The Transwarp War, or the One Day War, was a conflict between the Farengeto Republic and Gargator Empire.
Flight of the Loviak[]
Over the planet of Farengeto hovered the Loviak. She was perhaps the finest ship they had ever built; at over a kilometer she dwarfed many of the ships in the drydock. But the ships true majesty lay on its inside, and its prototype Transwarp Drive.
On board were the greatest minds in Farengeto, overseeing the final stages of the project. Politicians and media from both Farengeto and foreign nations gathered on the observation deck to observe the ship's maiden voyage from Farengeto to Modia. Among the most travelled routes in the Republic, even with the transwarp rings the journey took their warp 8.5 ships over 6 Standard hours. Rumours had spread that the engineers claimed the Loviak could make the trip in under a Standard hour. The ship slip smoothly out of the dock as media began their reports. A holographic projection of the bridge command filled the center of the observation deck.
- Captain - Welcome aboard the Loviak. We will performing our jump to transwarp momentarily. All passengers please enjoy your refreshments and get comfortable. We will arrive at Modia in one Standard hour.
The ships fell silent as the engineering officer began the countdown, before erupting to cheers as the vessel went superluminal.
- Engineering Officer - We are now approaching the warp... nine... barrier, all readings are converting to transwarp.
The officer clumsily pronounced the 9, a number foreign to Farengeto's base 8 system. A faint cheer was heard from the crew.
- Engineering Officer - We have now passed the Transwarp 10 threshold. 100kc velocity has been reached.
- Engineering Officer - Approaching Transwarp 11, all systems stable. We are now approaching our cruising speed, please enjoy the rest of your-
The blare of alarms and flashing lights cut them off.
- Science Officer - Drive destabilizing! Massive power surge in the drive system! Our trajectory is shifting to the Galactic west!
- Engineering Officer - Approaching Transwarp 12! Radiation build-up in the transwarp core!
- AI - AUTOPILOT ENGAGED. AUTOMATIC OVERRIDE ACTIVATED
END TRANSMISSION.
Lost in Space[]
A silence fell over the control room over Farengeto. The attention of the crew and visitors aboard the automated command center from all their ships to a single one.
All communications with the ship had been lost, except for an automated emergency feed. Though casualties were light, most of the personnel lay unconscious and conditions were deteriorating.
The center tracked the ship as it rapidly left their borders, unable to disable the transwarp drive. In its overloaded state the drive core was rapidly failing. With the transwarp vector and time to shutdown a trajectory would be calculated. As it updated another wave of silence spread through the room, broken only by the sound of a mug hitting the floor.
"Gods help them." was heard from one of the crew.
"Their gods can only harm them where they're going. Notify the chancellor of the imminent crisis. Tell him to get the Gargator on the line." ordered the commander.
By the time the ship had entered Gargator territory a standard hour later many of the crew and passengers had regained consciousness. The media began an emergency report, presenting a first hand account as the Gargator boarded the ship. Unarmed and without FTL, it was perhaps only a curious commander and the ship's technology that kept them alive. The ship security team and any others that tried to resist were slaughtered, the survivors rounded up in the observation deck. A particularly chilling account watched as an unarmed Councillor Taronsa Tolyardi was slaughtered by the boarders.
The Gargator would deny everything when confronted by the Republic. As negotiations failed, within its borders Farengeto warships began to converge at the homeworlds of the former Nichi Dominion and Federation of Ezlangei...
The Meeting[]
On Farengeto, Chancellor Rakavaz once found himself drawn into a meeting with the digital projection of his mysterious ally. The featureless shadow watched and stared as Ardev paced around his office.
- "It seems you have a war on your hands, Chancellor." mocked the figure.
- "The Gargator are nothing we can't handle. If this comes to war we have complete superiority!" countered Ardev.
- "Yet you still pace around in fear. Nonetheless, there are war plans in place to deal with the Gargator."
- "You had plans for this situation?"
- "We have plans for every situation. I've merely taken the liberty of adding in a few tweaks to reflect my upgrades."
- Ardev stopped. "Upgrades?"
- "The whole fleet down for two years of repairs and retrofits, and you expect me to do any less?" the figure laughed, raising a projection of cluster of ships, "Your transwarp is more ready than you think. The Eternal is ready, as is Tekari's new vanguard. He will arrive in less than a quarter of a day, an eighth of the time of our regular fleet and long before the enemy is even massed. A day later Lagenta will arrive with the main fleet and they will be helpless to resist us. As always, no one must know of my involvement, Tekari must not know of the Council's ignorance."
- "Will you ever tell me who you are?" asked Ardev.
The figure merely vanished without a word, leaving the Chancellor alone once again.
War![]
Over ten thousand ships had gathered at each of the rally points, far outnumbering the mere eight thousand of the Gargator.
On Farengeto a displeased Ardev began his public broadcast, "Given the continual crusade of the Gargator, and unprovoked hostility against the Republic and its allies including raiding Farengeto vessel, murder and unlawful arrest of Farengeto citizens, and the execution of a Farengeto high government official, the Farengeto government has been given no choice. After a unanimous vote the Farengeto Senate hereby declares war on the Gargator Empire."
At the rally points thousands of ships began to pour through the transwarp gates. Secretly, however, the vanguard of Tekari began its journey on its own transwarp, on its own mission.
Arrival[]
A few hours later Tekari's group passed into the territory of the Gargator, the enemy unaware of their presence and beyond any hope of interception as they warped past their massed fleet.
As they approached the Gargator core worlds the strike force spread out, each being fed surveillance data of the worlds. Tracking data would confirm the location of the Loviak in orbit around the Gargator homeworld. With any warp fleet hours away, their defenses were utterly unprepared for what was to come.
On its final approach the ships unleashed a volley of warp missiles before exiting transwarp themselves, launching a second volley of near-c projectiles. Unprepared and with their shields down, the orbital ships and defenses were overwhelmed by initial volley, the survivors panicked and scrambling to power up. On the surface the warheads demolished key military installations.
As the second wave closed on the planet the weapons officer jumped in terror. One of the impactors, targeting a military space station, had misfired and was bound for the planet. The crew could only watch as the projectile smashed into the planet, launching tsunamis at the major cities of the homeworld. Billions helplessly stood in the path of an unstoppable wave.
Despite the imminent apocalypse the mission continued, and on the now unguarded Loviak a boarding party transported into the ship.
An Unstoppable Wave[]
As the Loviak's AI regained control the remaining Gargator would be forced to surrender. Many of the boarders had beamed directly into the observation deck, and through the element of surprise had caught the guards off-guard. Though they could not save all the prisoners for execution, only a few were unlucky enough.
As word spread of the dangerous situation below, communication channels filled with prayer of ever greater intensity than normal. It was a sick irony that one of the first places to be hit would be the Gargator capital city. Already drawback could be detected in coastal cities.
Retreating into the deepest chambers for prayer, their theocratic government was beyond any hope of contact or transport. Only one message from them would be received as the waves made landfall, "Spode shall save us! Death to the unbelievers!"
The tsunamis stretched kilometers inland with waves the size of buildings, striking everything bordering that ocean. The billions in its path were helpless to escape.
Hopelessly outnumbered by a technologically superior force, and shaken by the defeat of their core worlds and devastation of their homeworld, chaos ripped through the Gargator Empire as Spode failed to come to their aid. Many worlds and battleships, choosing sensibility over blind fanaticism, routed and surrendered to the Farengeto. Their fleet fell into further disarray as its commander demanded the destruction of the ships attempting to flee.
An Empire in Chaos[]
The Gargator were in chaos, and without leadership. It's leaders, political and spiritual, were dead and in their darkest hour their god was nowhere to be seen. By the time the Farengeto fleets arrived less than a day later the empire was on the brink of collapse. Entire subsectors had begun to revolt, and an entire sector had already surrendered. Many of the Gargator ships had deserted, but thousands of ships hurtled towards the ruins of their homeworld.
Over the homeworld sat Tekari's Vanguard, who had gathered - mostly by force - the sector governors and off-world officials that now composed the interim government of the Empire. They were on the brink of collapse, overwhelmed in every regard. Twenty thousand ships slowly gained on the mere six thousand that remained of the Gargator.
They would be offered the choice to continue or accept a surrender, a decision for which they had no other options. And so a mere Farengeto day after it started the war was over. Their admiral, fanatical as ever, would continue his charge in spite of both the ceasefire and a mutiny within his fleet. He would die a martyr of a lost cause, helpless against Ezlangei fleet that would beat them there.
Negotiations were almost as swift as the war. No longer would the Gargator Empire be its own state, now a province of the Farengeto Republic. Its old government swept away, the theocracy was to be replaced by democracy. The church was left free to rebuild, but no longer would it hold its control of the state. Their practices of forced conversion and genocide were ended, the religion bound by the laws of the Republic.