[Hotfoot]

The Path of Shadows

Journal of Prince Mortova

The Date is 2420.1. The Skeleton Key Operation was a success. For nearly a year now we have lived without the annoyance of other races' insanity. The Terrans who remain are understandbly distressed at being forcibly cut off from their homeworld, and they suspect our involvement in the matter. What action they will take, if any, is unknown, but without support from their homeworlds, perhaps they will understand the better part of valour is not ritual suicide.

The Praetorians seem to have joined with our spymasters against the Sagella, and word is reaching even more of the Sagellen ship crews of the insanities of their political leaders, as Hive Fleet has encountered at least two Sagellen Dreadnoughts under Praetorian command. Apparently the Sagellan ruling class was pressing their labor class into service on their warships and severely mistreating them, making subVersion rather easy on one level, while the ruling class ship commanders are very easy to bribe, sometimes wanting nothing more than asylum within the Shaderni Empire. While this is a good sign of how their system is falling apart from within following the first usage of Hive Fleet, the subverted ships have a rather disturbing tendancy to turn their guns on their own too easily for my liking. Perhaps they are eager to kill their own to prove their loyalty, but I am loathe to trust traitors, even if I I helped to create them. Perhaps especially so.

Speaking of Hive Fleet, I am quite impressed at the improvements that have been made since the fleet's Last major military action in Sagella space. The Nest light carriers have been refitted to have almost as much fighter capacity as the older Mk1 Hive Carriers. The newer Hive Carriers have a total cargo space of 4300 kilotons, and laden with the newer Dirk heavy fighter/bomber designs have proven to be quite effective in simulations. In fact, simulations of Hive Fleet in action have shown that the only real threat that they could possibly face would be nearly half a dozen Baseships loaded to the very brim with our most advanced point defense cannons. Most promising, as the Sagella have no designs that even come close to that functionality. My admirals assure me that our next incursion into Sagella space will end the war. Chimeras filled with Strange Mercy ground units will be used once plantary defenses and hostile fleets are neutralized. We hope that our using ground assaults to take planets instead of simply glassing the worlds shows how willing we are to accept surrender to end the war, especially with our extraordinarily sub-par performance in that area of warfare compared to the projected capabilities of other races. However, since ours is the only Empire to make proper ground combat units, our weakness has yet to be exploited, thankfully.

Meanwhile, closer to the homeworlds, Haunt Fleet is undergoing a final shakedown before being sent to secure the colonies near what remains of Terran space. They will be the spectres that will watch our boundaries, waiting for the day when the pathways are opened once more, revealing either the chaos of war once more, or the tranquility of peace. I only hope that the other races will have tired of conquest by that time, or the fleet of ghosts will call even more into their fold.

On perhaps a lighter note, the rioting on the outer colonies is dying down as word spreads about the strength of Hive Fleet and the recent internal strife of the Sagella. Though I regret the solution to this conflict being so destructive, soon my people will be able to expand, explore, and examine the galaxy unhindered by bloody wars threatening their very lives. The galaxy is dangerous enough without cannons blazing through the vaccuum.

A report has come in from the Stalker Mk2 we inserted into the war-torn other half of the universe. Apparently further care will be required in certain systems, as it lacks minesweeper components, and despite the focus the other races have for war, or perhaps because of it, the sensor technology being employed is quite often more than enough to detect the ship while cloaked. Keeping an eye on the progress of the other races will not be as simply as we had hoped, and should the Stalker be lost, it may be quite some time before we ever reopen the passageways of the warp again.