Post by Insano-Man on Sept 24, 2018 10:11:26 GMT -5
What the Hell Just Happened?
In 2207 A.F., the independent system of Nhillius vanished entirely for a span of seven years, reappearing without warning in 2214 with its infrastructure in ruins and its population in chaos. It was during its disappearance that Nhillius was embroiled in a system-wide war against a nightmarish opponent that has yet to be identified, while simultaneously aided by the only marginally less enigmatic Landed Navy.
Neither power has been seen again since the simply-titled Nhillius Incident, but their effects on the system remain to this day. During the Incident, Nhillius suffered a catastrophic civil war, saw more death and destruction than any other incident before, and was forced to give legitimacy to its underworld element in the form of the Mizar Reservists to support its wounded military.
Answers on the Nhillius Incident remain at a perpetual low and division over the subject of Nhillius' allies - both local and foreign - has continued unabated to this day. Nhillius' government was destroyed and a provisional military rule was established in tandem with the political aspirations of the Mizar Reservists, leaving the future of the system as clouded as its past.
Belligerents
Nhillius System
Nhillius Defense Flotilla (Nhillian Armed Forces)
Nhillius Defense Force (Nhillian Armed Forces)
Nhillian Royal Army (Nhillian Armed Forces)
Nhillius Irregulars (Nhillian Armed Forces)
Mizar Reservists (Mizar Reservists)
Syko's Shipbreakers (Mizar Reservists)
The Landed Navy (Unknown)
Invaders
Nhillius Opposing Force (Unknown)
Unaffiliated
Nhillius Defense Force (Rebellion)
Nhillius Irregulars (Rebellion)
Nhillius III Rebels (Rebellion)
East Fringe Junkers (Criminal Organization)
Wildspark Freespanners (Criminal Organization)
Center Stripe Contracting (Mercenary Organization)
Results
Victorious: Nhillian Armed Forces, Mizar Reservists
Defeated: Nhillius Opposing Force, Rebellion
Unknown: The Landed Navy
Estimated Losses:
Total: 1,196,307†
Civilian Collateral: ~650,000
Unaffiliated Noncombatants: ~50,000
Nhillius Opposing Force: 100,000-1,500,000*
Nhillius Defense Force: ~230,500
Nhillius Irregulars: ~149,400
Mizar Reservists: ~62,500
Nhillius Defense Flotilla: 42,331
The Landed Navy: 5,000-30,000**
East Fringe Junkers: ~4,000
Nhillian Royal Army: 3,207
Nhillius III Rebels: ~1,800
Wildspark Freespanners: ~1,258
Center Stripe Contracting: 780
Syko's Shipbreakers: 531
† Casualty figures for the Nhillius opposing force and the Landed Navy are not factored into the total losses suffered during the Nhillius Incident as the total number of dead and wounded in either faction cannot be accurately estimated.
* Accurate figures on the Nhillius opposing force cannot be given as few bodies were recovered and many creatures reported dead were later confirmed to be alive and fighting. In addition, the disparity between feral creatures, sentient humanoids, and other members of the opposing force make absolute casualty figures largely irrelevant in determining proportionate value of troops and materiel lost.
** Accurate figures on the Landed Navy cannot be given as they left no bodies or personnel behind. In addition, the Landed Navy did not report its casualty figures and, much like the Nhillius opposing force, often returned personnel to fighting condition after they were previously confirmed to be dead.
History
The Nhillius Incident began in roughly 2207 A.F. when transit to and from the system steadily became problematic. Superluminal drives inexplicably failed on both exit and entry into the system at a steadily-escalating rate until, in about 2212, the system was inaccessible in entirety. Communications to and from the system decayed from 2207 until 2208, when only messenger ships and drones could reliably deliver messages.
An explanation for Nhillius' communications blackout and inaccessibility has yet to surface and it remains unclear as to whether the war that followed had anything to do with it. By 2212, outside observers simply found the star and its planets missing; attempts to jump to the system ended in interstellar space with no sign of Nhillius anywhere to be found.
In much the same way, the system had simply popped back into existence by 2214, as if it had been there all along. There were no ships or observers present to witness the event, leaving the circumstances surrounding Nhillius' return difficult to explain. Various theories, ranging from anomalous activity to sophisticated cloaking devices employed by one of the invading parties, have so far gone without hard evidence.
In late 2211, beginning on September 28th, Nhillius' capital on the arid world of Nhillius III was attacked by an unknown force comprised of modified humans, several unidentified alien species, and various synthetic lifeforms. The means by which the attacking force arrived on Nhillius III - and, similarly, how it continued to travel across the system and attack other Nhillian planets - remains unknown.
In much the same way, both the identity behind Nhillius' attackers and the cause behind the attack are questions that have gone unanswered since the beginning of the Nhillius Incident. To this day, the force that assaulted Nhillius has never been identified and, as a result, has been known officially only as the "Nhillius Opposing Force" or "Nhillius Belligerents".
On the same day, the local Nhillius militia garrisons were met with the appearance of the Landed Navy. As with their opponents, the Landed Navy's arrival was without warning and remains without explanation - and, in many ways, seemed to share common traits with the opposing force. Unlike the opposing force, however, the Landed Navy willfully entered into an alliance of convenience with the local militiamen and, soon after, fought alongside them.
Initial battles on Nhillius III set the tone for the opposing force's method of engagement. Massed waves of artifical and modified creatures, some of them humans and aliens in various stages of ferality, were carelessly lobbed at significant objectives and swiftly followed by organized and disciplined soldiers, both human and alien. Mixed varieties of fighting vehicles or synthetic creatures filling their roles steadily followed along with little in the way of tactics.
While Nhillian defenders often struggled to fend off the tide of men and monsters, they were rarely the targets of the assaults - and it worked their advantage considerably. The Landed Navy was most often the singular focus of the opposing force wherever they operated and, as a result of the Navy's emphasis on raiding tactics and mobile warfare, were virtually impossible for the opposing force to engage under favorable conditions.
The mismatch in tactical doctrines between the two foreign factions afforded Nhillian soldiers regular opportunities to launch surprise offensives into vulnerable flanks and ill-defended territory. The first battle for the capital of the system sent home a message that remained constant throughout the war; wherever the Landed Navy was, the Nhillius Defense Force was sure to triumph.
Unfortunately, the Landed Navy's assets were overwhelmingly dwarfed by the Nhillius belligerents. Not long after Nhillius III had claimed victory, the opposing force had deployed across nearly the entire system and begun simultaneous offensives against Nhillian positions - both civilian and military - from seemingly nowhere. The Landed Navy could not be everywhere at once, no matter how much the Nhillius Defense Force needed them to be.
Battles leapfrogged across the system, from Nhillius II to Nhillius IV and elsewhere, as the Nhillius Defense Flotilla chased after the Landed Navy in an effort to support their allies' fickle preference towards unclear objectives. Outmanned, outgunned, and completely in the dark, the Defense Flotilla and planetary Defense Force had no choice but to continue their pursuit.
Matters took a further turn for the mysterious when the Landed Navy, embattled with the opposing force on Nhillius III again, sent a request to the Defense Flotilla to secure the underworld haven of Sekhmet - specifically, its capital of Mizar. The given objective was to save Valerian Otetskov, a prominent salvager who had upset the balance of power on Nhillius I's moon, and, in doing so, made himself a target of the ruling pirate and junker clans.
The Landed Navy suggested that Otetskov could provide information on the opposing force - with little information to back it up - but could not extract him themselves. Still mending its wounds from the limited, but bitter naval battles in Nhillian space, the Defense Flotilla complied and moved to secure Valerian, whose assailants presented a significantly lesser threat. Fortune smiled on the operation that pulled Otetskov from Mizar and the man himself was swiftly taken into Nhillian custody.
Information from Otetskov, however, has since remained classified by the Nhillius provisional government and the answers he provided have yet to come to light. In much the same way, his involvement with the Landed Navy - and what involvement the Navy may have had in the Nhillius system prior to their arrival in 2211 - is still unknown to this day. Secrecy in the Nhillius Incident came from all corners and Valerian was no exception.
In a similar vein, Otetskov's extraction from Mizar was short-lived and ultimately fed into a power play by the savvy salvager. After organizing a group of trusted contacts into the first iteration of the Mizar Reservists and securing the cooperation of the Syko's Shipbreakers salvaging fleet, Valerian conquered the Zoriyale biodomes, a key agricultural and trading hub in Mizar, and rallied much of the underworld together in support of the system.
The rapidly-swelling Mizar Reservists embarked from Sekhmet to reinforce the Nhillius Defense Flotilla alongside their Shipbreaker allies in short order. They were the reinforcements Nhillius sorely needed and were swiftly put to use shoring up weak positions against the virtually omnipresent opposing force, while the Landed Navy continued to intervene at critical battles - even if they were critical to the Navy alone.
In mid-2212, discontent with the course of the war and ongoing conscription exploded into an open rebellion against the Nhillius Defense Force and the Nhillian government on Nhillius III. Rebels began coordinated attacks and actively encouraged riots throughout Nhillius III's capital that the Landed Navy was already deployed to. When the capital's Royal Army called on the Navy to help quell the resistance, the response was swift and devastating.
Unfortunately, while the Landed Navy was able to achieve scores of victories in their initial strikes, their involvement only spurred the resistance into further agitation. More and more civilians and deserting soldiers flocked to the uprising's side as the Navy was cast as an alien invader acting as mercenaries for a dying, ineffective tyranny.
Ultimately, the resistance fell apart in the face of the Landed Navy, Royal Army, and Defense Force fighting together. The worst damage, however, had been done in the first week; vital factories burned, unrest continued, and much of the Nhillian government had been slaughtered, discredited, or terrified into resigning from their posts. The lack of experienced leaders for the civilian population only contributed to the ongoing dissatisfaction - and for years following the Nhillius Incident.
The turmoil in the system reached its peak when an opposing starbase, named the Labyrinth by Defense Flotilla marines, appeared with an attendant fleet over Nhillius III later in the year. The battle for orbit hinged primarily on Nhillian and Landed Navy boarding parties; the fleet accompanying the Labyrinth was quickly smashed by the Nhillius Defense Flotilla, while the starbase itself proved to be an insurmountable task for the handful of ships that had survived battles elsewhere.
During the engagement, the Landed Navy, just as it had disappeared and reappeared without warning in the past, boarded the Labyrinth by means unknown and forced a beachhead for Nhillian marines to land. Once reinforced, the two allies moved together through the station's halls in an effort to destroy it. In the end, the Labyrinth may well have been an alien planet all by itself - which the Landed Navy only served to emphasize.
The interior structure of the opposing force's starbase was a twisting, incoherent tangle of hallways and compartments that seemed to disappear, reappear, or displace into different sections of the station at random. Navigating the Labyrinth was what earned the station its name, as simply moving through an open door into an empty room was a calculated risk.
For the Landed Navy, moving through the Labyrinth was a trivial affair that its soldiers were clearly familiar with. Further distressing was their involvement with the starbase's sudden and complete disappearance - all while both the Navy and Nhillian soldiers were still onboard. As if it were an effortless task, the Landed Navy returned the Labyrinth to Nhillius III, just as Nhillian marines had seized the station's central reactor.
Once more, the Navy disappeared at the instant of victory and continued with its unpredictable intervention across the system. It was only by the time that the inert Labyrinth's orbit had decayed and sent the starbase plummeting to the planet's surface that they followed after Nhillian pleas for assistance. Their return to Nhillius III, however, seemed to align with their own mysterious goals.
When the Labyrinth impacted Nhillius III, it erupted into a death blaze of unidentified energy that, in its wake, left one of the largest armies the opposing force had sent to the system. The Landed Navy, alongside Syko's Shipbreakers and a scattered mix of Nhillian militiamen, went to work chipping away at the army that orbital bombardment routinely failed to halt - and, as time went on, swelled in size from reinforcements literally appearing from thin air around them.
Battles in defense of the Nhillian capital and its outlying industrial facilities - which, following the uprising, were among the few still functioning - continued for six months, from late 2212 to the middle of 2213. Each battle left the Nhillian people and their allies in the Mizar Reservists, Syko's Shipbreakers, and Landed Navy more and more bloodied without any decisive outcome in sight.
In July of 2213, it all ended. Despite their warband rampaging across the countryside and continually reinforcing itself from the ether, the opposing force disappeared from Nhillius III - and the rest of the system - without any warning whatsoever. On its heels was the Landed Navy, which perplexingly thanked the Nhillius defenders for their assistance - rather than being thanked for their unexpected, unpredictable, and crucial intervention.
The Landed Navy disappeared into nothingness roughly a day after the opposing force had been confirmed to have completely departed. The destinations of the two factions - and whether the Navy had pursued the opposing force or simply left to another goal - remain unknown to this day and it is unclear if either will return. There have been no sightings of the Landed Navy or the opposing force since their departure.
The relationship between the Landed Navy and opposing force is another question that remains without a clear answer. While it was clear that they were enemies, the nature of their conflict or why they arrived in the Nhillius system are both secrets - among many others - that the Landed Navy did not share with their Nhillian allies. Their insight into Valerian Otetskov remains a muddy affair for the Mizar Reservists to this day.
The Mizar Reservists, however, have since gone on to become one of the largest political, military, and commercial factions in the Nhillius system. With an iron grip on underworld activities and a sizeable investment in the recovering Nhillius Defense Flotilla, the Reservists are simultaneously seen as a black cloud hanging over Nhillius' future and the underdog heroes the system needed in its darkest hour of need.
The Nhillius Defense Flotilla, Defense Force, and Royal Army, however, have not prospered in the wake of the war. While firmly in control of the provisional government, their legitimacy has been routinely questioned by their own people as a result of the civil war. Conscription remains the primary source of fresh soldiers and industrial output continues to lag behind their rearming process.
The future of the Nhillius system, either alone or with the Karustgrad Strategic Pact, is a topic of dread and worry among the battered Nhillian people. The return of the mysterious opposing force - and whether the Landed Navy will come again to help thwart them - is a common subject with no clear answer. For Nhillius, no news will undoubtedly be good news - something the system has needed for at least eight years.
In 2207 A.F., the independent system of Nhillius vanished entirely for a span of seven years, reappearing without warning in 2214 with its infrastructure in ruins and its population in chaos. It was during its disappearance that Nhillius was embroiled in a system-wide war against a nightmarish opponent that has yet to be identified, while simultaneously aided by the only marginally less enigmatic Landed Navy.
Neither power has been seen again since the simply-titled Nhillius Incident, but their effects on the system remain to this day. During the Incident, Nhillius suffered a catastrophic civil war, saw more death and destruction than any other incident before, and was forced to give legitimacy to its underworld element in the form of the Mizar Reservists to support its wounded military.
Answers on the Nhillius Incident remain at a perpetual low and division over the subject of Nhillius' allies - both local and foreign - has continued unabated to this day. Nhillius' government was destroyed and a provisional military rule was established in tandem with the political aspirations of the Mizar Reservists, leaving the future of the system as clouded as its past.
Belligerents
Nhillius System
Nhillius Defense Flotilla (Nhillian Armed Forces)
Nhillius Defense Force (Nhillian Armed Forces)
Nhillian Royal Army (Nhillian Armed Forces)
Nhillius Irregulars (Nhillian Armed Forces)
Mizar Reservists (Mizar Reservists)
Syko's Shipbreakers (Mizar Reservists)
The Landed Navy (Unknown)
Invaders
Nhillius Opposing Force (Unknown)
Unaffiliated
Nhillius Defense Force (Rebellion)
Nhillius Irregulars (Rebellion)
Nhillius III Rebels (Rebellion)
East Fringe Junkers (Criminal Organization)
Wildspark Freespanners (Criminal Organization)
Center Stripe Contracting (Mercenary Organization)
Results
Victorious: Nhillian Armed Forces, Mizar Reservists
Defeated: Nhillius Opposing Force, Rebellion
Unknown: The Landed Navy
Estimated Losses:
Total: 1,196,307†
Civilian Collateral: ~650,000
Unaffiliated Noncombatants: ~50,000
Nhillius Opposing Force: 100,000-1,500,000*
Nhillius Defense Force: ~230,500
Nhillius Irregulars: ~149,400
Mizar Reservists: ~62,500
Nhillius Defense Flotilla: 42,331
The Landed Navy: 5,000-30,000**
East Fringe Junkers: ~4,000
Nhillian Royal Army: 3,207
Nhillius III Rebels: ~1,800
Wildspark Freespanners: ~1,258
Center Stripe Contracting: 780
Syko's Shipbreakers: 531
† Casualty figures for the Nhillius opposing force and the Landed Navy are not factored into the total losses suffered during the Nhillius Incident as the total number of dead and wounded in either faction cannot be accurately estimated.
* Accurate figures on the Nhillius opposing force cannot be given as few bodies were recovered and many creatures reported dead were later confirmed to be alive and fighting. In addition, the disparity between feral creatures, sentient humanoids, and other members of the opposing force make absolute casualty figures largely irrelevant in determining proportionate value of troops and materiel lost.
** Accurate figures on the Landed Navy cannot be given as they left no bodies or personnel behind. In addition, the Landed Navy did not report its casualty figures and, much like the Nhillius opposing force, often returned personnel to fighting condition after they were previously confirmed to be dead.
History
The Nhillius Incident began in roughly 2207 A.F. when transit to and from the system steadily became problematic. Superluminal drives inexplicably failed on both exit and entry into the system at a steadily-escalating rate until, in about 2212, the system was inaccessible in entirety. Communications to and from the system decayed from 2207 until 2208, when only messenger ships and drones could reliably deliver messages.
An explanation for Nhillius' communications blackout and inaccessibility has yet to surface and it remains unclear as to whether the war that followed had anything to do with it. By 2212, outside observers simply found the star and its planets missing; attempts to jump to the system ended in interstellar space with no sign of Nhillius anywhere to be found.
In much the same way, the system had simply popped back into existence by 2214, as if it had been there all along. There were no ships or observers present to witness the event, leaving the circumstances surrounding Nhillius' return difficult to explain. Various theories, ranging from anomalous activity to sophisticated cloaking devices employed by one of the invading parties, have so far gone without hard evidence.
In late 2211, beginning on September 28th, Nhillius' capital on the arid world of Nhillius III was attacked by an unknown force comprised of modified humans, several unidentified alien species, and various synthetic lifeforms. The means by which the attacking force arrived on Nhillius III - and, similarly, how it continued to travel across the system and attack other Nhillian planets - remains unknown.
In much the same way, both the identity behind Nhillius' attackers and the cause behind the attack are questions that have gone unanswered since the beginning of the Nhillius Incident. To this day, the force that assaulted Nhillius has never been identified and, as a result, has been known officially only as the "Nhillius Opposing Force" or "Nhillius Belligerents".
On the same day, the local Nhillius militia garrisons were met with the appearance of the Landed Navy. As with their opponents, the Landed Navy's arrival was without warning and remains without explanation - and, in many ways, seemed to share common traits with the opposing force. Unlike the opposing force, however, the Landed Navy willfully entered into an alliance of convenience with the local militiamen and, soon after, fought alongside them.
Initial battles on Nhillius III set the tone for the opposing force's method of engagement. Massed waves of artifical and modified creatures, some of them humans and aliens in various stages of ferality, were carelessly lobbed at significant objectives and swiftly followed by organized and disciplined soldiers, both human and alien. Mixed varieties of fighting vehicles or synthetic creatures filling their roles steadily followed along with little in the way of tactics.
While Nhillian defenders often struggled to fend off the tide of men and monsters, they were rarely the targets of the assaults - and it worked their advantage considerably. The Landed Navy was most often the singular focus of the opposing force wherever they operated and, as a result of the Navy's emphasis on raiding tactics and mobile warfare, were virtually impossible for the opposing force to engage under favorable conditions.
The mismatch in tactical doctrines between the two foreign factions afforded Nhillian soldiers regular opportunities to launch surprise offensives into vulnerable flanks and ill-defended territory. The first battle for the capital of the system sent home a message that remained constant throughout the war; wherever the Landed Navy was, the Nhillius Defense Force was sure to triumph.
Unfortunately, the Landed Navy's assets were overwhelmingly dwarfed by the Nhillius belligerents. Not long after Nhillius III had claimed victory, the opposing force had deployed across nearly the entire system and begun simultaneous offensives against Nhillian positions - both civilian and military - from seemingly nowhere. The Landed Navy could not be everywhere at once, no matter how much the Nhillius Defense Force needed them to be.
Battles leapfrogged across the system, from Nhillius II to Nhillius IV and elsewhere, as the Nhillius Defense Flotilla chased after the Landed Navy in an effort to support their allies' fickle preference towards unclear objectives. Outmanned, outgunned, and completely in the dark, the Defense Flotilla and planetary Defense Force had no choice but to continue their pursuit.
Matters took a further turn for the mysterious when the Landed Navy, embattled with the opposing force on Nhillius III again, sent a request to the Defense Flotilla to secure the underworld haven of Sekhmet - specifically, its capital of Mizar. The given objective was to save Valerian Otetskov, a prominent salvager who had upset the balance of power on Nhillius I's moon, and, in doing so, made himself a target of the ruling pirate and junker clans.
The Landed Navy suggested that Otetskov could provide information on the opposing force - with little information to back it up - but could not extract him themselves. Still mending its wounds from the limited, but bitter naval battles in Nhillian space, the Defense Flotilla complied and moved to secure Valerian, whose assailants presented a significantly lesser threat. Fortune smiled on the operation that pulled Otetskov from Mizar and the man himself was swiftly taken into Nhillian custody.
Information from Otetskov, however, has since remained classified by the Nhillius provisional government and the answers he provided have yet to come to light. In much the same way, his involvement with the Landed Navy - and what involvement the Navy may have had in the Nhillius system prior to their arrival in 2211 - is still unknown to this day. Secrecy in the Nhillius Incident came from all corners and Valerian was no exception.
In a similar vein, Otetskov's extraction from Mizar was short-lived and ultimately fed into a power play by the savvy salvager. After organizing a group of trusted contacts into the first iteration of the Mizar Reservists and securing the cooperation of the Syko's Shipbreakers salvaging fleet, Valerian conquered the Zoriyale biodomes, a key agricultural and trading hub in Mizar, and rallied much of the underworld together in support of the system.
The rapidly-swelling Mizar Reservists embarked from Sekhmet to reinforce the Nhillius Defense Flotilla alongside their Shipbreaker allies in short order. They were the reinforcements Nhillius sorely needed and were swiftly put to use shoring up weak positions against the virtually omnipresent opposing force, while the Landed Navy continued to intervene at critical battles - even if they were critical to the Navy alone.
In mid-2212, discontent with the course of the war and ongoing conscription exploded into an open rebellion against the Nhillius Defense Force and the Nhillian government on Nhillius III. Rebels began coordinated attacks and actively encouraged riots throughout Nhillius III's capital that the Landed Navy was already deployed to. When the capital's Royal Army called on the Navy to help quell the resistance, the response was swift and devastating.
Unfortunately, while the Landed Navy was able to achieve scores of victories in their initial strikes, their involvement only spurred the resistance into further agitation. More and more civilians and deserting soldiers flocked to the uprising's side as the Navy was cast as an alien invader acting as mercenaries for a dying, ineffective tyranny.
Ultimately, the resistance fell apart in the face of the Landed Navy, Royal Army, and Defense Force fighting together. The worst damage, however, had been done in the first week; vital factories burned, unrest continued, and much of the Nhillian government had been slaughtered, discredited, or terrified into resigning from their posts. The lack of experienced leaders for the civilian population only contributed to the ongoing dissatisfaction - and for years following the Nhillius Incident.
The turmoil in the system reached its peak when an opposing starbase, named the Labyrinth by Defense Flotilla marines, appeared with an attendant fleet over Nhillius III later in the year. The battle for orbit hinged primarily on Nhillian and Landed Navy boarding parties; the fleet accompanying the Labyrinth was quickly smashed by the Nhillius Defense Flotilla, while the starbase itself proved to be an insurmountable task for the handful of ships that had survived battles elsewhere.
During the engagement, the Landed Navy, just as it had disappeared and reappeared without warning in the past, boarded the Labyrinth by means unknown and forced a beachhead for Nhillian marines to land. Once reinforced, the two allies moved together through the station's halls in an effort to destroy it. In the end, the Labyrinth may well have been an alien planet all by itself - which the Landed Navy only served to emphasize.
The interior structure of the opposing force's starbase was a twisting, incoherent tangle of hallways and compartments that seemed to disappear, reappear, or displace into different sections of the station at random. Navigating the Labyrinth was what earned the station its name, as simply moving through an open door into an empty room was a calculated risk.
For the Landed Navy, moving through the Labyrinth was a trivial affair that its soldiers were clearly familiar with. Further distressing was their involvement with the starbase's sudden and complete disappearance - all while both the Navy and Nhillian soldiers were still onboard. As if it were an effortless task, the Landed Navy returned the Labyrinth to Nhillius III, just as Nhillian marines had seized the station's central reactor.
Once more, the Navy disappeared at the instant of victory and continued with its unpredictable intervention across the system. It was only by the time that the inert Labyrinth's orbit had decayed and sent the starbase plummeting to the planet's surface that they followed after Nhillian pleas for assistance. Their return to Nhillius III, however, seemed to align with their own mysterious goals.
When the Labyrinth impacted Nhillius III, it erupted into a death blaze of unidentified energy that, in its wake, left one of the largest armies the opposing force had sent to the system. The Landed Navy, alongside Syko's Shipbreakers and a scattered mix of Nhillian militiamen, went to work chipping away at the army that orbital bombardment routinely failed to halt - and, as time went on, swelled in size from reinforcements literally appearing from thin air around them.
Battles in defense of the Nhillian capital and its outlying industrial facilities - which, following the uprising, were among the few still functioning - continued for six months, from late 2212 to the middle of 2213. Each battle left the Nhillian people and their allies in the Mizar Reservists, Syko's Shipbreakers, and Landed Navy more and more bloodied without any decisive outcome in sight.
In July of 2213, it all ended. Despite their warband rampaging across the countryside and continually reinforcing itself from the ether, the opposing force disappeared from Nhillius III - and the rest of the system - without any warning whatsoever. On its heels was the Landed Navy, which perplexingly thanked the Nhillius defenders for their assistance - rather than being thanked for their unexpected, unpredictable, and crucial intervention.
The Landed Navy disappeared into nothingness roughly a day after the opposing force had been confirmed to have completely departed. The destinations of the two factions - and whether the Navy had pursued the opposing force or simply left to another goal - remain unknown to this day and it is unclear if either will return. There have been no sightings of the Landed Navy or the opposing force since their departure.
The relationship between the Landed Navy and opposing force is another question that remains without a clear answer. While it was clear that they were enemies, the nature of their conflict or why they arrived in the Nhillius system are both secrets - among many others - that the Landed Navy did not share with their Nhillian allies. Their insight into Valerian Otetskov remains a muddy affair for the Mizar Reservists to this day.
The Mizar Reservists, however, have since gone on to become one of the largest political, military, and commercial factions in the Nhillius system. With an iron grip on underworld activities and a sizeable investment in the recovering Nhillius Defense Flotilla, the Reservists are simultaneously seen as a black cloud hanging over Nhillius' future and the underdog heroes the system needed in its darkest hour of need.
The Nhillius Defense Flotilla, Defense Force, and Royal Army, however, have not prospered in the wake of the war. While firmly in control of the provisional government, their legitimacy has been routinely questioned by their own people as a result of the civil war. Conscription remains the primary source of fresh soldiers and industrial output continues to lag behind their rearming process.
The future of the Nhillius system, either alone or with the Karustgrad Strategic Pact, is a topic of dread and worry among the battered Nhillian people. The return of the mysterious opposing force - and whether the Landed Navy will come again to help thwart them - is a common subject with no clear answer. For Nhillius, no news will undoubtedly be good news - something the system has needed for at least eight years.
