Work Text:
Excerpt (summarised) from ‘Histories of the Glorious Empire’ By Jonathon Kaulitzer, Imperial historian.
“Following the final victory of the Mistress against the United Republics of Mobius (URM), control of Mobius was total. A victory parade was conducted in their former capital, also serving to commemorate fifty years since the Mistress awoke.
It was then the attack came. Splitting vast holes in the fabric of reality, the legions of the enemy attacked. Clad in heavy armour and wielding energy glaives they stormed into the parade. The slaughter of the civilians both watching and taking part in the parade was total. However the forces crashed against the parading brute regiment like the sea against a cliff. As the streets ran with gore and oil the Psychic legions were able to turn the tide of battle and force the enemy back.
As they crossed the barrier they found themselves in another Mobius. Between crackling towers a rent in the fabric of reality had been opened and legions of troops were poised to push through. In the confined melee of the crossing space the Brutes and Harlequins of the Mistress’s legions were able to inflict horrific casualties on the armies of the enemy.
Battle raged for two hours before the enemy destroyed their own machines, cutting off many brave members of the Psychic cohorts.
Survivors from the enemy’s forces were rounded up for interrogation. They were indistinguishable from Mobius of this place, both physically and mentally, but had a different history. From careful examination by our most skilled interrogators and cross referencing to detailed records of history it was found that the streams diverged recently. Their Mobius had never been found by the Overlanders. The lack of conflict explained the absence of firearms in their forces. Further probing revealed the cause of the invasion.
The presence of so many psychics in so small an area had acted like a beacon across the dimensions. The vile sorcerer Ixis Naugus, driven mad by the mental noise of the psychics, manipulated King Maximillian to fund the construction of an arcane construction to tear open the veil between dimensions. With promises of an entire world of fresh resources all of the armies of Mobius were arrayed to make the attack.
The defeat of the King’s armies by the forces of the Mistress caused shockwaves through the subjects of the other Mobius. Fermenting republican cells burst open and civil war wracked the planet.
As this occurred the Mistress’s scientists had not been idle. Using the advanced technology honed on the anvil of war, and the monstrous power of a million psychic legionnaires, the spoor of the dimensional crossing was sniffed out and wrenched open.
The vengeful armies of the Mistress poured forth from the tear. The shattered armies of the
King could not withstand the iron tide of Tanks and Brutes. Within months the planet was subjugated. The King was removed and replaced with his daughter, acting as a puppet. In order to cement her control the Mistress ordered the founding of a psychic school and the removal of all mages. To stay the wrath of the Mistress, tribute in the form of slaves and raw materials poured back through the rent. It was then that the Mistress made her great declaration.
‘We have been attacked once. It is the logical conclusion that we will be attacked again. Therefore we will use the same tactics that have served us in our war. We will infiltrate, divide and destroy our enemies pre-emptively. We will never submit to quiet defeat while I still live.’”