Desperation

The One Year War for Sersa Prime was one of the bloodiest outer world conflicts seen since the Bravossien Massacre. It was likely there that first established racial tension between the human and nelri races of that era, and, as Sersa Prime was primarily a home to millions of human colonists, it gave the Alliance their ideal starting point to spread hatred against the nelri and their Empire’s move for independence.

The truth of it was that the Alliance had used their own civilians as a shield to mask their more deplorable secret research operations beneath the cities of Khan, Shenobel and Peragon. Knowing that the Phoenix Empire would strike at them first after knowing this, the Alliance quickly turned their cities into tragic battlegrounds. Khan was quickly reduced to rubble after Alliance marines had seized a nelri warship from orbit and, soon after, plunged it into the city’s core reactor plants. Shenobel’s environment was devastated by air toxins that brought about shadow mutations in its civilian populace, and Peragon was used as an extensive ground campaign for favourable media conversing to instill greater support for the Alliance's proclamation of war against those who posed a threat to the planets that were still loyal to their, thought noble, leadership and protection.

In many ways, the Alliance won because of this grand deception. The city of Peragon was still densely populated by its surviving citizens, and the lies that were fed to them from their own government had instilled them with great anxiety towards nelri soldiers trying to seize the area.

Though they tried to quell the desperate situation without risking civilian lives, the nelri forces, still searching the city for the underground research facilities, were targeted by rioting mobs. And it got worse. The Alliance further escalated the conflict by sending military supplies and weapons to the civilians, under the pretence of having them rise up and defend their homes from the ‘evil alien invaders’.

The nelri left on the planet had little choice. They gave the Alliance their racial war.

Peragon’s urban warfare spoke terrible stories of civilians torturing captive nelri. Kaelyn was one of these captives. But by the time she was discovered by Lt Nicholai’s scouting party, Kaelyn was found unconscious, alone, and amongst the ruins of a former pharmacy. Nicholai later reported that if it wasn’t for her self-treatment to stop blood loss from a wound she had sustained, before being located and rescued by them, she may never have survived long enough to receive proper medical attention. She was found fortunate in that case.

Further medical analysis, however, told of a grimmer story beyond her physical wounds.

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The story arc behind this one is roughly after the Bravossien Massacre, during when the Phoenix Empire had declared independence from the Old Alliance, because of said atrocity. This did not bode well for them, however, as it sparked a racial war that saw many nelri souls, still under the watchful eye of the Alliance government, suffer a lack of civil rights and acts of prejudicial cruelty. The battles that took place on Sersa Prime would ultimately bring this into practice. But to say the least, this is the start of a series of events that leads the crew of the ANS - Ralysses on a journey to seek out the truth of what really orchestrated the Bravossien Massacre.

As for the illustration portrayed here? The scene is before Lt Nicholai’s party found Kaelyn, unconscious. The lighting in the clouds above her head is from the Alliance still battling the Phoenix Empire’s forces in Sersa Prime’s orbit, while she's desperately looking up at a sign that may help her find medical aid... which she eventually gets.

Anyhoo, that's all the details for now.

Artwork//Kaelyn//Nelri//Lore - © Kristopher P. Love