The Abominor since their lost, decided to scout out the Imperium's border as they rebuilt their losses. Unlike organic empires, the Abominor didn't simply lick their wounds and regroup. Every defeat became fuel for adaptive evolution. All the droid units had uploaded combat data to the Directive Core in real time.
By the end of the week, the processors on Velon-3, a planet-sized siege engine, could simulate an entire invasion in trillions of permutations before the next attack even launched. On that frigid, oil-stained world, deep in the catacombs, the Supreme Directive received new prisoners: Gen'Dai bodies in various stages of preservation.
The specimens were not interrogated, nor were they left intact. They were fed into the Collective's gene-banks, their cell structure cataloged, optimized, and rapidly trialed in the next generation of war chassis. Whatever the Gen'Dai could do, they would be able to do better. Or so they believed. As the Directive's seers, sentient code projections that filled the role of both AI priests and war-planners, anticipated the next engagement, the Supreme Directive issued another order.
Several scout ships were sent out towards the sector around N'varos for more Imperial worlds. The Supreme Directive knew that attacking the same planet twice was not a strategic move and would be stupid. So, they opted to find other locations to launch a massive attack on numerous worlds across the borders of the Imperium.
At the same time, the Imperial Armed Forces had already started increasing the defenses around each border planet. Rather than spreading the Imperial Navy thin across border worlds, orbital emplacements and defensive stations were scheduled to be constructed across each border planet. In total, the Imperium had 13 border planets that were in between Imperium space and the Unknown Regions. Each of these planets were placed on high alert at all times and ready to defend against any enemy attack.
Across the Imperium, recruitment numbers had skyrocketed after Daimon's speech. Before the conflict, the Imperium had 8 Billion active military personnel, but now in just a few days, those numbers were rising steadily. It was projected that they would possible reach 16 Billion depending on how long the war was going to take.
On Veldari, Luna as an Admiral within the Imperial Navy was given command of a quick reaction force fleet in case of any attacks on the border planets. The fleet would use any of the Dimensional Gateways and appear wherever the attack was happening to provide support. With her were 400 members of the Empyrean guards in charge of assisting her on her mission.
In the meantime, though, she performed numerous combat drills and simulated battles to get her fleet ready for any possible scenario. She worked alongside her mother Elara and the other Progenitors to help prepare the entire Imperium for total war with the Abominor. Daimon monitored all of this from his palace waiting to go on the offensive as they built up their military strength and reinforced key worlds.
He wanted to establish strong defensive structures on the border planets before he went on his campaign into the Unknown Regions. He wasn't aware of the Droids numbers, so he wanted to make sure that they were ready for anything, especially considering the capabilities of the enemy. Once these things were finished, then he would take the fight into the Unknow Regions.
Though he was unaware of what awaited him in the Unknown Regions. There were still lots of factions and empires that resisted the Abominor. But whether these factions and empires would become allies was yet to be seen.
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It was less than two months before the Abominor entered Imperial space once again.
This time they had spent several weeks surveilling the border systems before they attacked. The Imperial Intelligence Directorate knew this and had tricked the enemy scout ships, giving them false data scans on their forces, defensive structures, and overall military capability. The Directorate made them appear to be weak and spread thin, when in reality the defenses and military forces on the border planets were well above what the Abominor saw in the scans.
Though the Abominor still showed up in force. They had attacked 5 out of the 12 border planets with a fleet of over 15,000 ships and millions of ground troops. In response, the Imperium High Command dispatched its quick reaction forces, which consisted of 6 fleets that were reinforced with additional ships thanks to the Star Forge.
Each of these fleets consisted of 10,000 ships which were mostly crewed by droids due to the Naval personnel being in training. 5 of these fleets were quickly dispatched to the border planets that were being attacked.
This time, the Ascendants were about to show their power to the people of the Imperium. Leading these fleets would were 5 well known and capable Admiral, each handpicked by the Progenitors for their career achievements in both the Outer Rim and Rakatan Archipelago.
These Admirals known as Ironhand Gaius, Serevane Stryke, Kessara Vorn, Tyras Bront, and the newly promoted Riviax Cull, would become legends in the coming days.
The first attack came on the world of Jurnos, a cold, mineral rich planet covered with three orbital defense rings. The Abominor didn't bother with trying to be indirect and had warped directly into the planetary orbit and opened fire on the defenses of the orbital rings. But unlike N'varos, Jurnos was established as a military world and had numerous defenses and a fleet of 5,000 defending it at all times.
Currently in Hyperspace, Admiral Ironhand Gaius and the 15th Imperial fleet were already getting ready for the battle. While Admiral Gaius led the fleet, Grand Marshal Lucius Dravik, one of the Dukes of the Imperium, was in charge of leading the ground forces. At the moment he was onboard his ship, standing within the hanger of the ship speaking to the thousands of soldiers in front of him and the millions across the fleet.
"Those damned droids think they can walk into our territory, slaughter our brothers and sisters, and leave without consequence?" Lucius began, his voice echoing through the vast hangar bay. The soldiers assembled before him stood straighter, their eyes burning with fury and determination. "They attacked N'varos, killing millions of our people, our families, our friends! These soulless mechanical bastards believe us weak, divided, unable to stand against their ruthlessness. Well, I say they have severely miscalculated!"
A thunderous cheer erupted from the assembled troops, echoing through every ship in the fleet.
Lucius paced before his men, his voice increasing in intensity, "They have awakened a beast they cannot comprehend, a force they cannot measure. The Imperium does not cower; we do not falter! We rise from our losses stronger, angrier, more unified! We are warriors of Veldari, defenders of the Imperium, champions of an empire built on resilience and strength!" Again, cheers erupted throughout the fleet.
"These damned Abominor, these metal monstrosities, represent everything we despise, heartlessness, ruthless extermination, and mindless conformity. They think their calculations and simulations can predict us, outsmart us? Fuck their calculations!" Lucius spat, drawing shouts of agreement and applause. "They know nothing of courage, of loyalty, of the indomitable will of people fighting for their home, their honor, and their survival!"
"Today, we draw a line in the stars! Here, on Jurnos, we show these mechanical abominations the strength of flesh and blood, the might of free will, and the unbreakable spirit of the Imperium!" Lucius raised his fist high. "Let them come! Let them break upon our defenses! And when they are finished, shattered and destroyed, we will take the fight back to their cursed worlds and erase every trace of their existence and free those people whom they have enslaved!"
A deafening roar filled the hangar, soldiers stomping their feet, chanting Lucius's name, fists raised.
"The Imperium stands eternal, my brothers and sisters!" Lucius continued, "Victory or death! For The Emperor! For the Imperium!"
"FOR THE IMPERIUM!" the soldiers shouted in unison, their voices resonating with pride and unwavering resolve. Lucius stepped back, his eyes filled with conviction as the soldiers went forward, boarding their landing crafts, ready to face the enemy head-on.
The Imperium was ready. And the Abominor would soon know the true price of their arrogance. Similar speeches were given to the other fleets as they approached their destinations.
The 15th Imperial fleet and its supporting units arrived within the system and had shifted into a formation that was designed to cut the Abominor off from leaving the system. By this point, the planetary shield was down, and ground troops had landed all over the planet, yet the orbital rings were still active. The droids had to sacrifice ships and fighters in order to get their transports safely to the ground.
Admiral Gaius stepped out onto the bridge looking at the tactical overlays of the battle. "They've breached the shield already and are landing ground troops. We need to get in there and break up their formation while we have the chance." he said. Gaius was not named 'Ironhand' for prosthetics; he'd been born with a natural hyperdensity mutation that made his bones and muscles almost unbreakable, and his leadership style reflected it.
He preferred to lead from the front, never waiting for permission to engage enemy forces when they needed to. So, when he was given full authority in this war, he was extremely excited. "Admiral, priority transmission from the surface," said the comms officer. The holodisplay changed view, revealing General Urran, half-shadowed by the red glow of emergency lights. "Admiral, the orbital batteries are holding, but the enemy are sacrificing their ships in order to get their ground troops past our defenses. We're holding them off at all defensive locations, but as time passes, they keep landing hundreds of thousands of droids."
"Copy that, General. We have some of the finest warriors onboard ready to fight. Hold off for another hour and we will stop this invasion and send reinforcements," Gaius said. Already, ground troops were ready to deploy, they were just waiting for the space to be safe in order to get past the enemy fleet.
"Roger that Admiral. We'll hold them off for as long as you need." The holodisplay was cut off as General Urran disconnected. He was confident in their ability to defend the planet as they had millions of clone soldiers on the ground.
Admiral Gaius opened a comm link to the entire fleet. "We have 1 hour to mop up these damn droids so we can assist our brothers and sisters on the ground. Let's not waste too much time and get this over with." With this, the Fleet launched hundreds of thousands of fighters, bombers, and interceptors towards the enemy fleet. After launching, the fighters and interceptors had got into formation in front of the bombers who formed up behind them.
They remained a little distance in front of the ships, not going too far until they got in range. Once in range, the interceptors broke off, using their speed to start harassing enemy fighters. The fighters started engaging in dog fights with the enemy fighters while a few remained to protect the bombers on their mission.
The fleet opened fire on the Abominor fleet, marking the beginning of the battle. The Abominor calculated that they had the advantage because of their numbers, but as the battle went on, they began to learn that in some cases quantity over quality was not as good as they thought.
Admiral Gaius moved his capital ship into position and started to open up on the Abominor fleet. He wanted to be directly in the mix of things, always leading by example.
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(A/N: The coming chapters will have various pictures showcasing the Ascendants and other military vehicles that will be used throughout the war)