[Weekend Event] Antagonistic Acquaintances

A sudden shockwave has been felt across Omicron Zeta. The source pinpointed to the dark side of planet Palmyra. Shortly after a salvage mission was sent from Kadesh Orbital Colony, scanners indicated that a massive structure Phoenix had been working on over past months is no more than little pieces of glittering infinite hull panels, wire and microcircuits. Although the salvage team started the work to find accident survivors, they remained in the range of new phenomena. Soon after reports of an unstable, and rapidly decaying wormhole formed directly in the location of a new debris field adjacent to Palmyra's asteroid belt. The first brave pioneers entering the wormhole discovered this new portal leading to Inverness, a significant distance away from the Omicrons. As the knowledge of the new found connection spread between the two regions, a recon mission was sent to explore the anomaly.

To the surprise of many civilians, the Core and the Order began to amass in different areas of Inverness. Both organisations seem to have their own agendas but to what ends nobody knows. Regardless, the build up of fleet in the system did not deter explorers and private pilots of freighter class ships from exploiting this new shortcut to the edge worlds. However, due to the heavy spatial distortion emanating from the wormhole, only small vessels are able to breach the event horizon, leaving most of the opportunities for swift strike missions or for recon purposes.

In an even stranger turn of events adding to the chaos, people across Inverness began to feel somewhat unwell. Symptoms reported include feeling heavy or frustrated for no apparent reason, and more people inflicted as time passes. Fights began breaking out in the bars of Freeport 14, with similar incidents noted on Invergordon space port as well. Medic bays soon found themselves flooded with patients with mental issues and physical injuries. Despite something clearly wrong is happening in the system and endless theories running wild, there are no significant signs that the groups currently present in Inverness are intending to back down. It was a matter of time before these groups inevitably clashed.

Military Analyst reporting for the Colony new services suggested Phoenix has created this in response to their disastrous encounter with Auxesia in Omicron Zeta. The wormhole is to establish an intelligence lookout and form a small recon detachment on Freeport 14 to collect further information about this group.

In the meantime, Order and Core under pressed in the influx of Nomad, Wild and Auxesia activity in the Omicrons, decided to call a temporary truce, and utilise this opportunity to rapidly deploy their forces, and open up a battle on the second front to levitate the pressure in the remote edge worlds. This subsequently brings the fight to Auxesia and another hive door step.

Spoiler

Further backstory in detail for the individual factions, and not well known by public -
Phoenix, is the secret instigator of this anomaly, formed by a prototype jump generator, and developed in haste as part of another wider rescue mission they are preparing. With the generator partly powered by siphoning energy from Phoenix corefleet, unfortunately they were unable to control the surge of raw energy that had followed. The generator formed a tear in space as expected but soon exploded reaching critical, creating a subsequent shockwave felt by all in the system.
The inception of the project was initially to simply gather data on the wormhole, but soon equally also saw an opportunity to use it and extend a helping hand in the final reassembly of Freeport 14 and help with the defences and utilise the short distance to source FloraGro from California to kick start their plans of having a functioning Biodome on Kadesh Orbital Colony.

The Nomads was the first entity that became aware of the wormhole almost immediately after its formation. Initially they paid no interest due to the rate of decay. However, as huge amounts of metal husks begin to emerge from the wormhole, this has caused significant alarm to the hive.
Fearing for the worse and avoiding a repeat of past assault (link to Spear of Anubis event), the lair began to emit a psionic wave - a new energy exhausting defensive mechanism to disrupt cognitive process, causing all humanoids in the system to be unable to think clearly. The side effect also causes all humanoids with increased tendency to be more aggressive than normal. The Wilde station in Delta, recognising their fellow allies in distress, has also dispatched ships to assist.

The Order, after debriefing their recon agents on the spatial anomaly, immediately set on coordinating with their local cell in Inverness to prepare for a rapid deployment and full scale assault. They had a long standing intelligence on a nomad hive nearby, but never had the full capacity nor the sustained fire power to eradicate this infestation other than keeping them at bay.
This opportunity allows what is normally impossible to become feasible, but equally soon finds their operations disrupted by their rivals, with the Core and Auxesia unintendedly hindering their efforts to a speedy resolution.

The Core’s arrival to Inverness on the other hand, isn’t actually focused on Order or the Nomads. In fact, their real target is Auxesia. Long wanting to punish them for their ultimate betrayal, and now with the traitors now within arm’s reach, the Core decides to utilise this chance unleashes their all fury onto the splinter group.
Their aim is to eradicate all trans-human they come across during this period, and send a clear warning to any potential turncoats to either obey the military dictatorship, or die. They are also not afraid to eliminate any passers-by holding them up or blocking their path during their quest to see the Citadel burn.

Auxesia by chance, discovered the wormhole after encountering one of the few pioneers through one of their returning patrols to Valravn. Knowing what this will bring, wasted no time immediately shoring up defences, recalling all their forces, and procuring any arms large or small they could find in preparation to engage any belligerents that they will shortly come to face. Whilst the group finding themselves on the defensive front, they are not afraid to put up and punish the Core every inch of space violated. They are eager to prove they are ready for any invaders and send them home humiliated.
Despite being augmented by Cybernetic upgrade, they were not fully immune to the Nomad's psionic wave imposed on the system. Becoming paranoid under upcoming siege, they became concerned the Order’s focus will also quickly turn to on them should Hive falls. Their top priority is to disrupt all operations in the system, and ride out the storm by waiting for the wormhole to collapse.