ΜΙΣΘΙΟΣ / MISTHIOS

Our tale begins long before the fall of Caliban and the battle of Vega II. There was a time when the Vanduul were only whispers in the stellar wind and nothing more than the rumor of a galactic boogieman to those seeking to grasp distant stars. In those times, explorers dominated the far reaches of space, their nav computers and jump sensors hungry for the next big find.

That day came with the discovery of a temporal jump point to the Virgil system and the presence of a habitable world with three resource rich moons in Virgil I. After confirmation by UEE expeditionary Carracks, the Empire was quick to fund the creation of a permanent jump gate to the system. A selection of colony ships to survey and establish a foothold on this new planet was launched once the proto-gate was deemed stable.

In those years we named the colony Argos, both in honor of our history and the journey it took to find Virgil – we believed that Argos would rise to the success and wealth of the mythical city state of its namesake.

We were wrong.

Just ten years after Argos was established the first raid came. The shapes of their hulls were dark runes branded over the light of Virgil’s only star. The perimeter outpost fell in minutes, the com array beaming a message of desperation before forever falling silent. Our broadcast was a plea for help and support to the UEE standby fleet in the Oberon system at the other end of the jump gate.

Just weeks later their fleet fell upon us. With only a single UEE patrol Javelin and two Idris frigates leading our resistance, the early days of the struggle were brutal. The Vanduul launched their attack with overwhelming force and the first battle was lost. In the hopes of buying some time, the UEEN Crowshaw led a heroic charge into the center of the enemy fleet, taking down an untold number of our assailants before falling, giving the Javelin and surviving Idris a chance to retreat further towards Virgil I and the Argos colony.

The Vanduul continued their advance towards us at a lightning pace. With no time to evacuate the colony, countless maser communication drones were sent through the jump gate desperately seeking help from the greater UEEN fleet. Heralds and Pisces were dispatched to carry messages by hand, but none ever returned.

The Oberon gate was silent.

Though our limping destroyer still held the line! With dwindling supplies, and the Vanduul blockading us from escaping to the Oberon gate, the front was augmented by merchant vessels, miners, and civilian ships – all retrofitted for combat. In the space above Virgil I, weaponized Hull Ds and Caterpillars glowing with unstable quantanium collided into Vanduul capital ships, erupting into radiant spheres leaving nothing behind.

Molten steel rained from the skies above the colony as fighters danced through the air exchanging fire. Mining vessels held their ground against advancing warships with industrial lasers and satchel charges. We threw everything we could at them, and if it wasn’t designed for warfare we adapted it.

Little more than a week into the conflict most of Argos had been razed to the ground. Exhausted colonists with handheld cutters stood over the last Vanduul harvester that made landfall. The second Idris was lost and the UEEN Morning Star smoldered, resting on a mountainside east of the colony. The burning hull of the destroyer towered into the sky as a testament of a hard fought battle against impossible odds. It was only then that the Vanduul retreated, but we knew they would return.

Following the devastation we lost hope that relief would ever come from Oberon. Using what few resources were left, we survivors repaired the UEEN Morning Star and escaped Virgil I into space. Argos was left a shell of abandoned, crumbling buildings destined to be eroded by time. We returned to the Oberon jump gate only to find it gone, quietly disassembled from the other side for reasons we would only years later learn.

With limited supplies rationed to barely sustenance levels we drifted through space, nomads who would confront and escape countless skirmishes against Vanduul scouting sorties. Three long years later we finally chanced upon a temporal jump point and escaped to the lawless space of Nyx.

There we discovered the truth.

Our messages and pleas had indeed reached the Empire. We discovered postings and edited images of our bloody war circulating on UEE political channels, spreading fear of the Vanduul threat, being used to manipulate support from lobbyists and interest groups. We learned of the colonization failures in the Oberon system, the Empire pulling out of the claim and along with them the Navy. Not a word was said about Argos or the atrocities that occurred there.

The Empire abandoned us.

We were expendable and political fodder. They left us to die because doing so served the Empire’s greater narrative. It was then we were truly born. With steady hands, we cut away the serial numbers and UEEN identifiers from all our surviving craft. No longer would the Empire be the pantheon that decided our fate. We would control our own destiny, be our own rulers.

Our children and grandchildren would know the truth.

It didn’t take long to find others who’d also been abandoned by the UEE. In the shadows of unclaimed space we grew. The markings that once identified us as vassals of the Empire were now replaced by the emblem of the Gorgon’s Gaze – for us a symbol of solidarity and independence.

In the recesses of the Empire we forged anew, through private communications our name became known :

MISTHIOS

We are the laborers that were abandoned by the Empire. We are the union where every member is as familiar with the grip of an industrial cutter as they are with the sights of a gun. We choose our own contracts founded on the trust and honor that the Empire abandoned. Our values are not based upon the whimsical needs of politicians or mandated by an Imperator that dangles from the puppet strings of self-interest groups.

Our code is rooted in the adopted principles of ancient Pallas Athena :

• Discern truth from lies.
  Know brothers from foes.
  Intelligence through observation.

• Protect those that contribute to the commons’ prosperity.
  Operate with independence.
  Know and control our supply chain.

• Fight ferociously, whether with an mining laser or a military fighter.
  Engage the opposition on our own terms.
  Plan with caution, strike with speed.

Our message to the Empire? We survived and will prosper. Our welfare will be decided on our own terms and our own rule. Our prosperity will be shared by all that ally themselves with us, earn our trust, and share our code.

The Empire may have abandoned you, but we will not.