The occult war

One year ago members of the insidious Black Cults succeeded in detonating atomic devices hidden in the catacombs of the Imperial Capital city. The detonation caused one third of the city to collapse, structures a mile in height crumbled through the under city leaving gaping chasms snaking from the pit of destruction half a mile deep. Districts of the city that did not collapse burned so fiercely in the atomic fire that the stone itself threatened to dissolve.

In one morning the Emperor, the head of the Imperial government and all it's offices of state were eradicated. One billion Alpha city inhabitants were exterminated and several thousand square miles of blasted wastes now lie as a dark shrine to their fatality.

By noon the day of the attack, house Crowmantia broadcast declarations of war upon the ruling Imperial house and unleashed their army of sedition: the Black Praetorians.

Of the five remaining Alpha cities on the northern continent of Helot Prime, the three centrally located were identified as targets for aggression by the westward located house Crowmantia. The cities were immediately ordered evacuated by the remains of the Imperial leadership, the two eastern cities now playing host to the refugees stretching their resources and infrastructure to breaking point.

The abandoned cities are now fortified strong points in defence lines stretching hundreds of miles across the border provinces. Pasture lands that fed the teeming Alpha cities are now nightmare battlegrounds under constant shelling and laced with razor wire.

Atomic fallout from the initial attack and the subsequent conflict now pollutes the planets atmosphere, daylight has become a rarity and the land exists in dull twilight. Weather patterns have become corrupted and electrical storms now batter the northern continent. Civilians take shelter from the toxic rains in the depths of the surviving Alpha cities, now fast becoming dens of dystopia and nightmares. Animal life has been extinguished in the wilds by the desolation, surviving species now regarded as rare commodities and are reared in the cities as fellow refugees.

The Imperial leadership fractured, it now exists in a delicate power balance: Imperial Commanders for now swearing allegiance to the highest ranking survivors of the house Imperial. Underlying noble houses also, for now, hold allegiance with the house Imperial, however with every day of continued war the houses sense the Empires distress and identify their own avenues for ascendency to House Imperial status.

Off world aid has yet to make planet fall yet already whispers of mutiny and power struggles amongst the Redemption Sector echo through the Alpha Cities, and all out total war threatens to destroy the Empire and engulf the stars.

The ancient Imperial government has been eradicated. The vast edifices of magnificence, millennia old monuments revered throughout space such as the Palace Triumphant, Port Maximus, the Gardens of Reclusion and the Court of Power smashed from existence in one fell swoop. The destruction of an organisation in existence for thousands of years, once thought impossible, has highlighted the depths to which complacency was allowed to take hold.

With the destruction of Bela Mostich the chief alpha city, the Empire finds itself shattered with it's general and commanders teetering on the brink of infighting in a mad scramble for power. The loss of the entire Imperial court, the countless departments of its administrations and the figureheads and chief operating officers of the Army, Navy, Aeronautics and Ethereonautics has left the Empire virtually incapable of functioning.

Only the survival of Vamalia, daughter of the Emperor holds the Empire in form. The young Empress now battles to maintain the cohesion and operation of the Empires forces, with the crucial Ethereonautics poised to become the first branch felled from operation and allegiance.

Operating from Bela Kashvrack, Vamalia holds sway to a collage of surviving officials in a makeshift court in the Halls of Glory. Form here, the Empire directs it's ground forces in the defence of the westward Alpha cities and the border provinces who's absence of food production is already impacting the Empires efficiency. In the east, the navy holds sway over the oceans and ensures the sea's provide sustenance for hungry Imperial bellies.

The makeshift Imperial Court operates as a daily panic stricken rabble, consisting of emmissaries from the Techno Communion, the Grandescheans, the Legal Council, Commerce agencies, Ministry of Industry, Planetary Trading Companies, Knights of the Red Mail and the Priesthood of Tzar: the overbearing power behind the house Imperial with operatives in all facets of the Empire.

Directing the Imperial armies are the Imperial Commanders and Field Marshals, leading Redcoat militia forces in the defence of the Alpha cities and Borderer platoons within the trench fields of the border provinces.

Far to the south in polar command, the imperial forces there face insurrection from traitors and renegade mercenaries intent on capturing the orbital controls and communications channels. Conscripts from the Desert and Jungles belts are also proving difficult for the Empire to muster as off world raids and attacks begin to probe the planets defences.

The Priesthood of Tzar finds the zeal of it's citizens magnified in the climate of war. Despite the religion holding sway in all forms of Imperial life and being enforced by law through the ages, the shock experienced by the Empire has amplified the fanatics and now parades of penance twist through the alpha city streets, enticing the downtrodden refugees to enlist in the slowly forming crusade armies of paupers and mad men.