Wernher

This galaxy isn't yours! (On hiatus)

Incoming psionic mumbo jumbo. Does this even make sense?

-Isz
The older races can tell that somehow, the Crayvens have changed from how they were before. Oh certainly, they always were the impatient short lived and determined insectoids they are, but before there was a passion to them that has been seemingly replaced with cold and unfeeling motions ever since they were almost genocided. How could they know the truth behind this though, alien as it is. Something that once was common knowledge to every Crayven is now lost to time, the fact that like a human lives with the bacteria on his skin, the Crayvens had a symbiotic relation with creatures from another plane of existence called the Isz people or rather, the things. The human word for an Isz was as none recall, a soul.

Living on their plane of existence, the Collective Consciousness or the Ithyll, 'Dreamland' as it was commonly called, the Isz lived on islands in the middle of a churning sea, the islands being the mind of the Crayvens 'Bellow' as the beings referred to the material plane. They were the source of unexplainable visions and thoughts as well as of a telepathic link between the members of the species for while the insectoids aren't expressive in the slightest and really never were, they could say 'I like this person' after a handshake due to what served as their subconscious interacting in the Ithyll.

Great events in one realm could impact the other profundly however and at no time was this more evident than when the Crayvens reached the end of their resources, being unable to continue their exponential population growth. The Isz breed at about the same speed as the Crayvens without concerns for food and space but the minds available to host them so when there was no minds to receive them, newborns were forced to 'drown' in the void, dissipate without a mind of their own, to fight for new minds. It was all very stressful for the Crayvens, insuring generations born in periods of misery were destine to be highly stressed and extremely paranoid. The desire for the Isz in their minds to find a solution to their overpopulation traducing itself to the Crayvens, in the material plane, becoming restless and looking for a change, though they couldn't put their fingers on what.

It was why the Crayvens were doomed to forever try and find room to grow, at the expense of everyone else. Contraception and birth control to make their empires more stable were doomed to fail, the Ithyll demanded permanent expansion!

So then, what happened?

Over a century ago, the Crayven race was brought to near extinction and all that was left was a single individual, a single mind, a single island in the Dreamworld. The Crayvens could repopulate, but that one Isz could not for unlike his host, the being's reproductive system was binary. Without at least one other Isz in existence, it could do nothing to repopulate the now once again fertile Ithyll of the Crayvens mind.

-Stelaz
The notion of time and space as the material plane knows it is foreign to the Isz who lived a single moment, it was probably why they were unable to control their own population and forced the constant doom of the Crayvens, but with this moment filled with emptiness, the last survivor, Stelaz, decided to delve in search of what had caused this. No Isz had been aware of the material realm more than the Crayvens had been of the Ithyll before, it was all a vague sort of thing that only rare gurus had the desire to explore. They could felt it was linked but couldn't see what was happening to the other side. It was with great effort that Stelaz managed to pierce the veil and look at the eldritch material world. The being took the energy needed to find the spot of land, the mind that would suit the best its efforts to make contact and thus found what was Lucretia.

At first Stelaz was just an instinct, a feeling. Eventually, it became more than that and began to understand the nature of the place it had found itself. It and Lucretia communicated and during those nights, they both learned as much as each other on the other side and slowly formed a bond as both gained more knowledge of the other plane and learned how events in one affected the other.

Stelaz never knew the Emperor of mankind, he is just a weird form in the aether seen through the mind of Lucretia, but he knows he is the reason he was left alone. That he was part of the churning sea that boiled endlessly around him and that through the physical world, he could end him.

This galaxy isn't yours! (On hiatus)

@6slyboy6

Well, to kill rebellious humans to be fair, and only after he was requested to intervene and merely succeeded where others thought he'd fail. Konev would be pretty vocal about how his only crime is to be too competent for his own good and openly mock anyone who brings up this incident by saying 'I guess they should have sent you, the man for the job, to lose the battle.'

But I'll obey your word, O game master.

Meanwhile, I'm working for a little edit for my sheet, news on that later.

This galaxy isn't yours! (On hiatus)

Btw @6slyboy6, @Sophrus. My proposition was actually serious, considering how possibly dangerous that place would be, why not send some expendable forces and a (kinda) reputed grand admiral to watch over it?

Either Konev does a good job and that's that, or he fails spectacularly and the other Admirals can watch his downfall with glee!

I think it would make for interesting roleplay really.

This galaxy isn't yours! (On hiatus)

@Sophrus I vote admiral Konev and his xenos lol.

This galaxy isn't yours! (On hiatus)

Psionics give me an idea. Basically crayvens having old latent psionic abilities they dont have access to anymore save for a few mutants like Lucretia, herself having the potential of exploiting all the power of her race. Thinking of her having a tutor, some last member of a race genocided long ago.... maybe some order of knights or whatnot would consider this being a demon of sort?

This galaxy isn't yours! (On hiatus)

@6slyboy6 Id forgive antimatter if its missiles under the excuse that 1, it needs to reach the enemy fleet and 2, if the ship is destroyed while in the middle of its own fleet, cue extreme damages to your own forces.

This galaxy isn't yours! (On hiatus)

@6slyboy6

I think Lucretia could be a member of Konev's staff while being extremely under ranked for it. General in everything but name.

And would this disliking of Konev be universal?

I think you can read that Konev plans his own mutiny, will develop a reason in the RP involving spreading rumors that the Emperor is either non human or simply hiding medical technologies that could save multiple human lives for his own sake and would soften the stance of the Empire toward non humans while still keeping a place on top for every human. I'm wondering if there is any kind of support at all he could gather among humans or is this a lost cause?

Could it at least convince the human civilians to not to everything to stand in his way?

This galaxy isn't yours! (On hiatus)

@6slyboy6

Sorry if I didn't go in greater details about the rebellion, but the way I saw it was a surprising development and a dangerous one as people would rarely hatch a plot like this if they didn't think they could win. The local forces are overwhelmed and it isn't Konev who jumps at the chance but he is called to hold the line while a real battlegroup, made of humans of course, is able to be assembled. Basically, Konev's xeno troops were supposed to be an expendable speed bump. Only the Crayvens were good enough to actually deal with the mutiny by themselves before the main force arrived.

I'd imagine this would make for an awkward situation since Konev was technically assigned to deal with the rebellions, its just that his superiors assumed that the cheap Crayven troops would fail spectacularly against a real trained human force. As such I'd think afterward his situation would be weird within high command, but they couldn't just call it treason or a mistake from him.

Btw, it would be worth considering what the nature of the mutiny was, I think maybe we could work together on that @Liotrent ? Democrats or what not. It could also be worth considering, since my Xeno General Lucretia is plotting her own things that maybe the leadership of the rebellion or some of their forces could have been spared in an obvious manner. Escape shuttles that could have easily been destroyed but Craven ships are ordered to hold their fire in the middle of the battle, just to make sure they could rebuild later.

And further more, the opinion of Konev on xenos: Every race has its place, its just that the place of humans happens to be on top in leadership roles while xenos work better in other fields. Extremely racist, probably more than others even, but who would accept making concessions to xenos in order to rally them under his cause, which is to become emperor and is driven only by personal ambitions and little else.

This galaxy isn't yours! (On hiatus)

Crayvenhart Admiralty
"The Fist of Cray"

Type of Governement: Auxiliary Branch of the Imperial Military.

Description of Governement: Alien auxiliaries willing to betray the cause of their race and galaxy are nothing new, but never are they as numerous as the Crayvens for specific reasons explained later. The Admiralty works in an identical fashion as the Imperial Army except that its foot soldiers and lower ranking personal are Crayven auxiliaries by the millions, positions of importance being occupied by humans while they and their families live segregated from the swarming mass of Crayvens.

Main race:


"The candle that burns twice as hard lives only half as long."
Crayvens

The insectoid race was always considered a blight on the entire galaxy before humanity came and arguably, is still considered worst than them for biological and cultural facts. On a biological matter, Crayvens are kept sexless as long as they are in contact with the pheromones created by the presence of a female, should they not be subdued by this pheromone, they will begin changing sex until one they are either in contact with these pheromones again or become female, in which case they will begin to lay hundreds of eggs each day, insuring that at a natural rate, the Crayven population doubles roughly every 8 months. This despite their extremely short lifespan of on average 15 years, an ancient Crayven being of the age of 35.

They of course mature excessively fast in only a few short months and have inherited from a very communal attitude where the individual often means nothing in front of the group as well as a single minded and extremely driven focus in life instilled by how they are treated in the first few months of their lives. Someone being trained from their hatching as a soldier will single mindedly pursuit to better himself in this purpose until his death for example.

And they make excellent soldiers and workers by their disciplined nature and strong bodies that eat little for the effort they can provide, capable of lifting a few times their own body weight. Perfect slaves as Admiral Konev calls them.

Minority races:
-Humans: The officers, supervisors and their families.

Demography:
-80% Crayven
-20% Human (Needs constant immigration or steady attrition from the Crayvens to maintain at this level, they can become a laughable minority in months otherwise.)

Religion:
"The Drive": The name a human psychologist has given to this psychological phenomenon that 'plague' the Crayven population. Crayvens, in short, are unable to be satisfied of what they have or of a situation, even if its good. They crave a cause, to have something that drives them to push themselves harder. Before the humans came, this 'Drive' was the cause of the most horrible and epic events on their side of the galaxy as they embarked in conquests or massive projects demanding every ounce of their energy, but after they were subjugated by the humans, it also led to the most violent revolts they had to face, the species often being brought near extinction many times because of their defiance.

Culture:
The Crayven culture is basically inexistant at this point, their core worlds were made barren during their conquest and after over 20 of their generations, Crayvens have no idea what they were before and now only speak human languages, use human terms and technologies. Crayvens, despite or because of their short lives, strive for a kind of immortality, through their actions and what they build. It is in their nature to be motivated by the idea of leaving a mark forever, through whatever means possible. If the universe is lucky, it is by building the biggest space ship ever made, if not, it is by conquering the galaxy. Needless to say, a Crayven doesn't know the meaning of the word 'moderation'.

Despite being so heavily influanced by humans however, it is apparent that in their mind at least they aren't subjugated. Crayven exceptionalism is very much alive and indeed, these ant people believe that no matter what, they are special, something greater than others. This has of course always been problematic for their human overlords but recently, they realized that this rage and pride could be chanelled. Indeed, Crayvens do not care for humans but neither to they anyone else. They do not feel empathy or brotherhood with the other races in the galaxy they live in and as such, have no problem brutally crushing rebellions of any kind, genociding entire species and indeed making anyone go through the most brutal and abject of treatment.

History:
The records of the Crayvens before they were conquered have mostly been erased but when the humans came the species was, at everyone's great relief, in the middle of a brutal civil war, entire fragments of the population trying to genocide each other for obscure reasons. Despite this however, the humans had a hard time conquering the ant people who would fight with sticks and stones against all odds, throwing themselves in front of moving tanks to slow them down, live in total squalor and sacrifice themselves to the last to fuel the war effort. The endeavor could probably have been something to have taken a generation if some Crayven factions hadn't been so happy to join the humans to genocide their own people. These factions of course would eventually be subjugated themselves as some gained special status in the empire if they maintained the peace but 10 years later, they of course rebelled and were obliterated themselves.

At first, the humans tried to use the Crayvens as slaves and it worked, for a while, but a series of 'Great Rebellions' where the Crayvens rearmed at light speed with enough force and vigor to require significant efforts from the humans to put down gave an end to this practice. The growth of the insectoids were simply too cancerous to not keep in check and indeed, they once tried to genocide the entire specie and believed they did until a few years later it became evident some had survived and had managed to repopulate despite being only less than a dozen individuals as far as people recall.

The problem was placed in the hands of the then young Admiral Konev who decided to handle it differently. First breaking the back of the current Crayven generation, he relocated them in core worlds rich in radiations as a way to naturally cull the population with genetic defects and take the survivors to deal with some other species that used their high resistance to radiations to defend themselves against Humanity, telling the Crayvens that 'Only the strong would survive', something the Crayvens actually masochistically cheered at. It was only the start and Admiral Konev would in 20 years instill a violent warrior tradition in the ant people, making the population people control itself as the Crayvens killed their own weaklings, worked themselves to death and threw themselves with savage enthusiasm at the enemies of humanity with religious fervor that it was a cosmic truth: The strong survived and by constantly and suicidally going in the most dangerous situations possible they only became stronger.

The funny thing is however... Konev was right. At each passing generation the Crayvens become stronger, more military minded and more resilient to the radiation of the core worlds, suffering less birth defects as they go... And Konev knows that and counts on it. For indeed, his xeno army would one day place him on the throne as EMPEROR OF MANKIND! If only he knew however that he was only developing a weapon that may serve as the bane of humanity and maybe all other race.

Important characters:
-Grand Admiral Konev: The aging man made his name after ruling for over 50 years the Crayvens without major rebellions, something that is a feat in itself, but also by managing to turn one of the worst plague of the galaxy into an efficient warmachine that crushed multiple xeno insurections in the territories. He also became one of the most dangerous person in the galaxy a few years back when he also crushed a human mutiny within the army as while other soldiers were confused and reluctant to kill other humans, his army of Aliens savagely crushed them. But this position isn't enough for him, he wish for more! A shame that he actually has only a very powerful tool and isn't at all even a good commander or statesman.

-General Hotch: The Elite ground commander under Admiral Konev, he would probably have received a promotion to more important tasks if Konev didn't want to keep him as his subordinate at all cost. Hotch however, doesn't care. Indeed, he serves with the Crayvens under Konev because of his fascination of their warrior ways, the incredible belief Konev managed to instill in them to strive to be the absolute best they can be. It is, he believes, something humanity should learn from, something they were before even! But now they have become soft in the last hundred years, after the galactic conquest. Yes, only the strong should rule!

-Admiral Stern: Another hyper competent subordinate of Admiral Konev, he is in charge of speaheading space operations. He has learned to become reliant on Crayven military might but doesn't stand in awe before it like Hotch, indeed he finds that if they are robust soldiers, Crayvens are all, except for a few notable exceptions, unimaginative, too prone to use their numbers as a crutch to rely on. Still... he is one of the few officers that realize there is something going on in the Crayven ranks, they've been quiet for 50 years and it isn't normal.

-General Lucretia: 'If only I could be like general Lucretia!' is something you often ear in Crayven ranks, for if genetic defects often lead to weaklings discarded and killed in their youth, Lucretia is something very few Crayvens are: Patient and a woman ('she' is asexual, but her mannerism make the human officers she work with think of her more as female than male) of multiple fields of expertise but not only that, naturally good in all of them. She was at first 'General Hotch's pet', an Alien in high command and one capable of putting anyone she competed to shame, using a natural knowledge of the Crayvens to use them more as a precision tool rather than a battering ram as they were often used. Every human around her but Hotch see her as a menace, something terrible waiting to happen... and they are right.

Description of Military:
Most people make the mistake to assume the ants only relly on number, but it is a terrible mistake to make for the insectoids learn quickly and dedicate their entire short lives to one thing, this coupled with their vast strength and endurance as well as seemingly inability to feel fear or have anything hamper their iron moral makes them, despite their often extremely limited equipment a devastating force to be feared that crushed many xeno rebellions and showed after a large scale mutiny in the Imperial force, that they are also capable of devastating human forces.

-Missile Frigate: The Crayven forces are in theory not supposed to produce combat vessels, after months of delays and supplies being on back order, Admiral Konev took it on himself to command the construction of 'alternative combat means'. For single launch missile carriers are considered to technically be anti-fortress support equipment and not combat ships. By that logic... why not strap as many missile to a basic space worthy hunk of metal?

-Avalanche Class Missile Carrier: Konev only had a few dockyards to produce ships but as many factories as he wanted to produce missiles... so why not stuff more missiles on a ship? At 500 missiles per pod, the Avalanche can fire an overwhelming 6000 missiles at once, more than enough to overwhelm any defense screens! These are quite basic though, with just enough computing power to track targets independently and maintain distance as not to cause chain detonations. Still, the first time he deployed this beast in a wargame against Grand Admiral Wayland, he simulated the destruction of half of a fleet, showing that throwing numbers rather than quality worked as well in space as it did on the ground.

Technology:
The Crayvens produce their basic necessities as well as mass produced military equipment of great reliability but otherwise substandard performances on their new worlds near the galactic core, but the humans supervising them make sure that they don't produce a single thing that could give them an edge in case of a rebellion, especially ships, which are other than small supply vessels entirely assigned to admiral Konev by the standard Imperial navy. It is fair to say Crayvens haven't given the galaxy any technological innovations for quite some time.

Additional(whatever you feel like you want to add):

-Isz
The older races can tell that somehow, the Crayvens have changed from how they were before. Oh certainly, they always were the impatient short lived and determined insectoids they are, but before there was a passion to them that has been seemingly replaced with cold and unfeeling motions ever since they were almost genocided. How could they know the truth behind this though, alien as it is. Something that once was common knowledge to every Crayven is now lost to time, the fact that like a human lives with the bacteria on his skin, the Crayvens had a symbiotic relation with creatures from another plane of existence called the Isz people or rather, the things. The human word for an Isz was as none recall, a soul.

Living on their plane of existence, the Collective Consciousness or the Ithyll, 'Dreamland' as it was commonly called, the Isz lived on islands in the middle of a churning sea, the islands being the mind of the Crayvens 'Bellow' as the beings referred to the material plane. They were the source of unexplainable visions and thoughts as well as of a telepathic link between the members of the species for while the insectoids aren't expressive in the slightest and really never were, they could say 'I like this person' after a handshake due to what served as their subconscious interacting in the Ithyll.

Great events in one realm could impact the other profundly however and at no time was this more evident than when the Crayvens reached the end of their resources, being unable to continue their exponential population growth. The Isz breed at about the same speed as the Crayvens without concerns for food and space but the minds available to host them so when there was no minds to receive them, newborns were forced to 'drown' in the void, dissipate without a mind of their own, to fight for new minds. It was all very stressful for the Crayvens, insuring generations born in periods of misery were destine to be highly stressed and extremely paranoid. The desire for the Isz in their minds to find a solution to their overpopulation traducing itself to the Crayvens, in the material plane, becoming restless and looking for a change, though they couldn't put their fingers on what.

It was why the Crayvens were doomed to forever try and find room to grow, at the expense of everyone else. Contraception and birth control to make their empires more stable were doomed to fail, the Ithyll demanded permanent expansion!

So then, what happened?

Over a century ago, the Crayven race was brought to near extinction and all that was left was a single individual, a single mind, a single island in the Dreamworld. The Crayvens could repopulate, but that one Isz could not for unlike his host, the being's reproductive system was binary. Without at least one other Isz in existence, it could do nothing to repopulate the now once again fertile Ithyll of the Crayvens mind.

-Stelaz
The notion of time and space as the material plane knows it is foreign to the Isz who lived a single moment, it was probably why they were unable to control their own population and forced the constant doom of the Crayvens, but with this moment filled with emptiness, the last survivor, Stelaz, decided to delve in search of what had caused this. No Isz had been aware of the material realm more than the Crayvens had been of the Ithyll before, it was all a vague sort of thing that only rare gurus had the desire to explore. They could felt it was linked but couldn't see what was happening to the other side. It was with great effort that Stelaz managed to pierce the veil and look at the eldritch material world. The being took the energy needed to find the spot of land, the mind that would suit the best its efforts to make contact and thus found what was Lucretia.

At first Stelaz was just an instinct, a feeling. Eventually, it became more than that and began to understand the nature of the place it had found itself. It and Lucretia communicated and during those nights, they both learned as much as each other on the other side and slowly formed a bond as both gained more knowledge of the other plane and learned how events in one affected the other.

Stelaz never knew the Emperor of mankind, he is just a weird form in the aether seen through the mind of Lucretia, but he knows he is the reason he was left alone. That he was part of the churning sea that boiled endlessly around him and that through the physical world, he could end him.

This galaxy isn't yours! (On hiatus)

Crayvenhart Admiralty
"The Fist of Cray"

Type of Governement: Auxiliary Branch of the Imperial Military.

Description of Governement: Alien auxiliaries willing to betray the cause of their race and galaxy are nothing new, but never are they as numerous as the Crayvens for specific reasons explained later. The Admiralty works in an identical fashion as the Imperial Army except that its foot soldiers and lower ranking personal are Crayven auxiliaries by the millions, positions of importance being occupied by humans while they and their families live segregated from the swarming mass of Crayvens.

Main race:


"The candle that burns twice as hard lives only half as long."
Crayvens

The insectoid race was always considered a blight on the entire galaxy before humanity came and arguably, is still considered worst than them for biological and cultural facts. On a biological matter, Crayvens are kept sexless as long as they are in contact with the pheromones created by the presence of a female, should they not be subdued by this pheromone, they will begin changing sex until one they are either in contact with these pheromones again or become female, in which case they will begin to lay hundreds of eggs each day, insuring that at a natural rate, the Crayven population doubles roughly every 8 months. This despite their extremely short lifespan of on average 15 years, an ancient Crayven being of the age of 35.

They of course mature excessively fast in only a few short months and have inherited from a very communal attitude where the individual often means nothing in front of the group as well as a single minded and extremely driven focus in life instilled by how they are treated in the first few months of their lives. Someone being trained from their hatching as a soldier will single mindedly pursuit to better himself in this purpose until his death for example.

And they make excellent soldiers and workers by their disciplined nature and strong bodies that eat little for the effort they can provide, capable of lifting a few times their own body weight. Perfect slaves as Admiral Konev calls them.

Minority races:
-Humans: The officers, supervisors and their families.

Demography:
-80% Crayven
-20% Human (Needs constant immigration or steady attrition from the Crayvens to maintain at this level, they can become a laughable minority in months otherwise.)

Religion:
"The Drive": The name a human psychologist has given to this psychological phenomenon that 'plague' the Crayven population. Crayvens, in short, are unable to be satisfied of what they have or of a situation, even if its good. They crave a cause, to have something that drives them to push themselves harder. Before the humans came, this 'Drive' was the cause of the most horrible and epic events on their side of the galaxy as they embarked in conquests or massive projects demanding every ounce of their energy, but after they were subjugated by the humans, it also led to the most violent revolts they had to face, the species often being brought near extinction many times because of their defiance.

Culture:
The Crayven culture is basically inexistant at this point, their core worlds were made barren during their conquest and after over 20 of their generations, Crayvens have no idea what they were before and now only speak human languages, use human terms and technologies. Crayvens, despite or because of their short lives, strive for a kind of immortality, through their actions and what they build. It is in their nature to be motivated by the idea of leaving a mark forever, through whatever means possible. If the universe is lucky, it is by building the biggest space ship ever made, if not, it is by conquering the galaxy. Needless to say, a Crayven doesn't know the meaning of the word 'moderation'.

Despite being so heavily influanced by humans however, it is apparent that in their mind at least they aren't subjugated. Crayven exceptionalism is very much alive and indeed, these ant people believe that no matter what, they are special, something greater than others. This has of course always been problematic for their human overlords but recently, they realized that this rage and pride could be chanelled. Indeed, Crayvens do not care for humans but neither to they anyone else. They do not feel empathy or brotherhood with the other races in the galaxy they live in and as such, have no problem brutally crushing rebellions of any kind, genociding entire species and indeed making anyone go through the most brutal and abject of treatment.

History:
The records of the Crayvens before they were conquered have mostly been erased but when the humans came the species was, at everyone's great relief, in the middle of a brutal civil war, entire fragments of the population trying to genocide each other for obscure reasons. Despite this however, the humans had a hard time conquering the ant people who would fight with sticks and stones against all odds, throwing themselves in front of moving tanks to slow them down, live in total squalor and sacrifice themselves to the last to fuel the war effort. The endeavor could probably have been something to have taken a generation if some Crayven factions hadn't been so happy to join the humans to genocide their own people. These factions of course would eventually be subjugated themselves as some gained special status in the empire if they maintained the peace but 10 years later, they of course rebelled and were obliterated themselves.

At first, the humans tried to use the Crayvens as slaves and it worked, for a while, but a series of 'Great Rebellions' where the Crayvens rearmed at light speed with enough force and vigor to require significant efforts from the humans to put down gave an end to this practice. The growth of the insectoids were simply too cancerous to not keep in check and indeed, they once tried to genocide the entire specie and believed they did until a few years later it became evident some had survived and had managed to repopulate despite being only less than a dozen individuals as far as people recall.

The problem was placed in the hands of the then young Admiral Konev who decided to handle it differently. First breaking the back of the current Crayven generation, he relocated them in core worlds rich in radiations as a way to naturally cull the population with genetic defects and take the survivors to deal with some other species that used their high resistance to radiations to defend themselves against Humanity, telling the Crayvens that 'Only the strong would survive', something the Crayvens actually masochistically cheered at. It was only the start and Admiral Konev would in 20 years instill a violent warrior tradition in the ant people, making the population people control itself as the Crayvens killed their own weaklings, worked themselves to death and threw themselves with savage enthusiasm at the enemies of humanity with religious fervor that it was a cosmic truth: The strong survived and by constantly and suicidally going in the most dangerous situations possible they only became stronger.

The funny thing is however... Konev was right. At each passing generation the Crayvens become stronger, more military minded and more resilient to the radiation of the core worlds, suffering less birth defects as they go... And Konev knows that and counts on it. For indeed, his xeno army would one day place him on the throne as EMPEROR OF MANKIND! If only he knew however that he was only developing a weapon that may serve as the bane of humanity and maybe all other race.

Important characters:
-Grand Admiral Konev: The aging man made his name after ruling for over 50 years the Crayvens without major rebellions, something that is a feat in itself, but also by managing to turn one of the worst plague of the galaxy into an efficient warmachine that crushed multiple xeno insurections in the territories. He also became one of the most dangerous person in the galaxy a few years back when he also crushed a human mutiny within the army as while other soldiers were confused and reluctant to kill other humans, his army of Aliens savagely crushed them. But this position isn't enough for him, he wish for more! A shame that he actually has only a very powerful tool and isn't at all even a good commander or statesman.

-General Hotch: The Elite ground commander under Admiral Konev, he would probably have received a promotion to more important tasks if Konev didn't want to keep him as his subordinate at all cost. Hotch however, doesn't care. Indeed, he serves with the Crayvens under Konev because of his fascination of their warrior ways, the incredible belief Konev managed to instill in them to strive to be the absolute best they can be. It is, he believes, something humanity should learn from, something they were before even! But now they have become soft in the last hundred years, after the galactic conquest. Yes, only the strong should rule!

-Admiral Stern: Another hyper competent subordinate of Admiral Konev, he is in charge of speaheading space operations. He has learned to become reliant on Crayven military might but doesn't stand in awe before it like Hotch, indeed he finds that if they are robust soldiers, Crayvens are all, except for a few notable exceptions, unimaginative, too prone to use their numbers as a crutch to rely on. Still... he is one of the few officers that realize there is something going on in the Crayven ranks, they've been quiet for 50 years and it isn't normal.

-General Lucretia: 'If only I could be like general Lucretia!' is something you often ear in Crayven ranks, for if genetic defects often lead to weaklings discarded and killed in their youth, Lucretia is something very few Crayvens are: Patient and a woman ('she' is asexual, but her mannerism make the human officers she work with think of her more as female than male) of multiple fields of expertise but not only that, naturally good in all of them. She was at first 'General Hotch's pet', an Alien in high command and one capable of putting anyone she competed to shame, using a natural knowledge of the Crayvens to use them more as a precision tool rather than a battering ram as they were often used. Every human around her but Hotch see her as a menace, something terrible waiting to happen... and they are right.

Description of Military:
Most people make the mistake to assume the ants only relly on number, but it is a terrible mistake to make for the insectoids learn quickly and dedicate their entire short lives to one thing, this coupled with their vast strength and endurance as well as seemingly inability to feel fear or have anything hamper their iron moral makes them, despite their often extremely limited equipment a devastating force to be feared that crushed many xeno rebellions and showed after a large scale mutiny in the Imperial force, that they are also capable of devastating human forces.

Technology:
The Crayvens produce their basic necessities as well as mass produced military equipment of great reliability but otherwise substandard performances on their new worlds near the galactic core, but the humans supervising them make sure that they don't produce a single thing that could give them an edge in case of a rebellion, especially ships, which are other than small supply vessels entirely assigned to admiral Konev by the standard Imperial navy. It is fair to say Crayvens haven't given the galaxy any technological innovations for quite some time.

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