ALWAYS OPEN [IC] Halo - Empty Throne: Doisac Sphere

[Apothecary Bruce]

On December 12th, 2559, the UNSC Infinity disappeared. They had been sent to stop Cortana, leader of the Created, from using Zeta Halo for her own nefarious purposes. As many would later discover, the UNSC was not the only force who had come to Zeta Halo with that goal.
The Banished, who had thrived under Cortana's iron yet loose regime, had sent an invasion force. After contact, no signal was sent from the Infinity. All probes and scouts, from all sides, who went to the Ephu system - Zeta Halo's prior location - found the installation, and the fleets attacking it, had suddenly vanished. Only trace wreckage from the Infinity, Banished warships, and a Forerunner Guardian construct, remained.

For the UNSC, they had lost the Master Chief, and their strongest warship. Both were symbols of humanity's strength and resolve, the hero who had saved them, and the flagship emblematic of their post-war successes, an era which was now undoubtably over.
For the Banished, they had lost not only Atriox, but Escharum too. With the other senior leaders of the Banished trapped at the Ark, the nascent empire had been left without a central commander, but while the cracks could be seen visibly forming, the Banished were more than content feasting upon a ripe galaxy.

Whatever happened at Zeta Halo, it had been the end of Cortana. Her Created empire immediately fractured, breaking down into warlord states as AI carved out what they could of the galaxy, using what Forerunner assets remained active and available to them.
With the fall of the Created, came the return of interstellar travel. The galaxy was open once more - for better, or for worse.

It is January 12th, 2560, and all throughout the galaxy now see the future is uncertain. While some cower from uncertainty, the bold see it as an opportunity - and the prize would be total dominion over all civilizations remaining.

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Regions of the Galaxy:
Human Inner Colonies and Sol (UNSC/Created)
Human Outer Colonies (URF/Banished/Created)
Doisac Sphere (Banished)
Eastern Covenant Sphere (Banished/Covenant Remnants/Swords of Sanghelios)
Sanghelios Sphere (Swords of Sanghelios/Covenant Remnants/Banished)
Western Covenant Sphere (Covenant Remnants/Swords of Sanghelios/Banished)
​

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What is the Doisac Sphere?

In the 1900s, the jiralhane master-packs achieved spaceflight, in primitive shuttles not unlike humanity's first space-capable vessels. Following much the same path, enhanced and sped up by scarce Forerunner relics present on their homeworld, the jiralhanae began their empire. This 'high skein', as they were called, spread out among their local space, ignoring the easier and longer slipspace routes in favor of forcing probes and survey ships in all directions.

Following the probes were colony ships, and with those, came a variety of kingdoms, with each major and master pack claiming territory and worlds in their name. It was an uneasy peace between them all, mostly stopped due to the rarity of warships in those days. But as soon as the jiralhanae could field such fighting vessels in sufficient quantities, war began. In 2289, the First Immolation began, a war across all jiralhanae space, equally devastating all worlds, though Dosiac itself, the homeworld, endured the most damage. Each sector, or beyliks as they were called, were burned down, destroyed in the fires of misguided politics and tribal hatred.

If not for the work of the jiralhanae dervishes, all would have been lost. They, in an event rare for their species, forsook politics and tribalism, and focused on preserving technological knowledge, their culture, all they could.
In 2492, the Covenant found the six hundred worlds of the jiralhanae. They were broken, scattered, each at a different level of stability and disrepair, and only a scarce few had spaceflight capabilities. On many of these planets, the Covenant was met with resistance, but by the 2510s, following the maps scavenged from ruined Skein records, the jiralhanae colonies were all accounted for and subjugated, including the homeworld, Doisac, and its unruly moons.

With the help of the Covenant, the jiralhanae were included as a client species, all swearing their fealty to the Writ of Union and the Great Journey. The rebuilding of their space commenced shortly thereafter, yet in 2530, this effort was ramped up by the recently appointed High Prophet of Truth. While Truth justified the rebuilding of the Doisac Sphere with the need for more soldiers and upholding the moral duty the Covenant held for all its client species, Truth merely wanted the jiralhanae to reach a level of population and industry that he might supplant the sangheili with them later on.

That master plan was executed in 2552, at the end of the war with humanity. The Great Schism would tear the Covenant apart, dooming the majority of the jiralhanae and the sangheili to a long race war. Yet in the end, it would not be a skein or a prophet who would end up controlling the Doisac Sphere - it would be a Brute.

A jiralhanae war chieftain without compare. Atriox, leader of the Banished.

With the skeins weakened and without the guidance of the Covenant, Atriox took control of the reins of his species, bringing the majority of its strength under his command. By the end of Cortana's reign, he had united many of the packs and clans under his rule, reforming them into legions and fiefdoms. He converted his realm of barbarians, into an empire which would carve its name across the galaxy, from the furthest edge of human space to the farthest corners of the former Covenant domains.

At the heart of the sphere is Doisac itself, ruined, destroyed by Cortana's Forerunner Guardian constructs. As punishment for refusing to bow to her wishes, Cortana destroyed Doisac in November of 2559. By December, Atriox claimed his revenge, though in the process leaving his empire behind.

Without a leader, the Banished have remarkably remained intact. They still follow the will of Atriox, a founding desire which all dokabs, legion-masters and chieftains follow with fervor.



The Doisac Sphere was the site of the first jiralhanae empire, and now comprises the core worlds of the Banished.

 

[Apothecary Bruce]

@rissa

Onboard his assigned Drekar ship, Enzo watched the planet of Elek'aahna emerge in the holographic view-screens. While it was meant to help the kig-yar shipmistress guide the vessel, the display was large enough for onlookers to enjoy as well. "Jhan-Eh-Sear-Ee," she tried pronouncing. "Our ship reaches port. Grab things. Good work done with you. May we work together again, eh?" the shipmistress, T'ela-Ul, commented. Kig-yar often did not lie, though perhaps these sorts of clandestine transport jobs paid her better than the usual fare.

Her ship had been Enzo's home for the past two months. Under the nose of Cortana's forces, the Drekar slipped into Earth's orbit, dropping Enzo and a squad of jiralhanae to raid what they believed to be a Forerunner relic site, near the city of New Mombasa in Africa.
While the portal to the Ark was under heavy guard by the Created, there was another site, not too far, that already contained several devices recovered by ONI xenomaterials specialists.

Enzo and his twenty temporary pack-mates were able to blast their way through the surprisingly light Created defenses there, but as they entered the compound, he and his teammates realized they weren't the only forces coming to raid the facility.
Two UNSC Pelican dropships came in, guns blazing, cutting down two of his teammates instantly. Marines and two of his Spartan-IV brothers got off the lift, ready for battle. While they were likely surprised to be fighting Banished in the facility instead of Prometheans, the UNSC forces were far from easy prey. Another three of his pack-mates were lost as the Banished raced to be first inside the facility, Asper fighting first Created digital locks, then the original ONI code, while they tried to fight off the encroaching marines and the pair of Spartans.

If it were just one Spartan, Enzo might've taken his chances, but there were two of them, and each had fresh GEN3 MJOLNIR. From that alone, Enzo knew this wasn't part of the Earth resistance movement, but that these troops were from the rest of the slowly re-coalescing UNSC in the Inner Colonies, or even a team based onboard the UNSC Infinity, though it seemed unlikely that the military would risk their flagship at Sol.

Regardless, the bounty of the ONI site ended up being split. While the UNSC made away with the prize Enzo was looking for, a Guardian IFF tag, Enzo was able to recover, for the Banished, two other devices. One was a small block of a strange Forerunner material, continuously pinging, and a synthesizer for hardlight ammunition.

It wasn't the bounty Legion-Master Graadius, of the Legion of the Sundered Star, was expecting, but it was far from nothing. So far, Asper had only been able to determine the pinging brick wasn't a bomb, but it did seem to be pinging a location deep inside the galaxy, far beyond the edge of the Orion Arm.
Ultimately, Asper figured Graadius, their current sponsor inside this more tumultuous time for the Banished, would wish to do what he wanted with the block. The ammo synthesizer would at least buy Graadius' forgiveness, and despite how the Brute may despise it, the fact was he needed Enzo just as much as Enzo needed him. A Spartan was a legendary force multiplier, and Graadius couldn't afford that loss.


The Drekar, The Sailor's Gift, looked like a small building in comparison to the urban metroplex that was the shipyard of Elek'hanna. Built from the remnants of an ancient jiralhanae empire space station, combined with the nearby Covenant civilian shipyard, the Berths of Broken Teash could not be growing faster. Already, it had been doubled in size, and had quadrupled since the first time he was brought here, during...initiation.

Enzo found himself enter the hangar bay, with his supplies slung over his shoulder. He could immediately report to Graadius...or, he could look around, refamiliarize himself with the station, do as he pleased. Ultimately, in a few hours he would have to report to the Legion-Master and receive his next assignment, but the choice was his.