Okay, here's everything, and I mean everything.
(Start)
The balance of power that once maintained order in the galaxy has been shattered. Now, only the evil Drengin Empire and their more ruthless cousins, the Korath remain a factor. Behind the scenes, the Dread Lords continue to manipulate both sides in an effort to regain domination of the known universe.
Meanwhile, a human exploration task force has returned to known space to discover the disaster that has occurred…
A small Terran Alliance task force led by Colonel Jenna Casey has returned from deep space to discover the catastrophe that has occurred over the past 2 years while her and her crew were gone.
In the past two years, the ancient Precursor civilization of the Dread Lords has been set free from the pocket universe they were trapped in for eons and fought a brutal war with the intergalactic coalition led by the Terran Alliance. Just as the Terran Alliance seemed to be on the verge of victory, the evil Drengin Empire struck with its full power.
The Drengin Empire were able to quickly overwhelm the Terran Alliance and their allies the Arcean Empire and Altarian Republic. Earth itself remains defiant but has been neutralized behind an impenetrable forcefield powered by a Precursor artifact.
Facing utter destruction at the combined Drengin Empire and Dread Lord fleets, the remaining Terran Alliance fleet captured the pocket universe key stone and disappeared into the unknown.
Soon after, a brutal civil war broke out within the Drengin Empire between the majority of the Drengin Empire and the even more ruthless Korath clan. The Korath insisted that all non-Drengin species be exterminated. To that end, two of the major civilizations, the Drath and the Korx were wiped out. The Drengin demanded that the Korath cease their genocidal campaign so that the defeated could be converted to slave labor.
The Drengin were able to drive the Korath from the Drengin home world but now the galaxy remains divided between the two halves of the Drengin Empire.
Now, task force Odyssey, led by Colonel Jenna Casey, has returned to known space to discover a quadrant full of hostiles. Scouts have detected Dread Lord presence in the area, so we'll need to act quickly and neutralize them as soon as possible to stand a chance at surviving this battle.
Fortunately, this quadrant was only lightly occupied by the Korath and Dread Lords. The Dread Lord occupied world of Ai’lur is home to a significant Precursor ruin.
Within this ruin they discover a live Dread Lord – or..not quite. The Dread Lords are the offshoot of the single Precursor civilization known as the Arnor. Inside of a special dungeon on the planet, the living Arnor is a being wrapped in light. He claims his name is Tandis.
Tandis explains that the Dread Lords are the invisible hand behind the Korath. The goal of the Dread Lords is the sterilization of the galaxy and their instrument to do this has been the genocidal Korath.
According to Tandis, the Korath will ultimately defeat the Drengin thanks to the subtle support of the Dread Lords. The only hope for the galaxy is for the Dread Lords to be defeated once and for all.
The Dread Lords, explains Tandis, may be immensely powerful but they are incredibly few in number. Their strength is based on a combination of their innate essence which gives them incredible powers of mind and hand as well as their ability to channel those powers into mighty ships and weapons.
The Dread Lords can be defeated by capturing the shards of the Telenanth from the Dread Lords. The Telenanth was an ancient crystal that was used to create the Arnor in the first place.
Long ago, the Telenanth crystal shattered and the Arnor found 5 pieces of it. The Arnor devised what is called the Orb of Forging to corrupt these shards to be able to channel the native power of the Arnor into creating virtually anything the Arnor could envision.
The Arnor thus were able to expand out into the galaxy and build a mighty empire through the use of these shards. When the Arnor split into factions, much like the Drengin and Korath have now, the evil Arnor, known as the Dread Lords, captured 3 of the 5 shards. A fourth shard was sacrificed to create a pocket universe and trap the Dread Lords there.
Tandis opens his hand to reveal a small piece of crystal. The crystal is the fifth shard which is now at the service of the Terran Alliance. With Tandis’s help, Colonel Casey might possibly be able to defeat the Dread Lords.
The Arnor known as Tandis has, with the power of the shard in his possession, created an Arnorian Battle Cruiser for us to use in our struggle to free the galaxy from the Dread Lords. To test out our new addition to the fleet, you've been tasked to wipe out the Yor presence in this quadrant. Try not to lose the Battle Cruiser, as it will take Tandis some time to replace it.
Good work. You learn quickly. It's time to move on.
One of the shards we must capture is located on Ka’thax. This quadrant is dominated by the Korath so this will have to be a lightning strike. Build a transport, take out Ka’thax’s defenses and take the planet and thereby capture the shard.
Shard acquired! Now get a move on!
With the second shard in our hands, things are looking up, but there are still two shards left. Tandis has located the next shard; unfortunately the only way to get to it is through a quadrant that's heavily occupied by both the Korath and the Dread Lords. There's too many of them for us to stand a chance in a straight-up fight, so we're going to have to make a run for it. We're going to need to get at least one ship to the other side of the quadrant if we're going to get a shot at the third shard.
With an additional shard at his disposal, Tandis has been able to create a second Arnorian Battle Cruiser to help us fight our way through the quadrant. Try not to lose it!
You've managed to get this far unscathed, but keep moving if you want to stay that way!
The Drengin Empire and their ally the Yor are fighting an epic battle for this quadrant with the Dread Lords and Korath. Unfortunately for us, they all want to wipe us out. The Arnorian Tandis has used our captured shard to create 3 Arnorian battle cruisers as well as has made available to us a new technology called 'Fortitude' that will allow us to equip ships in a fleet with more hitpoints on them making them quite lethal.
The planet Tarnex is the world that holds the second of the three shards we must capture. We must take Tarnex, get the shard and get out of here.
We've taken Tarnex and found the shard. Now let's get out of here.
Tandis informs us that the last missing shard exists in a quadrant full of Korath and that only with the help of the Iconians who remain a force in that quadrant can we possibly capture the last shard.
In this quadrant, the Iconians are at war with their old enemies, the Yor. The Krynn Consolate have moved in here too but are currently neutral.
We must win over the Iconians.
After saving the Iconians, they have sided with us. Good work!
The planet Du’toth, currently a Dread Lord world, is the location of the last missing shard.
Unfortunately, this quadrant is the center of the galactic war. And Du’toth is at the other side of the quadrant. Your mission is to get there, capture the planet, and find the last shard.
You've taken Du'toth and found the last shard. Time to get out of there!
We now have all of the shards. But the Dread Lords do not need to be in physical custody of the shards to draw on its power.
Tandis explains that there are only two ways to neutralize the shards. The first way would be to use the orb of forging to alter the orbs. But that artifact was apparently left in the pocket universe.
The second way to neutralize the shards would be to have them put into a special energy magnification chamber and put it in the path of a star going supernova.
Unfortunately, there are no stars about to go supernova. But Tandis has another option, one that he is loathe to share with us: We MAKE a star go supernova.
Tandis has created the energy magnification chamber and placed the shards, including the one he possesses into the chamber.
"This will be the twilight of the Arnor," said Tandis. "Once these shards are destroyed, the Arnor - both my kind and the Dread Lords, will be forever diminished. We will be shadows of what we once were. But the galaxy will be free to set its own destiny."
Tandis shares with us a series of new technologies that can lead us to the creation of a weapon of doom - a Terror Star.
A Terror Star will cause a sun to go supernova and destroy all the planets in its system. They were originally created to deal with the galaxy Andromeda which is scheduled to collide with our galaxy in 700 million Earth years. But the Precursor war consumed the Arnor before they could be used.
We already occupy the planet Kai'vox. That's the good news. We simply have to destroy this star with the shards on this planet.
The bad news is that the Dread Lords are coming. We are surrounded on all sides by them. There is a buffer between us and the Dread Lords occupied by the Krynn and Iconians. The Dread Lords will destroy them on their way to us but those battles may bide us enough time to construct the terror star.
However, we will need to be proactive in delaying the Dread Lords as long as possible. Building a terror star is a non-trivial endeavor and as a starbase, they are quite fragile compared to even a Dread Lord scout. We must protect it at all costs.
Tandis has provided us with an entire fleet of Arnorian warships, along with a technology called 'Atlas' that allows ships in a given fleet to move faster.
Good luck!
We did it! Let's blow this star and go home!
With the destruction of Kai'vox and the shards of the Telenanth crystal the overwhelming power of the Dread Lords fades rapidly. Vastly outnumbered and virtually defenseless, they are forced to retreat from every confrontation. Their dominance over the galaxy is at an end and, with them, dies the legacy of the Arnor.
Despite the Dread Lords demise, the galaxy is still in a state of uncertainty. Galactic warfare will be forever changed by the introduction of the raw power of the Terror Star. Its secrets must be carefully guarded, lest it fall into the wrong hands...
(End)
Hope I didn't miss anything!
Nikolai