Nefer
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History
The Helios Event
The colony world of Helios saw its earliest beginnings as an outpost from which to launch exploration missions into the deep rim. Situated on the world of Helios 3, nicknamed Neferti, a low gravity world lush with a complex biosphere and extensive precursor dust deposits, the colony would harvest resources to build and maintain an expansive exploration fleet, and bring the wealth of discoveries back to the Core where they could be studied and profited from.
It was, on paper, an ideal setup- and it saw significant investment by several major corporations and research institutes over the first three years of its operation.
Then the Helios Incident occurred. Helios entered a period of heightened stellar activity- and approximately six months into this period released a massive plume of stellar ejecta. A plume headed straight for Helios 3.
Of course, the plume would take several months to reach the planet, but there was still considerable panic before martial law was established and an evacuation was set in motion. Of course the colonists couldn't take everything with them- most machinery was too bulky to be moved in the time allotted. Instead they loaded up on valuable supplies- be it processed ore or extracted delta dust. Moreover, an initiative was fast tracked to save samples of Helios 3's biosphere.
Even so, the escape from the doomed world was extremely close- the last of the colonists didn't leave until roughly ten hours after the impact of the ejecta plume on the opposite face of the planet- by then the air was nearly molten and a massive firestorm was consuming the planet.
Nevertheless, the colonists had survived. Packed onto every ship available- loaded into pressurized shipyards and half-finished exploration vessels, even the orbital ore processing stations had been tasked to provide temporary habitation for the colonists.
But these measures were merely temporary- a more permanent solution had to be found.
The Never Object
"Never Trespass."
This was the command given by an active posthuman communications system to the initial survey team as they approached the orbit of Helios II- which was at the time being cannibalized by a von neuman swarm and converted into a sizable posthuman structure.
The intelligence did not initiate any communication beyond repeating its initial transmission whenever any vessels came too close- and if they passed a certain demarcation boundry, AI drones were dispatched to destroy it.
For five years after the colony of Helios 3 was established, no vessel officially crossed the demarcation zone. "Never" was left to its solitude, to be studied only by scholars and stealth ships. Over those five years over five hundred unique drone craft were identified, captured, tagged, and released back into the wild. From the data gathered, it was determined that "Never" was constructing some sort of biosphere experiment. Several geodesic domes, constructed of hyperdiamond and forcefield, were linked together. Each held a different biosphere. One maintained a water habitat, another a desert- a third a verdant jungle. Periodically- at regular eight month cycles- a sphere would undergo an extinction event. After each such event, a given sphere would be cleaned and repopulated.
It was perhaps to their credit that the scientists of the Helios colony had tagged and identified so many drones, for after Helios 3 was destroyed, "Never" dispatched all but a skeleton force to the location of the former world. In addition, he sent a single transmission to the colonists: "Leave now, or be destroyed."
Accompanying the transmission was a complex data simulation and several years of information on the colony- and the Simulation extrapolated that the colonists, in their desperation and loss, would attempt to destroy "Never" and its forces, and take the structure for their own. Intent on its project, the Posthuman was determined to prevent that.
Faced with quick destruction or a long, wasting death in an attempt to find or create a habitat, many captains chose the former- in a near unilateral action, almost every vessel with any sort of armament and several without, all engaged "Never"'s forces in as close to a surprise attack as one can manage when dealing with posthuman intelligences.
Ultimately successful, the battle took a heavy toll on the survivors. Several vessels were severely damaged- and a few destroyed. There were many casualties- but the battle was not yet done. "Never"'s remaining forces fell quickly to the combined onslaught of the colonial fleet, and the Posthuman AI itself retreated, beaming itself through a short lived wormhole before the spire self-destructed.
The spoils of their victory in hand, the colonists set about making the spheres compatible for human use.
Although their world was gone, there was still a colony. A castle of gods, shining and beautiful both without and within.
Nefer.
Military
Uniforms: The uniforms employed by the Nefertan military are an adaption of those used by Pyramid's exclusive military training institute, which serves as a prerequisite to actual military service. The uniforms are a blend of military service finery, as well as the more business oriented garb of Pyramid's civilian employees.
In order to allow for quick identification of roles and specialties, Pyramid assigns each department a specific colour. Those departments utilize that colour on the ties of their uniforms, indicating their specialty.
The most recent up to date Department to Colour information is as follows:
- Command - Red
- Science - Green
- Tactical - Yellow
- Medical - Blue
- Civilian Authority - White/Other colours (See appendix III for details)
- Unassigned - Black