Battle for Xilos

The Discovery

It was a humble exploratory probe that first discovered the world of Xilos. It detected the faint resonant signal of a gate coming from great depths in the photosphere and a region where no gate had ever been recorded before.

The probe’s precious data was duly absorbed into the Integrated Machine Intelligence that ran every aspect of society in the PanHuman Concord: the infallible IMTel that was the expression of every living machine and every organic creature within its compass. The IMTel cogitated the probe’s discovery: the basic details of planets and their positions, the solar body, and such physical characteristics of the newly discovery system as the little exploratory probe had meticulously gathered. As it did so, the IMTel uncovered something it did not understand. Which was, of course, so improbable as to be practically impossible.

The anomaly was simply this. Every system that was part of the Antarean Nexus connected to it by means of a single gateway. The position of this gateway was called the system’s gate horizon and it never varied from one solar system to another. But the gate horizon of Xilos was in the wrong place. For a gate to be in any other place than the regular horizon could only mean the proximate presence of another inter-dimensional body. That would suggest that the Xilos system contained a second gate. Such a thing was entirely unprecedented. There was only one thing to do, and that was to despatch a second exploratory mission. For the IMTel was nothing if not diligent.

A Builder World

Two further probes were promptly dispatched to gather more information. Their survey of the third planet in the system revealed something that immediately escalated the new-found gateway to supreme importance. In the shadow of the encircling mountains that comprised the planet’s equatorial continent, covered by dense tropical jungles, lay the ruins of a great and manifestly ancient civilisation. Beyond all doubt, Xilos was a Builder world.

Over the millennia in which humans have lived in Antarean space such chance discoveries have led to some of the most profound advances in science. Most of the advanced technologies of the PanHuman Concord and Isorian Senatex are derived from the analysis of fragmentary remnants of Builder machines patiently excavated from the ruins of their abandoned worlds. In all the human history of Antarean space fewer than twenty positively identified Builder worlds have ever been discovered. Most of these consisted of just a few buildings or an extended complex. The last time a Builder world had been discovered at all was in the Trisapient Age more than five thousand years ago. The identification of Xilos as an undiscovered Builder world with ruins spanning an entire continent was therefore something that shook even the Integrated Machine Intelligence of the PanHuman Concord.

Forces of the Concord Combined Command (C3) were diverted from across whole segments of Antarean space: spacecraft, troops, explorers and teams of scientists from trans-dimensional physicists to xeno-palaeontologists both human and machine. The importance of Xilos alone required that the expedition fall under overall Concord Combined Command, and the individual chosen for the job was Commander Kamrana Josen. Josen was one of the Concord’s most experienced of all its senior commanders, with a proud record of decisive and independent action and a medal ribbon that testified to his personal courage. The troops and equipment included in the expedition reflected the intended role the military would play on Xilos. This was never anticipated to include fighting a full-blown war. However, events were already taking place on Xilos that would throw the modest C3 expeditionary force into just that role.

The Ghar

The IMTel of the PanHuman Concord was scarcely aware that the Ghar existed, for neither its explorers nor its armed forces had ever knowingly encountered that strange and savage race. Besides, the technology employed by the Ghar was so primitive compared to the general sophistication of space-faring races that it was practically unrecognisable by Concord sensors.

In fact the Concord probes had been spotted by a patrolling Ghar fleet whose wily commander despatched a scout ship to follow the probes. This discovery of a world upon the edge of the territory of their enemies was a great triumph for the fleet commander. The world would make an excellent base of operations to launch attacks upon the hated Algoryn. The Ghar would certainly prevail!

The Supreme Commander immediately despatched his greatest and most successful commander to take control of the system and establish a Ghar base upon its third planet. This was High Commander Karg, the Victor of Ephra, who had successfully evacuated the Ghar forces from that world following the disastrous attempt of Karg’s one-time rival Fartok to capture it. Fartok’s defeat and subsequent disgrace had proven Karg’s making, for now he was the undisputed favourite of the Supreme Commander and considered most likely to succeed him in the fullness of time. The establishment of a base upon the new world would provide Karg with another step in the service of his race.

The Battle of the Fleets

The fortification of Xilos – called Army Group Karg Forward Base One by the pragmatically minded High Commander – was undertaken with the kind of ruthless. A substantial fleet base was established in orbit. The planet was shrouded in a quantum gravity net maintained by plasma generators scattered throughout the planet’s equatorial continent. The net effectively made it impossible for enemies to use their transmat technologies to transfer people or materials between orbiting ships and the planet. Ghar made no use of such degenerate technologies. There was the added benefit that QG spatial distortion severely disrupted the nanospore dependent technologies of their enemies.

In addition to this disruptive shielding, drone satellites in low orbit provided more substantial defences in the form of quantum gravity tipped missiles and proximity triggered disruptor mines. The ancient underground cities of the Builders were soon transformed into Ghar redoubts, arsenals, and workshops where Ghar machinery whirred and clanked and poured out its radiant energy.

When the Concord expeditionary force fell into orbit they were assailed by quantum tipped missiles and soon driven into a high station beyond range of the Ghar’s formidable planetary defences. There the enemy ships were met by the Ghar fleet and a fierce battle raged between them. Many of the Concord ships had already been badly damaged during the retreat from low orbit and more would be damaged during the battle, but the Ghar found it almost impossible to destroy any but the smallest and most vulnerable of the enemy vessels. Karg, monitoring events from his redoubt upon Xilos, ordered the bulk of the fleet to disengage, to set up a blockade around the gateway, and to send to Gharon Prime for reinforcements.

The enemy fleet was left in high orbit around Xilos, unable to approach any closer, subject to constant harrying attacks by Ghar interceptor craft, and unable to retreat through a gateway now held by their enemy.

The result was a standoff between the Ghar and the Concord expeditionary force. For the Concord forces, now rendered out of  contact with the rest of Antarean space, there was no obvious escape.

Enter the Algoryn

Behind the secure network of the C3 security shards Commander Kamrana Josen was powerless before the inviable protocols of the fleet’s IMTel shard. For – as everyone knows – it was impossible for the IMTel to make a mistake. Any attempt to break through the Ghar blockade and go for help was doomed to failure. They had no choice but to sit it out, to gather more data, to analyse the problem in more detail, and eventually to arrive at a certain and – therefore – a correct conclusion. For the shard of the IMTel that was the Concord fleet’s machine-mind was not about to make a mistake. Indeed, it was impossible for it do so.

There were, however, two individuals in the expedition who were accustomed to making mistakes. Arguably they had plenty of experience of doing so, and – if truth be known – relished the opportunity for further practice. Freeborn mercenary adventurer Hansa Nairoba and his friend Bovan Tuk were not about to stand patiently by while the IMTel decided they were all doomed.

Together they resolved to make a break for it in their agile ship and to go and fetch help. Heavily damaged, it was only in the nick of time that the stricken craft was intercepted by an Algoryn patrol system-side and the two mercenary adventures rescued from certain death.

For the Concord to ask for help from the Algoryn was as unthinkable as it was for the Algoryn to come to the aid of a Concord expedition, but nonetheless Hansa was able to persuade his rescuers to do just that. The danger to the Prosperate posed by an operational Ghar base on their doorstep was too great for the Algoryn to ignore. General Tar Es Janar realised there was no time to consult the Prosperate’s leaders, not if the Concord expedition was to be saved and the world of Xilos denied to the Ghar. Despatching a ship to his homeworld detailing the reasons for his decision and consequent course of action, Tar Es Janar assembled his troops into a relief force and headed for Xilos.

The Forging of an Alliance

The arrival of the Algoryn fleet, led by the mighty battleship Rising Star, turned the tables on the Ghar and dashed Karg’s hopes of destroying the invaders in space. Unlike the forces of the Concord, the Algoryn had been fighting the Ghar for centuries. They understood more about their methods and weaknesses than anyone. The battle was brief and all the Ghar ships around Xilos were either destroyed or driven off to join the rest of the Ghar fleet blockading the gate. The Concord expeditionary force had been badly mauled but it had survived.

With help from the Algoryn, the damage to the expedition’s ships was repaired. Its personnel were safe at least for the immediate future. As for the planet’s defences, those were too formidable even for the Rising Star to approach, and remained the sole obstacle to landing upon Xilos.

New Arrivals

It was not long after that the Freeborn, having learned the secret of the newly discovered Builder world, arrived as well. The Freeborn ship Nebula succeeded in breaking through the Ghar blockade, clearing the gate and joining the Concord and Algoryn ships already in orbit around Xilos. Lord Amano Harran, of the Oszoni ruling household, was a man who understood implicitly the potential for wealth and power presented by a discovery such as Xilos.

Matters were further complicated by the presence among the Oszoni retinue of Boromites led by the headstrong Arran Gestalin. The Boromites had been hired by Amano Harran to undertake engineering works on behalf of the Algoryn stronghold to which the Nebula was originally bound. News of events on Xilos had caused Amano to abandon the mission, but there had been no time to dissolve the guild contract or drop off the Boromites at a nearby world. Unfortunately, Amano Harran and Arran Gestalin had developed a mutual dislike during their voyage and this soon developed into open contempt.

With the arrival of new forces, it became increasingly difficult for the Concord and Algoryn to coordinate their efforts either with each other or with the Freeborn and Boromites. Despite their common enemy of the Ghar, the different contingents increasingly began to look to their own interests.

Unknown to all of these, two more forces were also en route – the Rebel Ghar Outcast army led by Fartok, and the Isorian Senatex. And every army present was determined to exploit the planet of Xilos to its own ends.