Wylde Carrd, Saviour? The Dominion were one of the first and certainly the most prolific colonisers of the Coreward Arm, taking advantage of the legacy of the HarCop League of Traders. HarCop had been peacefully exploring and establishing colonies throughout the region of space for some decades. The lack of aggressive aliens of a contemporary level of technology meant that beyond a few disgruntled former ship captains turned pirate there was no holding the HarCop League back. This allowed expansion to happen without the need for navies and vast standing armies. Absence of constraint proved the downfall of the League. In their rush to colonise, investment became overstretched and when the colonies failed or simply refused to repay what they owed (often with high rates of interest) the result was an economic collapse beyond compare taking with it the HarCop League. Into this economic vacuum the Dominion was quick to monopolise entire star systems for considerable time before the stragglers and general riffraff of the rest of the Peripheries turned up. As opportunities started to dry up their attention turned to the Orion Spur.

Unlike the recovering economy of the Coreward Arm they found the civilisation of the star system Monument to be stable, advanced and mature but curiously again without attributable defences. Oddly, the people of Monument were almost too quick to welcome Dominion presence and even pushed for others to establish trading and defensive positions on their world. The reason proved to be quite sinister. They did indeed have something of an armada, they were quite proud of it, it was however missing in action out beyond Stars End.

The government’s evasion on the topic proved frustrating to say the least. Public opinion was that the shipbuilding facilities were relocated due to the extreme distance to an ongoing conflict but the lack of reports and even shipping from the front had not gone unnoticed.

The recent arrival of the former head of HarCop in the Orion Spur galvanised Wylde Carrd, Overlord of the Dominion into renewing pressure on the government to reveal the truth.

When they did, this proved worse than could have been imagined – meklan!

Everybody has heard of meklan, cyberized sentients that can take over an entire world if they get a foothold. Thankfully though they are prevented from doing so due to their lack of space faring capability. It appeared that they have evolved, throwing off their dependence on the TCA and miscreant factions looking to stir trouble. The meklan do not evolve so how did this happen after so many centuries?

The former head of HarCop was tracked down and questioned at length. The answer was Baron LiQuan!

Somehow, he managed to prevent the meklanisation process from completely subsuming him into the group mind of the meklan and even impose his will over them. While it is presumed that he died on the assault on the Stellar Empire, the old rascal’s legacy lives on.

When presented with this new information the government of Herrixal in Monument finally came clean. They discovered the meklan beyond a wormhole in a region of space with a few semi-advanced species but didn’t know the meklan for what they were. The meklan had already conquered one small world and were in the process of building ships. While the option was suggested to leave the region of space to their fate, retreat through the wormhole and nuke it from the other side the decision was taken to try to counter the threat to stop it spreading. To this end, efforts were indeed made to relocate ship building facilities beyond the wormhole and things were going well until the wormhole unexpectedly closed – that was about seven years ago – coincidently the same time that Baron LiQuan was killed.

Nothing had been heard since. Secrecy was imposed while the continued story of a strong armada expected to return anytime soon was rolled out time and again if only to keep visitors in check.

Having obtained the location of the wormhole the Dominion investigated and discovered it was open but unguarded. The other side contained debris of a huge naval battle. Probing the system found a world cloaked in radioactive fog.

Being the Dominion, the decision was taken to return and nuke the wormhole closed (‘it’s the only way to be sure’). It failed; the wormhole was anchored. Worse, the attempt alerted the meklan and a few ships arrived on the Orion Spur side. These proved far superior to anything that the Domion had encountered but thankfully few. At that point realising what was potentially at stake the Domion made the decision to attempt to do what the people of Orion Spur failed, not just contain the meklan threat but eliminate it. To this end all Dominion assets that could be, were quietly liquidated. Advanced technologies were relocated and the entire shipping capability of the Dominion was given one task, form an armada of troops, modules, technologies and ordnance. Curiously, like the former armada sent in half a decade ago, the wormhole closed shortly after the Dominion forces completed the crossing. This is of course the official version and like all official versions is full of holes. Was Wylde Carrd really in the dark about this threat until the return of the former HarCop CEO – highly doubtful. What of the rumour that the former head of HarCop was none other than Baron Vehrenberg according to Cromwell? How long had he been lurking in the Peripheries? How many of these meklan ships have come through the wormhole? How many meklan could possibly fit in an augmented 400 hull ship? Isn’t it odd that House LiQuan has recently been re-established – purely coincidence? It is well known than Emperor Lysander was engaged to Laura Vehrenberg before Isabella Secudus became Empress. How is it that the Empress has suddenly gone missing? Why didn’t Wilde Carrd reach out to the rest of the Peripheries if the threat was so real? That at least is answerable – no faction (except maybe the DTR) could be trusted not to try and turn the situation to their advantage. Has Wylde Carrd ever been known to be a benevolent saviour? If not, what is the bastard really up to?