our technological might has never been greater, we have never faced so many foes. My analysis is that while we could take one on and win rather quickly since we would devote all of our forces to that front, and that we could take two on and enter a stalemate, that taking 3 of the Gigaquadrant's foremost powers on at the same time is a losing proposition given our current state.
Head Scientist Gaussivitis - Technologically speaking, the technology curve is catching up with us, our technological progress will probably not continue any longer at the exponential rate that it has been growing at. This does not even come as a disappointment, it is only by a miracle of miracles that we have come so far in such a short time. But I must regret to say that our Scientific Revolution, the one that has been going on since the Wars of Unification, has ended.
Medusa - Aloftractis, so what do you propose to do, kneel to the inferior races in supplication, hoping for mercy that the lower species do not possess?
Aloftractis - That is not at all what I was asserting
Drachon Stahl - Peace is not an option, and it is not our choice. While I am a Dominatus, I am not foolish enough to think that the "lower races" are stupid enough to negotiate peace with an empire that has made it it's agenda to kill and enslave all those it opposes. This is not merely moralistic rubbish but the fact that our goals are mutually exclusive with the Gigaquadrants. It is realpolitik - the other powers have nothing to gain from our continued existence, and will do whatever is possible, whether it be for moral or practical reasons to crush us. Our conduct in Andromeda has forced the AGC to content themselves not just with our expulsion from Andromeda but our destruction. The DCP and Junction will not rest until we are conquered or assimilated. The other races will not rest until what to them is the Gigaquadrant's greatest menace has perished. The only solution is to defeat our enemies to the extent that they will sue for peace with us and relinquish the territories they have conquered from us and to strengthen ourselves internally until we are strong enough to take them all on.
Medusa - How do you suppose we do that, Stahl
Stahl - Simple, We cannot win a war of attrition against all 3 of them so we devote the majority of our forces to one at the temporary expense of territory in the other places as well as permitting those sectors to mount elastic defenses instead of static ones. This will allow us to force one enemy to sue allowing us to focus on the others, where with the extra troops, we will be on the strategic offensive instead of defensive. Thus, for temporary losses of around a hundred thousand systems, we can turn this war into a decisive victory where we will be far stronger than before. It is not yet lost, it has just begun.
Medusa - I will not permit retreat and that cowardice in the face of those under us, those whose only role should be that of the penitent in the hell that we will deliver them in. Not one step back. We will equally devote our troops to all areas and we will push them in all areas. We will crush the enemy and we will win without any loss.
Aloftractis - My Tyrant, Stahl does have a ...
Medusa - Silence!
Stahl - As a lowly worm not part of the Heimdall bloodline, my protests will be in vain but I ask you to think of what your Father would think of your decisions ... Tyrant.
Medusa - Cease tongue lest I cut it out and force you to regret your conception. Do not think that your record puts you above me. This meeting is over.
Thoughts of Betrayal[]
After the meeting, every Dominatus except Medusa was in disgust at the Tyrant's actions. All of them had known Abaddon and been alive during the Final War of Unification and knew they were serving a mere husk of her father. Where once there was strategic and tactical genius, there was only the insane lunacy of a woman whose thought was predicated on emotion, ego, and inexperience. They knew they had to get Medusa out of power, and they had to do it fast to have any hope of a satisfactory conclusion to the current war, but they had to do it in such a way that they did not present themselves as traitors or assassins but instead saviors of the Tyranny, and thus Medusa as a plague to be removed. It was a difficult task they had to discuss, the vilification and execution of the Tyrant in a place where people said "Tyrant Save Us" instead of "God Save Us".
Drachon Stahl - I am tired of heeding the orders of that idiot of a Tyrant! Say what you will about undying devotion to the Tyrant, but if the Tyranny is to survive, we must get rid of that imbecile. Call me a traitor if you want, but that is the only path out of our quagmire!
Grand Admiral Aloftractis - Far from being a traitor, that whelp's stupidity and arrogance needs to be taken care of. I voice the same thoughts as you, and in a society like ours, only an extreme solution will work in a task of such magnitude.
Stahl - If Gravius was here, he would also agree with us. The man held that idiot in contempt before her orders not only doomed the Andromeda Campaign, but also our Supreme Admiral. Angrus was also consumed by her stupidity, and while he had his flaws, he could have been more useful if he was not attracted to the Tyrant-Bitch.
Head Scientist Gaussivitis - You two are missing something, we cannot simply kill her as that would not transfer authority to us, even if we weren't found out as the culprits. We must either make her relinquish authority, something she is much too arrogant to do, and something she would reveal our part in if we tortured her to do so, or kill her after it is clear that authority will be transferred to us in the form of the regency council, as her child with Angrus is not of age. That, or we could try to ingratiate the child so that even if he does become Tyrant, he is our puppet.
Stahl - Good Plan, we should think about this more and then come together to discuss the execution of plan and Tyrant.
Gaussivitis - I've already changed the cryptographic algorithms between our personal communicators so we cannot be tracked.
Aloftractis - Till next time Gentlemen.
Sinews of War[]
The start of 2794 was a bad time for the Dominatus. They were being mopped up in Andromeda, at the brink in Boreals and the Milky Way. Stahl, as part of the Archostrategon could encourage influence the development of new land weapons, not starships. He had seen that while the previous Medium category vehicles of the Dominatus were adequate in getting armored superiority against enemies such as the FPC and even the Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth, that they were merely mediocre against the Junction and DCP's forces. Furthermore, Stahl recognized that the war was now one where the Dominatus were on the strategic defensive, and would likely remain so for a long time. This meant that it was imperative that he start specializing the Dominatus in defensive tactics, something that had not been done before. However, he had studied the defensive records and histories of other races and has some idea of what to do. Thus he began shifting most Installation 1 resources to the development of a new Heavy and Super-heavy class of vehicles, created to get land supremacy in battles against the DCP and the Junction as opposed to grinding battles where anyone could win. He also funneled resources into the development of tank destroyers in order to be able to efficiently destroy enemy armored vehicles at a rapid pace during defensive conflicts. Thankfully for him, Installation 1 was already working on prototypes of those aforementioned vehicles, with the prototype of the Warlord Class Heavy Tank having made a successful debut during the Siege of Horatorio. Recognizing that the Dominatus would probably have to cope with situations where they didn't have air superiority, he also commissioned the development of anti-air weaponry. However, try as he could, he could not fully replace even a large segment of vehicle production with the designs he wanted as infrastructure still had to be retooled, existing armies still needed to be resupplied, and the Tyrant needed infrastructure for her Behemoths, weapons made useless doctrinally by the fact that the Tyranny wasn't fighting to capture the enemy's fortress worlds but fighting to defend it's own. However, he could shift whatever part he controlled to the production of these weapons. Furthermore, he would see to it that they wouldn't be deployed as soon as they were produced and would instead be tested, integrated doctrinally, and only deployed when present in sufficiently large numbers. Furthermore, he would do whatever was possible to stop production of Myrmidons and Arcanii and distribute the production capacity elsewhere, as those creations, made for rapid subjugation and colonization were useless in a war against the Gigaquadrant's leading powers.
New Focus[]
Gaussivitis was also having trouble coming to grips with the technological problems that the Tyranny faced. No longer was it getting breakthroughs in the theoretical areas at the unprecedented rate that it had before. Of course, part of him knew that this was coming, and that a technological revolution, especially one directly proportional to population and contact with different races should have ended long ago. He also saw that even to his chagrin that the theoretical abstract knowledge of the Tyranny would need more time to pay off and be turned into weapons. He knew that while the Tyranny would develop from theoretical research in peacetime, that in this time of war, it was essential that the Dominatus improve their engineering as opposed to their science. They needed more industrial capacity, more ships, more vehicles and generally more of everything. Furthermore, they needed a less burdensome logistics train, hopefully vehicles that were completely self sufficient. Finally, and arguably most importantly, they needed more reliable vehicles. Gaussivitis decided that the Installations should focus their development around these areas as opposed to continuing with their mostly theoretical research and that as little effort should be devoted to the Tiamat as possible and should instead be diverted to other projects. In doing so, the Tyranny would not necessarily become more advanced, but it would definitely become more powerful.
The Child[]
Stahl had been passed over for promotion to the vacant seat of Archon and Medusa had given it to Traktuv Mortvrak, one of his closest allies in the Drachonian. While Mortrvak had pleaded that Stahl get the position in front of the Tyrant, Stahl's display of defiance towards the Tyrant guaranteed that he would never get the position as long as Medusa was Tyrant. Knowing that militarily, Medusa was assuming command of the remaining Dominatus forces and not allowing Stahl to take action and that production-wise he had already modified everything he could, and busy formulating a plan for the defense of Mirus in his head, he set himself to getting closer to the child Castigon Mortarius in order to secure a favorable position during Medusa's death. At best he would become the de facto Tyrant while ruling a regency council and at worst he would be the child's most important advisor. Stahl regularly went on walks with the child who was being an Ultima even larger than Stahl and regularly talked with him about subjects such as war and politics, quickly establishing himself as an expert in the child's eyes. While Medusa was off on her duty as a Tyrant, Stahl took the children through Demogorgon Prime and established camaraderie with the boy. He hoped that if this continued on that the boy would like him enough in order to bestow upon him the power needed to save the Tyranny after Stahl killed his mother.
He observed that the child was something special, and that given enough time, would be a Tyrant that superseded even his Grandfather, who he had only caught one glimpse off. The child was smarter than any Dominatus his age, stronger than anyone except his late father, and had prodigious psychic powers. Furthermore, the child was not possessed off the rage or complete arrogance that characterized his mother, but instead a cold and dispassionate view towards ruling, much like his grandfather. In the child's eyes, Stahl saw the hope of the Tyranny, a beacon of light that would serve as their banner as they conquered the infinite multiverse later. Stahl, who had lived his live without a significant other or a child since his one true love was claimed during the Final War of Unificaiton, looked to Castigon as the son he never had, and even though he needed to get Castigon's favor for purely practical matters, he did feel a budding feeling of paternal affection towards the heir to the throne. Stahl would do whatever was possible to make sure that the Tyranny not only survived, but that Castigon would stay alive long enough to lead it towards complete conquest.
Mark 3[]
After the tide of naval upsets suffered by the Tyranny, as seen in the Battle of the Asphodel System in Borealis and the Battle of the Deathstorm in the Milky Way, it became quickly apparent that even though two of the most major reasons for the losses were the inferior tactical positions of the Dominatus and the fact that they were outnumbered in terms of supplied ships, that the Mark-2s were insufficient for the task. The smaller and more reliable of the Mark 2s could be counted on reliably to function in battle but lacked in the raw power needed to defeat the Junction's Planet Fortresses or the DCP's Gargantua. The Mark2s designed for this function could perform it when they worked but often worked unreliably, as evidenced in Gravius's last stand. Furthermore, the problems with supplying them and the vulnerability of their supply lines often meant that only a few Mark 2s could be well-supplied or bar this, the whole Mark 2 fleet could be used but with only enough supplies for one jump and one battle, which led to lesser powerful empires such as the FPC being able to defeat Mark2s, a fact made evident by the Scorched Earth Campaign. The Grand Admiralty as well as Installation 2 recognized that while the Mark2s were made for engaging the DCP, that was under a limited war, and they were supposed to be easily producible so as to be used in the Tyranny's subjugation of other worlds. They only needed utter supremacy over Tier 3,4,and 5 ships, but only had a marginal advantage over other high Tier 2, and 1 ships of the same class. This was accepted as the Tyranny needed as many Mark 2s as possible to propagate themselves throughout the Gigaquadrant. Mark 2s also suffered from overspecialization, with over 50 different types of them and this variety complicated the logistics train and put undue stress on the Tyranny's already overworked industries. Another problem with the existing navy was the fact that strikecraft were used as spam units and did not contribute much to the battle. France had shown during the early stages of the Milky Way Campaign that strikecraft operating by themselves could pack as much power as some ships, and thus the Tyranny decided to invest in strikecraft.
Thus the goals of the Mark 3 program were to create ships for the express purpose of war against the Gigaquadrant's foremost powers, thus ships that were of higher quality and power, thus being capable of maintaining overwhelming supremacy one-on-one, and parity when outnumbered if utilized correctly. They also were made to be reliable and standardized to make them better logistically. Furthermore, they would take into account not the Tyranny's recent theoretical technological advances but the engineering advances which now allowed Mark 2 technology to work reliably. Therefore, the Mark 3 would not be technologically more advanced than the most advanced Mark 2 in terms of raw technology, but would be much more reliable. Thus the combined group came up with a few specifications for the Mark 3. First, that each category of ships (e.g. Capital Ship, Cruiser) would only have one class (e.g. Tyrant Class). Second, each of these ships would be designed for massive individual supremacy. Third, each of the Mark 3s were to only incorporate the technology that had been as of the time of development worked out reliably, thus Mark 2 technology and not anything related to the Tiamat. Fifth, each Mark 2 would have the capacity to store on board strikecraft. Sixth, since there were going to be much less Mark 3s and than Mark2s at least for the foreseeable future, that the most learned of the Mark 2 AIs would be transplanted to Mark3s. Seventh, they were to be designed with efficiency and sleekness in mind - they were to be large enough to accommodate advanced weaponry and armor, but maneuverability would also be a large consideration . Eighth, they were not to be co-designed with anyone else. Ninth, the design would be streamlined so as to remove any glaring critical points for the enemy to abuse. Tenth, The onboard foundries for the creation of the Myrmidons would be removed. The ships were to share no names with ships of the same class as before as this program represented a new revolution in Tyranny shipbuilding. They were named as follows. The Harbinger Class Fighter, the Sovereign Class Bomber, the Phantasm Class Destroyer, the Eternal Class Cruiser, the Oblivion Class Capital Ship, the Armageddon Class Dreadnaught, the Infinity Class Titan, the Tyranny Class Gargantuan, and the Omnipotent Class Flagship. They were to be designed, and only put out when they were completely ready, a date which the Tyranny estimated would be at beginning or middle of 2795. There was to be a smooth transition into this program as the top priority was still to field and supply the existing Mark 2s. As general rule of thumb, a Mark 3 was to be of the same power as the Mark 2 of the class above it and was supposed to be much more reliable (e.g. A Mark 3 Cruiser would be as powerful as a Mark 2 Capital Ship).