Star Conflict
Madman’s tales. Part 3. Jericho
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The Emperor was in high spirits. For the first time over the past eight years, he managed to significantly expand his influence over the galaxy. Ariadne has entered an agreement with him, both sides pledging to the secrecy of sensitive information; the New Empire made no moves to stop his recruiting campaign on the Damned Flotilla territory. Of course, he was not yet fully prepared for war, but given a few years, his modest Empire would become a formidable opponent to anyone. An then he can think about expanding. Provided that his main project will be realized.
After giving orders to some of his troops, Ironside proceeded to the prisoner’s cell to try and get information out of him, something that can help the ruler to achieve the goal set by the legendary General.
“Greetings, Oracle.” Ironside’s voice sounded calm. “I would like to hear the tale of Jericho’s past.”
“Greetings to my captor,” the Oracle retorted. “Jericho’s secrets shall remain unheard.”
“A pity. Your secrets are curious to me,” said the Emperor. “But I am more curious about the Divide and the Frontier. The reasons for billions of deaths. You may not have seen it yourself, but you could know. I want to understand why Bartle destroyed so many people to reach his goal, why he later attacked the Direktorium.”
“I think you should look for the answers to those questions in historical records, not in my head, general.”
“Jericho people usually don’t talk at all. It makes it hard to understand the reasons behind your viewpoint. I interrogated several followers of Bartle back in 4612. The only piece of information I managed to pry out of them was that Bartle is still alive.”
“After the neural network was destroyed, it was decided to hide Bartle for a while. I am quite surprised that your torture managed to break my brothers enough for them to reveal such a highly guarded secret.”
“There was no torture. There was no time for it, even. Your brothers were so eager to come up with elaborate insults during interrogation that they unwittingly implied this fact, and then literally just said it out loud, independent of each other. But I just want to understand how Jericho sees the world.”
“I will not give up this knowledge for free. In return, you will tell me how you escaped Earth while it was besieged.”
“It’s a very simple story. Shortly before the siege, I arrived on Earth with half of the fleet under my control on personal orders from the Emperor. When the siege began, the Legion and Warden fleets fought the Biomorphs furiously. In the first month alone, we burned about a million of their ships. When it became clear that the situation was extremely dangerous, the Emperor summoned me to the palace. He told me to go to the sector where my fleet was stationed. He ordered me to prepare for the coming war with those responsible for the attack on Alien territory and provided me with a Jarl to get out of the Solar System. My implants were compatible with it. The Biomorphs detected the lone stealthy interceptor, but weren’t able to attack in time.”
“Alright, I will tell you about Bartle, the Signal, the Divide and Jericho. It all started with the Frontier. Young Bartle was collecting transmitters for it. It was such an important space exploration project at the time that its communication systems just had to be able to connect to the nearby star systems. To test the transmitters, it was decided to try and establish connection to old machinery in those systems, which was usually impossible because of the Signal. But Bartle managed to connect to the Spectre-RL radio telescope sent to Proxima Centauri before the Signal appeared. It turned out that the Signal remained homogenous even at such great distances. A year later, Bartle secured a modern radio telescope for his work. Compiling the new information with the Spectre-RL data, he created the best measuring instrument in the whole galaxy.
By taking pictures of pulsars and black holes, he discovered a pattern. Bartle saw the first messages from the Precursors in the Signal’s modulations. The same year he planned to publish an article on his findings, the fall of the Frontier happened. The prophet survived only by a miracle. Despite the chaos on Earth, Bartle worked incredibly hard to decipher the Signal. He discovered what later became the Divide Philosophy: the Signal is a promise to elevate those civilizations that will agree to peacefully co-exist with the Precursors. But this also presented a seed of doubt in the Signal, since there was no trace of other higher civilizations in the galaxy.
Seeing the chaos on Earth, Bartle realized that the situation can be used as an opportunity to elevate humanity to the peak of new technology. He created the Church of the Divide to unite and lead those who believe in the Signal. At the time, the prophet still didn’t know many important truths and often acted on his intuition. It was impossible to study the Signal further without the Frontier. Impossible to understand each facet of its meaning. Forging a path to outer space was the main goal of the Divide. And as for the history of the Religious wars, I think you know it better than me.”
“I do,” said Ironside. “But I never understood why Bartle pressured the Direktorium to issue the Divide Decree.”
“You’re saying that the prophet did that? Nonsense!” the Oracle replied.
“It just seems suspicious to me that this mysterious man tried to build ark ships even before the Decree was issued. This ambitious project of his was rejected time after time. But then… just after the Direktorium overpowered the Divide, he suddenly managed to convince the Direktors to build his precious arks, which now were prisons,” said the Emperor.
The Oracle showed no emotion in response; his implants made not a single hiccup. He fully believed in his messiah.
“You better ask Bartle himself about this, Ironside. Though I doubt he will grant you an audience. As for the Divide’s path to Jericho, it’s a tale of great suffering. We lost most of our people in the first century. Our numbers kept dropping until we managed to establish our first proper colonies, Jericho-1, Jericho-2 and Jericho-3. Our civilization inherited the name of the most ancient and famed city of Earth. And our attack on Direktorium was an act of revenge. People who had lost millions of relatives to human error on Earth wanted revenge on those who they felt had made them suffer. It is no great secret that the attack on the peaceful fleet of the Direktorium was not an order from Bartle, and further escalation of the conflict happened very quickly. After the First War for Bartle sector began, we could no longer coexist peacefully with the Direktorium.”
The Emperor was pleased with what he heard.
“Thank you for your tale, Oracle,” he said. “I believe we will have more fruitful talks in the future. It’s just a pity that you’re insane.”
“Indeed,” the Jericho man laughed. He proceeded to look at the photo report on the ships being built at the Ironside’s shipyards.
New offers in the in-game store!
Attention, pilots! Our in-game store has some exciting new offers for you! New equipment packs, unique tuning items and parts for your ships are already available. Take a look at what we have for you!
New pack are available at the store today:
- Reactor packages bundle at a discount of 30%
- “Archelon” components bundle at a discount of 20%
- “Zhen” components bundle at a discount of 20%
- “Yellow-green metallic” paints bundle at a discount of 20%
We will be regularly providing you with new offers, trying out different combinations of contents and prices. Stay tuned so you don’t miss out on exclusive and temporary offers that can significantly strengthen your fleet!
Sincerely,
Star Conflict team
Experience bonuses!
Pilots, the holidays begin! Time to prepare your fleet for new victories!
Weekend special offer:
- +50% experience in battle
- x2 experience transfer rate
Boost your fleet! Let's win together!
Sincerely,
Star Conflict Team
Unique discounts on ships!
Pilots! The following packs will be withdrawn from sale from July 12! In the future, these packs can no longer be purchased. The ships from the packs will be available to pilots for galactic standards in the future. Stay tuned!
- Star Conflict: Loki
- Star Conflict: Grim
- Star Conflict: Palom
- Star Conflict: Cutter
- Star Conflict: Sawtooth
- Star Conflict: Razor
- Star Conflict: Raven
- Star Conflict: Bear
- Star Conflict: Dragonfly
Sincerely,
Star Conflict Team
Summer DLC Sale!
Attention, pilots! UMC announces the start of a grand Summer Sale in Star Conflict!
Until July 11 15-00 UTC, you can purchase DLC at a 50% discount! Unique bonuses and ships are waiting for you today, hurry!
You can purchase DLC in our store.
Sincerely,
Star Conflict Team
Special pack “Special license “Unknown horizons”
Pilots! Special pack “Special license “Unknown horizons” has become available in the official project store. The license is valid until the end of the “Unknown horizons” event on July 22.
This pack includes:
- Doubled amount of xenochips obtained from tasks (until the license expires);
- 50% bonus to experience for 30 battles;
- 50% bonus to credits for 30 battles.
50% off the ‘Thar'Ga’ starter pack!
Pilots! Time to improve your fleet strength! A representative of the Empire at the UMC reported that a new transport convoy from the domestic worlds had arrived in the fringe sectors.
Only today, June 26, we offer a 50% discount on the Thar'Ga starter pack! The pack can be purchased both in the in-game store, and directly in the Ellydium ship tree.
Thar'ga became one of Ellydium's main breakthroughs. Experiments have shown that the growth of crystals can be controlled, resulting in more than a hundred different modifications of the ship, for the individual needs of the pilots. Such a dangerous and powerful technology, coupled with the advanced developments of the Ellydium corporation, makes Thar'ga one of the most terrible weapons of war, that the corporation inherited at the terrible price of the tragedy in the RG7 block of the ‘Ellydium Theta’ station.
The special offer is valid for a limited time and will end on June 27!
Sincerely,
Star Conflict Team
Madman’s tales. Part 2. Gods
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“A few millions years ago, the creatures that we call Precursors began ruling our galaxy. These godlike entities have been bending the world to their will for centuries. They’re the ones who created iridium, the Signal, Bions, and Crystallids. Back when Bartle deciphered the Signal on Earth, it was a call from the Precursors to come find them. But it had been an old meaning of the Signal.
They travelled and created uninterrupted until they came across those who did not fit into their concept of the world. Murderers of life, creatures of nightmares. And the most frightening thing about them was that they knew a way to destroy not only the technology, but the Precursors themselves, despite the fact that they had been invincible to most weapons. Several of the immortal rulers of the galaxy were killed. And then… The Signal morphed into a dying scream. It was corrupted. The blasphemous monsters were defeated, but the Precursors learned a bitter truth: the galaxy was doomed to plunge into an endless war. Then they destroyed almost all of their creations and left the Milky Way. But according to Bartle’s prophecy, one day they will come back to once again shine the crimson light of their power across the galaxy.
Crystallids and Bions no longer serve the Precursors, and the stars are being plagued by the war between them. Humans were also dragged into this conflict because of the Revenants’ mistakes. The traitors of the Jericho brought around the Invasion when the Sleeper chose the path of egoism. But at the same time, she is the sign that the power of the Precursors is not completely gone. I don’t know why the Sleeper was able to see the things that Bartle himself would probably be blind to. How did she manage to look at the world through the eyes of the gods and survive?
However, many of what has been said might not be important right now. Bions have reached a great level of control over the galaxy, and they take interest in humans, unlike Crystallids. They see your people as potential eternal slaves. Listen, descendant of the nameless General, it is still in your power to try and prevent the enslavement of humanity. There may even be a way to escape Bions.”
After saying that, the Oracle fell silent. His face, burdened with centuries of living, was no longer looking hostile; there was a hint of faint hope in his eyes. He no longer believed in miracles, having witnessed every war for the Bartle sector. But a miracle happened nonetheless.
“It’s unexpected that you’re asking for help,” said the general. “Propose a plan and I may consider it, but only if you will share some of the secrets of the Jericho ship building with me.”
“I am an oracle, not an engineer. But I know some things that may prove useful to your technicians. The humanity is in danger right now, and Jericho struggles to fulfill its objectives. However, there is a way to make the Bartle sector more stable and reduce the numbers of Crystallids travelling to your sectors from there. There is a pocket dimension Techs’ stash that has powerful weapons but no energy. If you fix its generators and transport it to our plane, its automated weaponry may be controlled by the Sentinels.”
“An interesting offer,” said the Emperor. “Give me assurances that my men will not be harmed by the weapons, and the codes to access the stash. You will be issued a terminal to contact me. This is all the time I have for you today.”
Having said that, Ironside turned the recording off and left the room, heading to his office. Several minutes later, the ministers of defense and finance requested a meeting with him. The Emperor opened the door and opened the galaxy map.
“Greetings,” he said dryly. “Before I listen to your reports, I want to present two projects that may help improve our reputation and financial situation.”
The Emperor pointed to the Damned Flotilla and continued:
“This region is dangerous and unstable, but rich with iridium. Moreover, there are still billions of Imperial citizens living there, suffering. We could act as part of a humanitarian initiative and gather those willing to work at our factories and research laboratories or join our fleet. In fact, we have enough forces to provide defense to convoys. The New Empire will be opposed to this, but they won’t confront us directly. We would be able to uphold the semblance of order in the region using the abandoned legion bases by stationing a few of our forces there, accompanied by units of local residents, who are highly motivated to improve the situation in the region.”
The defense minister frowned and said:
“But we would be leaving many of our systems with no proper defense. And if we don’t involve many squadrons, then with the Crystallid threat to the east and south of the Damned Flotilla, we will easily lose control of the situation as our forces would be too scattered.”
The finance minister added:
“This project will require quite a lot of funds all at once. However, yes, it will bear fruit. I think in a couple of years, if successful, we could increase the revenue to the treasury by several percents. However, I still don’t see how we can defend at least our transport ships in the region if we don’t have multiple squadrons involved.”
Ironside smiled and said: “Then my order is to prepare a humanitarian convoy, two reconnaissance squadrons, and one attack squadron. One ‘Drake’ is to be placed in reserve, however, I hope that parading at least one cruiser in the sector will not be necessary.”
When the ruler finished speaking, the defense minister asked the Emperor: “Your Highness, the special operation forces commander has reported that you were interrogating someone from Jericho. Does that have anything to do with this plan?”
Ironside frowned and replied: “If he provides any useful information, you’ll be the first to know. But for bad or for good, the Jericho man is insane. I will try to get anything useful out of him to make our fleet stronger. As for you, minister, try to avoid asking pointless questions in the future.”
Spaceball Time
Golden Sci Arena has hosted more than a hundred incendiary competitions in everyone's favourite spaceball. Seeing the amazing success of the games, the big businesses coming to the sports industry and the interest of spectators in spaceball, Sci Tech Universal decided to organize the third spaceball tournament! Anyone can show their spaceball skills in front of thousands of spectators. The company’s top managers together with their scientists have developed a unique award that can be installed on your ship! The true title of the legendary spaceballer and eternal glory! This is what awaits those who win this trophy! It’s all in your hands!
The open Spaceball tournament
The fifth open Spaceball tournament will take place from June 25 to July 15. All pilots who participated in the tournament will appear on the leaderboard.
- All pilots who take places from 1 to 10 in the leaderboard will get 500 monocrystals, 1000 GS, unique decor “Spaceballer Trophy 2024” and unique portrait “Hector Arnoldinho”.
- All pilots who take places from 11 to 24 in the leaderboard will get 1000 GS, unique decor “Spaceball trophy 2024” and unique portrait “Hector Arnoldinho”.
- All pilots who take places from 25 to 40 in the leaderboard will get 500 GS, unique decor “Spaceballer Trophy 2024” and unique portrait “Hector Arnoldinho”.
Brawl schedule changes
You can take part in brawls for a limited time:
- 21:00-22:00 UTC
- 01:00-02:00 UTC
- 09:00-10:00 UTC
- 15:00-16:00 UTC
- 17:00-18:00 UTC
- 19:00-20:00 UTC
Brawl modes change every day:
- Beetle in the anthill — available on Mondays
- Survival — starts on Tuesdays
- Last man standing — starts on Wednesdays
- Combat recon — available on Thursdays
- Beacon capture — starts on Fridays
- Spaceball — available on Saturdays and Sundays
You can start the brawl with a special button in the ”Battle” interface.
Elite ship packs in one bundle!
Pilots! You have a unique chance to purchase a set of elite ship packs at a great discount. The bundle includes:
- Star Conflict: Blood Tormentor. Deluxe edition
- Star Conflict: Phoenix. Deluxe Edition
- Star Conflict: Albireo. Deluxe edition
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/42673/
The bundle will be available for a limited time until July 1. If you previously purchased one of the ships of the series, then its cost will be taken into account when buying the bundle.
Sincerely,
Star Conflict Team