Arsta, the Unity Extention

On the boarders of the Iyo system, a fleet of ships guarded a space station and awaited the arrival of billions of souls. The souls of what they believed to be free-thinking Magnavores who opposed the Creeping Darkness and its minions. Meanwhile, on the other edge of the same system, the largest extermination fleet in recent history was staging its assault.

Garmin Fe's plan to save the vast population were hastily put into place. He had little time and called out to other factions for their assistance. While he was locked in discussions with the Iron Republic and the Unity Task Force, he was aware that both forces were already mobilizing their joint attack. Fortunately he had friends outside the TRILAT he could trust with such a task. The Temporal Empire was the first to answer the call. Their ability to be wherever they wanted to be within an instant brought an immediate mobilization of the desperate hives at once. Translating to them the situation at hand, thousands of hives were warned, in turn they warned millions more though their connection to one another. Even still, it would take time to reach out to the billions of E-Strain, and time was short.

The spread of the imminent invasion sewed panic among the population. Not all of the hives wished to accept their fate, vowing to fight off the forces till the end. Even fewer were willing to accept the alternative being offered. Only a few thousand Magnavores willing accepted the alien offer at first. In bright blue flashes they were spirited away to the Beacon City controlled Model-T. Once there they were given two options. The first was to be implanted with a shard heart and live as such until a new artificial body could be made for them, at which point they would be free once again. A permanent solution to the stigma of being E-Strain, but in exchange for what?

Those that choose to be implanted were escorted behind curtains. There bodies laid to rest in a cold metal chair. Directly over them a jointed robotic arm descended and positioned directly before the heart of the patient. Seconds went by as the cylinder shaped extension of the arm primed itself. The arm would finally trigger without warning, the patient caught unaware. In an instant the arm drove itself through the patient's carapace, rib-cage, heart, and through to the back of the chest. In that same instant the arm withdrew itself. So quick was the motion that no blood was seen to be drawn. The arm ascended and the patient found that a hole, lined with iron, now lay in their torso. Hanging inside the hole was a blue crystal. A moment of realization was all that was given, then the unseen needle behind their neck delivered a fatal toxin, killing the magnavore quickly and with minimal pain. The shard heart would then be extracted and the body incinerated in the core of the ship.

Of the thousands that came in the beginning, hundreds took this offer.

Prime smiled as he ordered the leading prophet fleets to begin their invasion.

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The deployment of the Unity forces was a shock to the Iron Republic counterparts. The IR commanders were informed that Garmin Fe was to proceed with his operation before extermination. Perhaps he had failed. Perhaps the E-Strain were in fact in league with terrorist. A moment of hesitation, then the command was given. They were not about to let the Unity take all the credit this time. Their new fleet of Planetary Conquest Vehicles were superior in every way, and expensive. Still, they were not entirely mobilized.

Meanwhile, the unmarked EEF freighters had arrived and commenced their hails to the planets in the system. Their open hails were met with a cacophony of responses. Hives representing both small and large populations answered. Some responses were friendly and gracious while others delivered a somewhat hostile response of rage and anger. A few hives even responded by sending bloom ships to their position. The EEF Magnavore translators taxed their own patience in diverting the threat of cutting beam attacks as they negotiated with the frightened and desperate leaders of the hives below them.

The Bloom ships were finally called away and the fleets of many worlds assembled to counter the invasion. Hundreds of ships formed to make a line, against which they would stop the enemy at all costs. Meeting the enemy head on they were valiant in their defense, but foolish in their plan. The Unity Apostles deployed their drones, shielding the Prophet Carriers and firing beams of Harrowing Radiance at angles they were not expecting attack from. Saggitae fighters strafed the many ships and though the Unity took casualties, the annihilation of the defenders was complete.

With hope of staving off the attackers lost among the ashes of ruin the many hives called out in fear. When at first it was difficult to find those willing to accept asylum, now the allied forces could not deliver them fast enough. The first world of Iyo to be targeted by the Unity, Iyo 7, became a priority. The EEF opened massive portals across the surface leading to the space station. Millions pour through, then millions more. It wasn't long before the station was at capacity and unable to take on any more. Then they filled the cargo hauls of the Arcturus Warships flanking the station. When those were full, the people were redirected to other planets for the meantime. It was on Iyo 7 that the first civilian causalities began. Temporal agents were still whisking away magnavores right up until the Prophets broke the atmosphere. Magnavores who volunteered to stay behind and fight further found the defenses compromised by Vrangian Guard. They were forced to fight with their claws as poison started to overtake their system.

Beacon City technicians worked vigorously to process the endless streams of Magnavores. Of the millions that were aboard, thousands were choosing to be implanted. The remaining Magnavores choose instead to have their brains scanned. Once scanned it was made clear what would happen. Through the right granted by Garmin Fe, First Knight of Augury, they would become citizens of the Unity and uplinked to join the collective. As the first assault teams of war-framed warriors landed, they viciously slaughtered those that stood in their way. As the conversion of the planet began to take hold, new information began to pour in. Names of places they were destroying and of the people they had slaughtered. The newly connected were starting to have an effect.

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One after the other during the next few hours the Prophet Fleets and Conquest Vehicles landed in succession. As each planet came into danger, the population of that planet would be shuffled to another world. Meanwhile, the station had finally reached the billion mark and still so many lives needed to be saved. Nearly a billion minds were uplinked to the Unity. Their effect upon the consensus was obscure to the unconnected.

The whole of the invasion was being delayed by fractions of a second here and there. It had no visible effect to the average sentient, but with restrained compassion the invaders were actually allowing thousands of Magnavore to escape and flee. No quarter was given to those that stood and fought, but soldiers began to emit an air of regard for their foe that was not their at first. They no longer thought themselves to be slaying savage beasts, but sentient adversaries.

The slaughter continued and the Iron Republic made its mark upon nine of the twenty worlds to be invaded. The Brethern did not show the same regard to the Magnavores. Even if they somehow had the same connection to the enemy as their Unity counterparts, they were still programed to obey without feeling.

The last world to be invaded, Iyo 3, or the planet of Arsta as the natives once called it, met its fate to the last of the Prophet Carriers. By now two and a half billion were uploaded to the Unity and forty-one billion lives remained on their last refuge in a sea of stars. The EEF soldiers awaiting the final destruction upon their freighters were solemn as the Carriers touched down. The clouds of black fog enveloped the populace like the black cloth of death itself. The portals to the station closed for the safety of all. It was in that moment that all aboard knew that no more lives would saved that day.

Only afterword did many people wondered why so few had answered the call. The absence of the UFC was the chief concern, especially to Field Marshall Strykker. What could possible have prevented the Uloh Nation and its of Magnavore citizens from making an appearance.

The days following the invasion would see many new Prophet Fleets uplift themselves from the husks once known as the many planets of Iyo. A new fleet of almost twice the size that invaded just days before makes its way back to Unity controlled space. Yet on Iyo 3, no Prophets Carriers are seen making their way for the stars above. The landscape of the planet is black and dotted with foreboding spires. This single planet is now a Unity Extension, a final act of mercy to its former inhabitants. Those who call it home call it Arsta.

Meanwhile, on a galaxy drive in an unknown location of space, yet another Agohleth spawns from the remnants of a Magnavore and turns upon its former brothers and sisters, loyal only to the Creeping Darkness.

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