Within Shadris Vel

           The child screamed, and the sterile air of the laboratory on Shadris Vel shimmered, taking on the scent of ozone and old grief. It was a soundless shockwave, a discordant chord played on the strings of the Strand itself, and its ripples began their journey across the galaxy. Klaster flinched, a traitorous twitch of his eye, before forcing his gaze back to the readouts. It is an animal, he reminded himself, the thought was a familiar, well-worn shield against the sound. He had a role to fill; we are all just parts in the machine.

They had been given a task and none had the authority to prevent its completion. A shard from Solarii Magna, the focal point of the Ascendancy’s mythological rise, was to be fused to this conduit. Ordered by the High Concord and overseen by agents from Arkelos-Tarn and Velthorin-Karn, the houses for Technology and Genetic Engineering. The plan was to create a being capable of controlling the Strand for the Ascendancy. 

Across the Galaxy on a war torn world, an Ash Vow Blazeguard paused mid battle, as a sickening chill ran down their spine. Within the void, a Sarthari navigator, Scent on the Void, for the Severed Fold clutched their chest, feeling the tears in reality. While others heard the news from those within the Ascendancy. The psychic scream was a poison, and each who felt it knew, in their own way, that the source must be silenced. For the Blazeguard, it was a corruption to be purged with fire. For Scent on the Void, a dissonance that must be brought back into balance. For others, it was a call to arms they did not yet understand. The Pact had not yet been forged, but its heart had just begun to beat.

Federation

Having been monitoring the moon for many weeks due to the intelligence gained from an Ascendancy intelligence officer that had defected. Jorian Tel and Elara Vance authorized a surgical military strike that would take this potential new energy source from the Ascendancy. The Federation brought their fleet into the Ilethis Prime system and created a disciplined blockade around the moon of Shadris Vel. Allowing them to block any outgoing communication as well as monitor the communications occurring on the moon itself, in an attempt to locate the cause of the energy.

This appearance in the atmosphere sent the Ascendancy Guards from Virellian-Tharn into a panic as they attempted to muster their garrison for a counter attack. However, many of the Ascendancy tactics were known to the Federation and the first thing their ships did was to disable the munitions stores for the Ascendancy. What fighters and weapons the Ascendancy could reach were quickly sent into the atmosphere to deal with the ships that arrived and were blockading the moon.

They watched as a strange energy lashed out from within the planet itself, an unexpected sight, but their mission was clear. Prevent the Ascendancy from using whatever this was and repurpose whatever we can. Jorian had sent an elite force of Dominators, augmented shock troops to confront the Rekh-Tarn Legions that the Ascendancy deployed to defend the base, while a single agent, Kael Thorne, was sent in to locate the origin of the energy source. 

While in the atmosphere, the sound of new ships arriving caused a mild panic among the Federation. This coincided with another surge of Strand energy from within the planet. However, this was not an Ascendancy fleet, instead it was a ghost fleet of rebuilt and repurposed ships that had been taken by the Severed Fold. 

Severed Fold

Scent on the Void was able to locate the moon almost instantly, but Speaker of Truths needed to get word out to the other groups within the Severed Fold. The Tide Kin with their faster vessels were able to compete with the Ascendancy fighters, while the Lantern Bearers would be needed to help any that wanted to avoid conflict to escape. Each member knew that they would need to fight like they were losing their homes or no one in the galaxy would have a home left.

From the cockpit of the Straylight, Raela watched the battle unfold, the Strand was screaming, a tangled knot of pain that made her whiskers ache. “Signal the Rootless” she commanded, her voice calm despite the chaos. “Tell them the Federation and the Ascendancy are keeping each other busy. We will create a passage for the Lantern Bearers on the dark side. We are not here to win their war; we are here to rescue its victims.”

All while this happened a group of Graven Guerillas joined by a Kinless Echo Prophet, began to make their way into the base to unwind the knot at the center of the moon.  Managing to infiltrate the lower sections of the laboratory to pinpoint the location.

Ash Vow

A clan of warriors gathered together to discuss the lash that each felt. They knew not where the corruption lay but they knew that it needed to be purified through Ash and Flame. The leader, a Chimeran named Garek, his entire life could be seen on his face, aged and marred from years of fighting for his entire life against the strict control of the Ascendancy. Many of the others had a similar life as they all had gone through the Ash Walk, cementing their belief that the Ascendancy must first be burned out from the roots and only then would the new world rise from the Ash. Each member of the Vow would be willing to lay down their lives to prevent the Ascendancy from winning.

Garek prepared his clan to find the source of the lash and readied them for a battle for the soul of the galaxy. They would burn the Ascendancy to the ground one panel at a time. Each member loaded onto the Starfarer, a freighter converted by a Severed Fold member, as some of the other members monitored the communication channels for the resistance. Hearing chatter about Shadris Vel. 

Garek and the Elite Ash Vow Blazeguard, forty strong, boarded the Starfarer as they Strand-jumped to the system of Ilethis Prime, where it appeared that a battle was already underway. As they saw the Ascendancy already in fight against other clans. Ignoring the chaotic dogfight in the low atmosphere, Garek pointed a scarred finger toward a faint power signature on the moon's surface. “The main battle is a distraction,” he rasped over the comms. “The heart of the sickness is there. We burn the heart.”

Scepter of Ashaya

Already on the surface of Shadris Vel, the Ascendancy engineer Kresh, watched as the Ascendancy science officers fled the base to get away from the vengeful Ash Vow and into another faction that wouldn’t meet them with immediate death. Normally Kresh would have been using this opportunity to recruit, but he had a mission to copy the schematics of whatever the Ascendancy had been building below the surface. The chaos was his cover. As the Ash Vow's initial bombardment rocked the facility, Kresh slipped a data-leech disguised as a standard diagnostic tool into a primary terminal. 

Alarms blared, but they were the wrong alarms, chaos he had orchestrated to mask his digital footprint. Now he just needed time. But as he watched Garek's forty Blazeguards carved a path toward the lab's power core on his monitor, he realized his deadline was measured in minutes. He then encountered another calm amidst the storm, Kael Thorne, glanced at him saying, "You're after the schematics." Kresh, not missing a beat, replied, "And you're after the energy readings. We're wasting time." Both decided their efforts were better spent together than against each other.

Concord of Remembrance

Up in the atmosphere, appeared the Concord's diplomatic ship which didn't issue a plea; it issued a legal injunction, citing obscure pre-Sundering interstellar protocols about containing Strand-based disasters. It was a brilliant, bureaucratic maneuver that forced every faction leader to pause and listen, framing the Concord not as beggars, but as arbiters.

While the ship issued its legal orders , High Concordant Lyra Seraphina opened a channel to each of the factions leaders, appealing to their unique beliefs. 

To Garek, “Burning this world will not renew the galaxy, but will create a bonfire to engulf everyone in its flames.”

To Lora, “There is a terrified child at the core of the world, allow the Light to join in freeing them”

To Kresh, “The time for theft and vengeance can wait for after the battle. Your prize is worthless if this moon becomes a singularity. The data cannot be recovered from oblivion”

To Elara, “Allow corridors of non violence to exist on the battlefield as not all on the moon are fully committed to the Ascendancy”

Light of the Hollow Star

Shortly after the atmosphere filled with the sound of blaster fire, explosions, and the legal injunction. The sound of a low hum could be heard, which started as a low rumble, but soon began to drown out all other noise. But it did not bring fear or panic, but instead an overwhelming calm and stillness. When all at once the humming crescendoed into one loud thrum in the upper atmosphere, this was the Light of the Hollow Star bending Strandspace itself to bring their ship through. The entire battle was drowned out by the Stellar Lamentation emitted from the ship itself, in an attempt to heal the Strand around the ship itself.

Very quickly two members teleported themselves down to the moon’s surface and joined up with the Graven guerilla fighters and Kinless Echo, pushing forward to the Core of the moon and into the laboratory, where they saw the source of the trauma in the universe. A young child about 5 years old, strapped face down to a table with a hole for their face, allowing its screams to resonate. Its pain was evident but the source was even more apparent,piercing into its lower back was a vibrant multicolored shard from the temple of Solarii Magna, the oldest and largest temple in the Luminar Order.

The Unspoken Agreement

Below the surface the Severed Fold members destroyed all the scientific data and removed all power. The Strand adepts began their work. Kelnorin began to resonate with the child in an effort to heal their pain, Drun worked to separate the Lucent Shard from the child. As their robes fell away it revealed their true forms. Kelnorin, an Elari, the ancient Strandborn race that created the order, calmed the child. Drun's massive pachyderm frame gave him the strength and leverage to remove the shard from the child.

Meanwhile, Kresh and Kael were able to secure their data, but in doing so discovered that the moon itself would create an instability large enough to bring down the nearest three systems. Kael gave a warning to Lyra that Kresh planned to initiate the implosion that would contain the experiments the Ascendancy had on the world.

Lyra informed the Dominion and Ash Vow of the Scepter’s plans and made a desperate agreement for these military factions to protect the Light and the Fold. At last an agreement had formed, the Blazeguards joined with the Dominators to secure a path for the Light and Fold's retreat. With the path cleared and the warning given, Kresh initiated the final command, and the heart of Shadris-Vel began to collapse in on itself.

The Second Pact

Above the atmosphere the ships of the pact watched as the moon began its implosion. The last few ships contained Garek and his Blazeguard. Kresh, who had escaped in a small transport, flew to a new ship that appeared in the system, a Scepter Infiltrator. The Concord sent a message to each ship that had remained “If you are committed to fighting the Ascendancy then send your representative” as five ships were dispatched to the Concord ship in the center where the moon had been.

Onboard the Concord’s ship was a tense environment, Garek was furious that his team was not responsible for the purification of the moon. Elara was furious that a rescue mission interrupted their blockade, while the Fold and the Light were upset that more time and space were not given to those unarmed on Shadris Vel. While the Director Vorlag, phoned in from the Infiltrator, was upset that his undercover mission was put in jeopardy by the recklessness of the others.

Lyra cut through the noise with one simple statement “We all would have failed alone!” At this each leader got quiet. ”The Federation would have been unable to breach the lab and the explosion would have taken out their entire fleet. The Fold couldn't have held off the Ascendancy alone, The Ash Vow and Scepter would have lost everything in the explosion that would have taken out the next three systems.”

“We each bring unique perspectives to what freedom from tyranny looks like. But this is what makes us better than the Ascendancy! Our strength is that we do not lie to ourselves. We know our cause is just, but we do not pretend our methods are perfect. That honesty is what the Ascendancy fears most. We can be the future, we can be the hope. We can be what this galaxy needs to heal.”

With that, each leader agreed to the Lucent Pact, a shared intelligence and non-aggression pact between the factions. The Concord would act as the stewards of this new peace bringing together each of the disparate goals of the factions. While the Ash Vow and Federation were able to continue their military efforts, they were instead directed outward against a common enemy. While the Scepter agreed to share its intelligence with the rest of the pact. The Light and the Fold agreed to support the factions and advise on cultural and historical needs.

"We gathered not to fight together, but to die apart — and still we found unity."