Punished for Ignorance

Summary

This is the story of the brave souls of the hops who defended everything they could. Hoppist allies in the Teribay (TER-eh-BEY) galactic cluster, which no longer exists. It was later discovered it was a trap, where Imperial forces predicted this galactic cluster would be approached by the hops, and explored as part of the First Great Hop Expansion.

History

Sop ordered a large portion of his fleets to the cluster after numerous Tier 4 officers suggested that the resource-heavy space would be an ideal location to ensure stayed in allied control.

Numerous GSA forces occupied the space, believing it would be a weak spot that would prove critical to lose during the war. A sudden attack on the outer galaxies known as Teribay occurred on the morning of an unnamed planet in the Ferre-Rey star system, marking the start of the battles. Within the span of 1 microrbit, several fleets, occupied worlds and regions of space were lost and had no contact with their military. Several allies appeared at the GSA's side, but were swiftly defeated, and fled for their own safety, believing that it was not worth the risk given how brutal the Hoppist forces were being defeated across the stars.

After the battles, Sop and Hop returned to Karrots, frustrated about the defeat of most of their forces. Years later, Hop swore all surviving Hoppists that were involved, enlisted or not, would be granted retirement and all the benefits of their rank, with greater rewards depending on their situation. After the Hop Civil War, Hop visited all homes of each known veteran, or their families in their absence.

The battle gained its named later, being originally called "The Great Loss at Teribay" by most of the universe.

Remnants of the Fallen

Below is written versions of the chatter, communication, footage and dialogue of GSA forces and their allies over the course of a battle that took one microrbit. These are transcribed from remaining devices that survived the destruction of the cluster. All named hops in service have their names carved into the Temple of Sop on Karrots.

Hopficer Gannd and the original 1033rd: Wanderers of the Blue Sunrise (Utter Defeat, No Survivors)

Gannd: Get someone on that Berry-turret! Direct fire at the weak point of that hull!

Unidentified Hopling: Engaging aim!

A gear sound is heard, thudding into place, then rapid fire is heard

Hopling: Contact heavy! Hull damage is confirmed, continue to fire on target?

Gannd: Negative, target its underbelly auto-turrets! Give us cover, we're going to retreat to the bunker, you follow us after they're destroyed or they overrun you! Stay on comms until its done. Pinging you in t-40!

Hopling: Suppressing!!!

Several volleys of rapid gunfire return, the hopling screams in fear, the Hopficer begins to speak on his radio.

Gannd: Begin outgoing! All Ferre-Rey units, please respond! This is Hopficer Gannd of the 1033rd, we need spatial, aerial and ground forces! Its the Empire! Standby...

A booming thud is heard, the light from the sky darkens as if clouds scatter across the horizon, Gannd gasps and growls before speaking again.

A nearby planetoid with our fleet was just taken out with a super weapon, but it went coreward of the galaxy, repeat something powerful is coming this way! Standby... Pinging all my hoplings! Return to the bunker, now! End outgoing!

Operator Hjisk-syn II: This is Hopficer Hjisk of the capital carrier Resolute Authority, I'm in contact with Sop's Knights, do you need urgent help?

The sound of gunfire from the hoplings turret stops, Gannd is heard screaming at his soldiers, peaking the mic, before returning with fear in his voice.

Gannd: It's too late, get help to the coreward worlds! Tell Sop we believe in him! Come find us after you win this! Pinging-!

His voice is cut off as the transmission becomes static. A deep rumbling can be heard, the sound of several hoppist weapons is heard before a single thud silences them. A slow humming sound is heard, followed by familiar footsteps of a weighted heavy infantry soldier racking his firearm.

Operator: Repeat that. You want to be abandoned, correct?

Several seconds pass, as a brief background mumble is heard, a foreign language is heard, then sounds of the radio being fumbled with is heard, a whisper from the unidentified hopling from before wishes peace for his squad.

Hopling: You sons of bitches killed my captain! You'll pay with your lives before Gop! Feel our wrath, even in your victory!

A roar is heard from the unidentified hopling, who is heard igniting his GloLite and charging before an explosion cuts of the radio on Gannd's uniform, which is later found by Knight of Sop Vivar'ya, after the galactic cluster was mostly destroyed. The device withstood numerous burns, a crack on its housing and the earpiece was missing. It was cleaned and placed in a display beside the names of the original 1033rd's monument.

E N D

L O G

Senior Hopficer Iigaosa and the original 4111th: Beep and Boop (Utter Defeat)

Taken from the surviving camera feed of the bridge of the capital ship "Our Worship in a Warship" and its fleet, begin heading toward an exoplanet under Imperial attack. This world exists near its galaxy's core. Senior Hopficer Iigaosa (considered the head admiral of his vessel) is seen walking to a terminal and begins an intercom transmission that is being broadcast to nearby fleets.

Iigaosa: Approaching the super weapon. Visual appear very small, perhaps no larger than a single pilot starship. Our guess is the muzzle is small for accuracy and penetrating power, as it cut the surface of that world instantly. Intel states that world was made of solid metal, assuming yingsho (hopspeak for the element mercury).

The planet above the star should not be solid, but its unique properties keep the polar caps along its equator in that condition. This planet was not yet named and supposed to be investigated before the war began. Hopficer IIgaosa turns to sit down, carrying the microphone, and leans forward in his command seat. He switches it off, turning to his present crew and shouts, as one of his frontmost ships is cut by the superweapon's laser as it glimpses across outer space. From the distance, it near-instantly warped near the fleet, and began to stare down the soldiers.

Iigaosa: Evade! Everyone face the nearest terrestial entity and take cover behind it, sublight thrusters to maximum output, thermal condensers to minimal operation, we'll air it out once we're in atmosphere, but do not land! Turrets! Face that things at all times! Do not lose sight of it! If you do, tell me!

Crewmate Bebs-ginna: Understood, pushing it to the limit!

As they accelerate, their companioning ships in front of them are instantly bisected and soon explode. Suddenly, a person-like figure appears in directly in front of the bridge as they are turning, covered in shadow due to eclipsing the former exoplanet's fading star.

Iigaosa: Unknown contact! I authorize full deadly force! Let him have it!

Briefly, the ship's gunfire engulfs the being, but it raises its hand and absorbs the energy and kinetic projectiles, stares at the bridge, then quickly zips into the star's core, as its light quickly dims, appearing to be sucked into one spot. A visible Imperial ship appears out of a warp jump in front of the nose of the ship, crashing into it, the crew attempts to steer upward, and eventually, it breaks free, the enemy ship jumps away toward the dying starlight ahead.

Iigaosa: The fuck was that!? Everyone disperse, get back to Karrots! Report and record all of this to Sop. Directly upload to the Network. Something unlike anything we've seen is out there right now, tearing apart stars, planets and eating our weapons like it's fuel.

Crewmate: Starting encoding, transmitting to satellite, it will launch in t-10! Open broadcast, too?

Iigaosa: No pings, encrypt it. It stays dark and retreats until the signal and data is safe with someone else. For now, we push on and find a world that needs our help. Half the galaxies in this cluster have gone dark, in a literal sense. We need to hope everyone nearby knows this place is under attack. Disable all weapons, I can see now they won't help us. Did anyone get image of that thing? It looked familiar.

Crewmate: No sir... Their ship is gone... Along with that star. I see no trace... Good news! Satellite just launched, its heading toward Karrots, approaching the Electric Eye Ennebious, which appears to be safe. No contact near it for the next 100 lightyears.

Iigaosa: Great. Someone will at least have an idea of what we're up against. We can't let this fight go without something back home. Push onward to that planet. We need to prevent another starfall, to each and every world until help arrives. If we flee now, they'll begin to think we're easy to defeat. Even if we are, we need to make them work for it.

Crew: Yes sir!

Footage continues as they enter the atmosphere of the arid exoplanet, now suffering without light from the core, as its surface blackens and becomes ashy. A thud is head from the bridge, alarms blare loudly, crew appears frozen in fear, staring at their monitors.

Iigaosa: I need a situation evaluation! Someone report! This planet is about to die and its not even named.

Crewmate: Sir, down below! Its that being. Its staring at the ground. What do we do?

Iigaosa: Wait. Do not fire, we can't even hurt it.

Crewmate: Are we going to perish, sir?

Iigaosa: Not without a fight. But not with weapons. Put me on loudspeaker, open the canopy... Project my on the deck of the hull, facing... whatever it is.

Iigaosa marches to the glass of the bridge, as its metal plate slides back, he stares at the entity with barely an arm's length between them. It appears to be dressing itself in clothing, not armor or a uniform. Suddenly it begins to glow and emit an aura, similar to Hop and Sop's power. The speaker enables, the crew stares at their screens, observing the being. The fleet behind the capital ship slowly moves into formation, pointing in several directions, preparing for emergency jump.

Iigaosa: Attention. We mean to inform you that you are trespassing on a Hoppist world. I understand if you do not know this but, you must depart, you are harming this planet and we are at war.

The being turns toward the ship's projection of Iigaosa, as one of the frigates starts to leave the atmosphere at sublight speed, the eyes of the being glance at it, before returning to the bridge. Iigaosa turns the speaker off.

Iigaosa: Did anybody say to move?! Stay in formation! We jump at my orders.

Crewmate: But sir, do you believe he will listen to us?

Iigaosa: Shut up, I'm buying time. We have no idea what it can do. I'm starting to think that is the weapon. Not a construct, but a being.

Iigaosa the speaker enables again. The ships halt in the air, still.

Iigaosa: Please, identify yourself in any tongue, I assure you we have a translator somewhere aboard. If you need a ride home, we can do so for you. If you are aligned with the Imperials, I am sorry to inform you that we have no choice but to capture you and take you as a prisoner. What is your response?

Staring at the bridge, walking toward the ship, its aura and the planet's skies becoming dimmer. The ship's floodlights come on, and the crew appears to be more nervous, one covering his face with his ears and praying quietly.

Entity: In the name of my Empress, this Empire, and myself, you tell me.

Iigaosa: I am Senior Hopficer Iigaosa, admiral of this vessel, and you know hopspeak. Tell us, friend, do you know Sop?

The entity's face turns into a grimace, as its skin is covered in a black substance and its aura greatly increases, to the point the ships are pushed back and their glass shatters.

Iigaosa: Fuck! He didn't like that! Disperse in all directions, now!

The entity is seen on the exterior cams of the capital ship dashing at immense speed, and upon just touching the frigates, they explode and their crew are sent flying all over the planet's surface. Iigaosa and his crew are blown into millions of pieces, but the camera of the ship stores the recordings into its Hoppist Network drive, and uploads them to all its remaining satellite. The recording metadata indicates it was transferred to the satellite and successfully fired itself away from the planet. It was recovered during the rescue attempts of the GSA and their allies after the defeat of all forces. All members of this fleet are missing. The exoplanet is currently destroyed, only several continent-like fragments remain, one of which held theshattered bridge. Its parts were recycled into a plaque for the crew at the Temple of Sop on Karrots.

E N D

L O G

Hopling First Class Bacharoo "Baroo" from Unknown Division (Uncertain Fate)

A standard battle camera on Hopling Baroo's body is activated, shortly after he appears to have been sent flying into the air, landing on the hood of an unknown frigate that guarded a capital ship, appearing crashed on the shore of the planet New Shian, of the Hooginshy Galaxy. of the Teribay cluster, due to the color of its sky, a result of its red star and warm nitrogen rich atmosphere,

Baroo: Oof, where's my gun? Hello?

Spinning in a circle, Baroo grabs a GloLite from the hood a short distance away, looking at it, he decides to pocket it. He then picks up his rifle that broke off his sling, lying a short distance from the start of the recording, he wanders around and finds Knight armor broken in several parts lying all around him in the debris. The footage shows a wing of the ship he was on protected him when he was dislodged from the hull of the ship he was in.

Baroo: Oh no... Knights? Team? It's Baroo. Does anyone read me? Guys?

It must be noted that Baroo must have snuck aboard the ship he was on, as there are no records of a Hopling First Class infantry with any Knights of Sop on that world. His loadout suggests he was part of an explosive detail team, likely a sabotage support role, but his weapon is not standard issue for his job code. He adjusts his uniform, approaching the edge of the ship, overlooking the plains of the world, mostly ablaze and covered in debris. He activates his radio.

Baroo: This is Hopling Baroo, atop the uh, I forgot. I'm on the corner of the storage and barracks wing, next to a turret, it looks really damaged. Does anyone know what happened?

Radio static is heard, a standard error dial is heard along the radio, indicating there is no Hoppist Network signal in range. It means the comms beacon on the ships are all damaged, jammed or deactivated by their bridge crew. Baroo sits still and checks his weapon's function, shooting at random debris to test his aim. Clouds pass overhead for an indeterminate amount of time until the recording abruptly stops. It begins again, as Baroo is wandering the plains, a small group of hop crew is armed with small arms, and trying to use a severed comms unit from the ship they stand under, but it shows no power on its terminal or antenna.

Baroo: Hello! This is Hopling Baroo! Do you guys need help? I'm lost.

The crew instantly stares at him, his walk crawls to a stop and they raise their weapons at him and begin firing on his position, hitting his shoulder and arm, he crawls under a frigate's chassis plate, and drags a smaller piece to his side to act as a shield.

Baroo: Oh, damn it! Cease fire! Friendly! I'm on your side! Stop or I will return fire! Blue, blue!

Crewmate: Identify yourself! Come out with your arms on the ground, and your paws on your head.

Baroo appears confused, as he peeks out slightly to stare at a glass piece, the reflection of the crew slowly marching toward his position, as he sinks back behind cover, shadowy fleshy figures appear on the horizon, over the edge of the frigate they were on, and out from the ground. He gets on his radio and changes frequency to emergency ping mode, with a momentary delay, and tosses it deep into the debris, and slowly digs his way under the piece detached plate he used for a shield as a cover for the hole he dug, he unlocks the safety on his rifle, pointing at a small gap.

Baroo: Come and get me, you cursed traitors.

Several footsteps are heard approaching his radio's location, his radio pings loudly, the comms terminal is heard distantly responding to his radio, but eventually a thud is heard and all sounds cease, and a single set of footsteps is heard walking back out the debris into the field, then again becomes several steps, Baroo then digs deeper once the sound is gone and his footage goes dark. The next recording starts with the camera on top of the debris, overlooking the area he just fled from and the comms tower, only one hop crewmate stands in the shot, no others are seen. It is noted there is no shadow cast from the crewmate, and Baroo could not see this before as he was approaching uphill when the last recording started. Baroo is heard walking down the frigate's exterior. A short time passes before a thrown radio begins to emergency ping again, the terminal and crewmate instantly dematerialize and a shadow figure engulfs the radio, then dashes to where it was thrown from. Baroo again used a plate from the debris to cover the hole he dug in the ground. The shadow looks around making a stomping noise, then lifts all lightweight debris with a metaphysical power, including the hole cover, it then dashes into the hole. Baroo already has made his way to the camera again, turning it off as the figure appears to stand on the top of the adjacent frigate bridge, staring in another direction.

Baroo: Alright, let's hope that was caught on this thing.

Baroo has now placed the cam back into his uniform and stops the recording. The next recording begins with him walking far away in empty plains, the sunlight appears dim, as if he's walked across the hemisphere, or the planet's day has passed. He is mumbling about the recording, recapping the camera's footage. He pulls out the Knight of Sop's GloLite and it carves a large burn into the ground, marking the direction he came from, then he turns it off, as a ship passes in the sky overhead. The exhaust sound indicates it is a Star Racer 100 Type-M, at a high speed. Baroo looks up and points the camera toward it, it passes into the clouds as several unknown combatant ships make chase, Baroo takes a slow aim and fires at one, destroying upon contact. A single ship leaves formation and heads toward his general area, but he also destroys it. The fleeing Type-M flies toward Baroo and is now burning. The pilot ejects and the ship causes an enemy to fly into it, destroying it too.

Baroo: Holy crap! Down here! I can help you!

Pilot: Hello! I'm falling!

Baroo: I'll catch you!

The pilot lands farther than Baroo could sprint and hits the ground, and enemy ships appear from the clouds, all forces seem to have lost sight of the Baroo and the pilot. Baroo approaches the pilot with his weapon drawn. The pilot is unharmed and sits up, staring at Baroo with his helmet broken.

Baroo: I'm Hopling Baroo. I forgot what ship I'm from. Who are you?

Pilot: Hopficer Pilot Nimoda-Fink. I call myself Affy.

Baroo: My name is actually Bacharoo, Hopling First Class, oops I mean, Hopling Class I, keep forgetting that. I call myself Baroo.

Affy: Cool. Where are you going?

Baroo: I don't know. Where were you going?

Affy: I was escaping them. I didn't know where I was going. There's no signals anywhere.

Baroo: Wow, crazy. I noticed that, too.

Affy: Is that a GloLite? Are you a Knight? As a Hopling?

The two continue a conversation standard for information exchange, Affy expresses confusion as to why Baroo does not recall his division or job code, or how he came to hold the GloLite. They take a moment to look around, no enemies in sight, Baroo starts the conversation again and pulls out his battle cam.

Baroo: I saw something weird. Check this out.

Affy: Hm? Intel?

The recording stops and they review the footage Baroo captured, he starts a recording again, both standing under a ridge in the field they were in. Affy has taken his helmet off and his uniform is clearly ripped, he is seen trying to stitch it together with a piece of metal from his helmet.

Affy: Yeah, that's been happening everywhere. So, are we losing?

Baroo: I dunno, I've never fought before.

Affy: We should find someone in charge. I'm the higher rank so I say we go toward the sunset. The debris area is strange and dangerous. I think there's imposters in there.

Baroo: They are sus. Anyway, don't you need a weapon?

Affy: Mine was in the ship, it's probably broken now. Do you have anything to spare?

Baroo: I lost my radio doing that camera stunt. I only have my explosive plates, rifle and GloLite with my kit. My pistol is missing.

Affy: Oh. I don't know how to use a rifle. Give me your GloLite. I've seen these get used before.

Baroo: Sure, here you go.

They walk along the plains until the sun sets, eventually reaching a valley that leads to an Imperial Base on the planet. Baroo takes his camera and zooms in with 300x magnification, seeing in infrared vision for better night visibility. Down the path, in a valley, several hops are being dragged in electric cages into an enemy ship meant to function as a container that attaches to an Imperial fleet carrier.

Affy: We can't help them. That's a losing battle for us.

Baroo: What if we get more help?

Affy: We should go back and find a ship and get off this world. If we make it out, we can come back with a new fleet. Considering how bad we lost, we need over triple the forces to make this an even fight. I wish all my ground troops shot as good as you. My division is entirely wiped out.

Baroo: Me too. So, are they captured forever?

Affy: I hope not. Sop and his son were supposed to be here to help. I think they have their paws full.

Baroo: I think everyone has that problem... Which way, sir?

The pair eventually make it to a part of the planet with sunlight. As they walk, the camera storage appears to fill up at this point. The camera was discovered on an abandoned uniform, likely Baroo's. The planet was captured by the GSA shortly after the conflict ended. Neither Affy or Baroo were found. It is believed they fled and never found their way back. They have both been declared missing in action, and have received merits for their work in collecting the footage and supporting each other in their absence. Hop has pardoned them of their crime of going AWOL (if that is what they have done), and they are to be retired as soon as they are found, and given all their benefits upfront and keep their kits, weapons and trophies of war. The official record used to note that they likely have crossed into the Graveyard of Giants, but a "Baroo" and "Affy" have logged into a terminal of the SSRW very far in the S-direction as late at the Hop Civil War during the Battle of Tuirqo.

E N D

L O G

The 809th, "Glory to the Stars" (Utter Defeat)

A camera on the squadron leader's starship cockpit activates. Hopficer M'skou the Third flies his team out of the hangar of their frigate "By the Sunrise on Moon of Karrots" and gets into piloting position. Note his canopy camera is not standard equipment, it is likely the squadron captain habitually recorded his flights to make accurate reports. He and his squad are exiting a hangar of a carrier, defending a frigate with its heavy shields deployed, signaling it needs urgent help. An enemy fleet is gathered across from it. As the rest of his squad is launched into space, M'skou checks his camera is on, then activates his comms.

M'skou: Standby, all deploying wings! This is Lick Leader. Now, report in!

Lick One: First mate standing by!

Lick Two: Second mate standing by!

Lick Three: And rear cover standing by!

A few more report in, but as they do, the enemy flagship deploys additional squadrons, hovering between them and the frigate, their own flagship and the planet that is guards. They stop dead in space, hovering in a loose formation outside their ship. M'Skou continues.

M'skou: Our goal right now is to take out each turret on the enemy flagship, they are trying to destroy our bridge, comms, and exhaust. If all else fails, do not let them past our heavy shield line! All covers, I command a deflection until they are destroyed or retreat.

Hopficer M'Skou glances out his cockpit glass, making eye contact with the pilots on his right.

M'skou: Lick One and Two, follow me in formation 2, we're going to bomb those front most cannons. Covers, if you clear their counters, start formation 5 on me. From there we're gonna take out each window on that damn thing, deprive them of air and get them desperate. We repeat this for each ship in that fleet. Our job is to knock them on their hinds until help arrives! Start curving the frigate, then move in formation toward their primary ship. Stay muted until we get shot at or begin our strafe run. Cease standby!

Once in range, the Hoppist frigate turns their tractor beams onto the squadron, causing their ship controls lock up. M'skou performs an emergency restart, and gains controls back, and deploys a countermeasure which destroy the tractor beam. He re-activates his comms.

M'skou: What was that?! We are on your side!

He darts off toward the edge of the shield, attempting to falsely fly at the bridge, but swings hard to the turrets, who begin firing upon him and his squad. His ship takes damage from behind as the enemy forces begins a rapid descent onto the frigate, circling the squad.

M'skou: Where's my cover?! I need immediate deflection! Restart your ships! Let's start with destroying this thing, it's bait! Repeat, reboot and redirect-

As he speaks, his ship suddenly jerks to the side as an enemy vehicle rams into him, clipping his wing, but his speed increases, and his flies at a hard corner angle around the bottom of the frigate, shooting its under belly turrets in self-defense. As he passes back the way he came, he sees most of his squad is destroyed or fleeing, with varying degrees of success. Frustrated, his speech becomes stutters, and he charges full speed into a turn, beginning a second run.

Lick One: I think Seven and Nine are still here! They are doing great, but we need to get back to the 809th Frigate, sir! We're down to less than half! I have to save them, you know I'm a terrible shot!

Lick One flies near two pilots that ejected from their ships and they grab onto the wing. He begins to fly toward Lick Leader as the surviving pilots fend off the enemy squadron successfully.

M'skou: Gop curse them! All right, pull back, collect the fallen, we did what we could. Cancel all plans, get back to the hangar! Rear shields, full power and jump back to the hangar!

As they form up, the enemy ships appear to stop chasing them. Looking behind him, the reflects in his visor show the enemy flagship turns to directly face the 809th Frigate, and then makes a full speed hyperjump, instantly shattering the frigate. M'skou turns back to face the wreckage as the enemy flagship jumps back, facing the squadron.

M'skou: How?! Those cheap tactic bastards. Everyone scatter! If you can, make it to planetfall, or get to the nearest Hoppist controlled territory otherwise. I'm going back to the fleet on the outer rim to get help! Good luck!

As Lick Leader does so, an enemy squadron deploys from the flagship and flies toward them. He watches helplessly as Lick One barely ahead of him attempts a dodge and only manages to destroy one ship before another strikes him back, causing the other pilots hanging onto his wings to fly off. One slams against Lick Leader's canopy and is heard slapping it in desperation, and slides off of it. Lick Leader persists going forward, the enemy changing focus to him. He begins to dodge, as the enemy begins to ignore him and head toward his remaining forces.

M'skou: No! Do you best, repeat do not surrender! I'm getting my footage to the fleet, they need to see this tactic! If they don't, we're all doomed to meet this fate. I'll come back for you! Fight on!

Lick Two: Goodbye, sir! It's been an honor!

Footage ceases as Lick Leader makes a jump and it resumes once landing on an Electric Eye. Footage on cams stops during jumps to protect the sensor from FTL afterimage that would burn in a permanent afterimage into it. Once landing, his ship slumps on its side, as his landing gear and wing were ripped off before. He is seen crying on the nose of the ship before taking his pilot uniform off and a fellow Hopficer approaches him to console him. Following this, a counter-attack with a Hoppist fleet was sent back to the location, only to find that the enemy departed after destroying both Hoppist frigates and razing the world they guarded.

His camera was turned in by a peer and reviewed personally by Sop after the battle. A recovery effort was made shortly following these events, and all current frigates in the fleet have tactics and countermeasures for the hyperjump ramming that occurred in the skirmish. It was discovered Lick Two unofficially retired and was found providing travel services to hitchhikers. Lick Squadron mostly recovered. Senior Hopficer M'skou has returned, and continues to lead his original division. Their division was not retired due to several surviving members of the frigate and squadrons were recovered and reformed what was previously a very small division, into a larger, self-contained, fleet specializing in countering hyperjump maneuvers.

E N D

L O G

Unknown Frigate Footage [Designation #PfI-FFF-51] (Utter Defeat, Lone Survivor)

A sunlight-like shine from the sky cuts a camera of the bridge on a crashed frigate, which lay upside down on an asteroid belt, emits toward the surface. A second light shines brighter but briefly. Just as suddenly, star ships from both sides drift without power into each other and the rocks. Lights from the frigate go dark. The camera continues recording, as the ships generator withstood the blast, likely and EMP bomb. The lights remain off to conserve power for the engine, shield bridge and cams.

Unknown Crew: EMP! Systems are down! We're dead silent, and they are too!

Unknown Bridge Commander: This is our chance! Everyone get a field kit on, and march out there, kinetics only! We're gonna cripple them further and get our own ships back on! Let's roll!

A short time passes, as debris begins to cloud the nearby space, the crew dressed in the ground infantry gear, opens fire on the nearest Empire vessel, taking out several turrets, windows, and damaging armor plates. Once it flips on its side as it crashes into an asteroid several times its size, the ship cracks and splits apart, with many human bodies falling out, devoid of life, some even with gear on. It appears they were shooting a medical vessel that chose to commit a suicide attack and EMP the area, sacrificing themselves to distract the GSA. This is confirmed when a large group of enemy flagships swarm the asteroid field and open relentless fire and destroy everything, even their own convoys and the asteroids without ceasing, until each of the soldiers is violently flung off into space, and the frigate's bridge is deactivated from the body. A single crewmate that stayed on the bridge, commits the ship to distress mode, broadcasting a defeat warning, telling all allied forces to stay away.

The recording ends but a K'Ursan scavenger team that assisted in recovery decades later found the frigate and added its intact footage to the Hoppist Network after recovering the data. The crew mate was also a survivor, in a deep meditative state. But tormented due to his trauma, he could not recall his name, his division's number or name, or his job, other than to protect the footage. He was returned to Karrots shortly before Sop ascended, and Hop awarded him all his merits and benefits of his rank, which his uniform claimed he was a Hopling First Class. He is retired on Karrots and chooses to remain anonymous. He was interviewed and let his voice be transcribed into this log.

Hop: Hyenlo. Are you doing better?

Anon Crew: Yes, sir. I don't want to stay long.

Hop: Is okay. Hop's advisor team has some questions if you can answer them. They may be useful to any of our forces fighting on the enemy side of the Graveyard of Giants. Helping them win the Endless War is vital to making it not endless.

Anon: Okay, sir. Please ask. I can do my best.

Hop: Hehe... okay. First, what is your job on the frigate?

Anon: I only remember my last orders from... whoever was in charge I think.

Hop: Uh, okay... What were those orders?

Anon: Defend the cameras, store the footage, let no one that isn't part of the GSA near it.

Hop: Okay. Your uniform is very old, you know. Did you serve before this war?

Anon: I think so. My whole family has always served since the GSA was founded.

Hop: Does your dad know Sop?

Anon: I don't know if I have a dad. But I met him once, for my ceremony.

Hop: Wow, crazy. Anyway...

The interview concludes with Hop asking him questions about his service, and interests after he retires. Hop awards him a merit, in the form of special white ribbon with a medal on the front of it, that he can choose to wear or adorn his old uniform with. He asks Hop to destroy his uniform or give it away. Hop complies and ties the ribbon on the crewmate's neck, escorting him out the door as the recording ends.

E N D

L O G

Journal Entry of Unknown Hoppist of the original 2499th: Listing the Kills (Utter Defeat, Lone Survivor)

The journal has numerous entries and conversations recorded in it, however there is no image, only audio and text, to conserve storage. The brand of journal is one made by a K'Ursan Federation company, which may mean the Hoppist soldier in possession of this served alongside them at some point. The first two logs mentioned later are not found in this journal. They were either deleted or in another journal tape he owned. Due to this, he never introduces himself, and a third party device like this does not associate its owner with their rank. However a sticker from his division is on the back of the journal.

Hoppist Soldier: Personal journal entry... three? I think I had a dream about making one. It doesn't feel like a memory... Well, today's is about what's coming. Hoppist Network chatter claims nearly thousand divisions in the GSA are fallen. It's been barely half a microrbit. Thousands of star systems rimward are just, silent and they are requested help. Despite that, orders are to stand guard. I've cleaned my rifle twice and charged all my gear. I think about home allot... When we arrived at Crater's Peak, things looked hopeless... and despite that battle going nowhere, Sop lead us out safely, and that system was saved. Right after, we just went home. Like we were going to stay there forever. Then Sop ordered everyone to ready up, and we were to guard this far-out stupid galaxy. This whole cluster is worthless... No planets, no real allies, not even a place to have fun racing the ships. I really hope we're here for a little while longer, then we go home or get some action again. One more merit and I can retire... Maybe see that pretty waitress at the place by the house.

An alarm blares in the background, the journal entry ends as the soldier sounds like he's gearing up to fight, seeming to forget his journal was on for a couple of moments. Another recording starts, lots of rustling is heard, then a faint grunt.

Soldier: Oh shit, where's my gun? Hopficer! We got a breach in the hull!

The journal is shortly turned off after numerous grunts are heard. When the audio returns, a wind-like sound is heard, suggesting the Hoppist is on a planet, or the pressure in the ship is leaking out a fracture in the hull as mentioned before.

Distant Voice: You want to surrender. You wish to be safe, of course. You should come with us. Fighting is futile, we've learned all about your kind. Just accept your place in the Empire, you'll be safe as workers, soldiers, pets... under the Empress, don't you dare dream of a life other than this... It's what you should be fighting for instead... Now, then. You, little one. Deliver this message to the others.

The voice grows near, the Hoppist who owns the journal appears to be panting, crawling toward the journal in his kit.

Soldier: I'll never join you! Gop protects us from the misguided! Be not our enemy, and help us!

His pistol is drawn and heard charging up a power shot. The wind sound ceases, the audio becomes clearer now, and another soldier's voice is heard screaming from what sounds like underneath the voice and the journal's owner.

Soldier: Cease! I will shoot!

Voice: It will not to anything to me. Surrender that pathetic weapon and join us. You'll be taken to a utopia world with all you want.

Soldier: I only want to be with my people, and with the almighty himself. Fuck you!

The pistol is heard being moved and fired into something, the voice sighs and the wind returns again, only to briefly fade away. A set of footsteps approaches the area shortly after. The accent indicates this new person is from the same division as the journal's owner. His reaction indicates he saw the journal and the results of the previous interaction it had recorded.

New Hoppist Soldier: Oh lord, what have you done to yourself... No one deserves to have their fate end like this. I got you now, so don't worry because help is on the way. Oh? It's recording. Well, I'll leave it on for you in case you wake up. Won't be long.

The journal's storage is full, the sound of it and the body of the owner being dragged continues until it ends. A written addendum is footnoted at the end of the recording. It seems he intended to preserve a small amount of storage just for written logs. He appears to be writing in K'Ursan language. It has been translated below.

(Unknown date, please enter a date. Journal local time - Day 86.0% complete) "I think I made it. Whoever saw me shoot myself was able to wake me up. But it seems he's gone. Can't believe he used up the entire tape of my journal. He should have turned it off, I can't afford the high capacity drives for these stupid things. I've been dragged into a barracks, like the one on my ship, but I don't know this division's logo, it's painted everywhere around here. Never seen a place so empty though... Like they just built it, but its worn out, like... they took everything and went off to fight.

The fleshy that was floating in front of me, it was a vision, they weren't there. Like... I think someone calls them ghosts, I guess? Also can't understand how I didn't end up gone forever after shooting myself. Gun must have malfunctioned after charging that power shot for too long. I swear I cleaned that thing inside and out. I'll add more comments here in a minute, need to look around this ship first."

(Unknown date, please enter a date. Journal local time - Day 87.1% complete)

"Good news. Found some untouched ships in the hangar, but most are deployed. Looks like a squad was send out earlier. These guys are using the K'Ursan stuff, little StarWings. I think that waitress back home always wanted to drive one. If I get back, I'll use my benefits to give one to her. Maybe I can talk her into moving to a frontier world once this war is over. Gonna try to find a way to start this thing and open the hangar doors. Been awful quiet here. Like everyone's gone. I don't mind being lonely, but does that mean everyone fled, or were they taken away like I was about to be?"

(Unknown date, please enter a date. Journal local time - Day 388.2% complete)

"Been flying for a while. I forgot I was even writing in here. Little details. The ship is working, really well actually, like it was just inspected. I set it to auto pilot. Once I left the hangar, the outside was strange. There was this gas everywhere, and the carrier I was on was on, ground? I think? The ship just flew straight out and then went up and warped away. I think half the time I've been in here it was sub-lightspeed. I don't know how to read the navmap. I think this is a planet. Good news is, there's lots of pings from other ships around here. Must be 100's of others. But I can't work the ship's comms without a helmet, which I couldn't find 1. We'll see when we land. Sadly I think I may have to find a new journal tape. This drive has no more room. I hope I find an extra large one and can just copy this over to a new tape and continue."

(Unknown date, please enter a date. Journal local time - Day 1,455.9% complete. STORAGE NEARLY FULL, PLEASE INSERT NEW TAPE OR DELETE OLD NOTES)

"The ship just died out of nowhere, and that colored gas is gone, but I'm in space, just drifting around. I think the gravity of that place is too weak to pull me in. The pings are gone, too. I can survive in space, but where would I go? I wish I was home... I think that waitress will forget about me ever talking to her by the time I get back. She's probably found someone else by now."

(Unknown date, please enter a date. Journal local time - Day 3048.5% complete. STORAGE NEARLY FULL, PLEASE INSERT NEW TAPE OR DELETE OLD NOTES)

"I found scavengers! They're taking me in. I traded my ship, my kit and some info for them to take me to a Hoppist controlled planet. I think the battle is over. From the sound of it, we lost... I should forget about this life... a survivor won't earn any merits... Gop hasn't abandoned me, thankfully, or else I would have not been discovered. At least I have my journal and uniform. Someone can take me home after all this."

The journal recordings were likely been copied into a new tape, as no updates are present. The journal was found in the wreckage of a nearby battle. It may have been on the scavenger ship, before it was attacked or crashed. It was recovered by GSA forces that specialize in gathering data from lost battles. The surviving soldier was later identified as Hopling First Class Giepp-Minnost, who lived near Hop and Sop on Karrots, coincidentally. A post-war visit to his underground home revealed he made it back at some point. Hop left his kin a medal listing his merits, and an official statement of retirement and his benefits awarded for his service. Giepp need not return to the GSAA for any official closing of his account, which was already done by the GSA Records Bureau once his original division was re-assigned to new recruits under the new 2499th, now called "Riders of the Fallen Stars". His journal and its tape are in the Temple of Sop on Karrots, in a hall dedicated to those involved in the battle.

Senior Hopficer Chou-Magdada "Chama" and the 11,004th: We March Across the Stars! (Desperate Retreat, Lone Survivor)

The battle cam of Hopficer Chama, cuts on,as he stands inside a dropship with a small number of division. He and several of his men are in uniform, storming the hull of an enemy ship that guards a Hoppist planet under attack, its turrets are destroyed, mentioned later as intentionally destroyed by a fellow Senior Hopficer's bombing run.

Chama: Everyone flank right, their hangar door is closing once that last ship leaves! We have to get inside before it closes! Squad, radios set to my default combat channel, if you get blow away or lost, converge on their bridge! Do everything you can to take out leadership!

Soldiers: Aye, sir! Eeya!

After a battle chant, they march out the door toward the hangar on the side of the ship. Moments later, several human soldiers spew onto the exterior, emerging from an access panel near a turret. Armed for ground combat, the enemy begins walking and firing at the 11,004th.

Chama: Take cover!

Chama dashes and slides behind an uneven part of the hull for cover, turning his radio to a different channel.

Chama: Hopficer Terv, are your bombers still willing to assist our charge? Copy?

Terv: Copy! Yes, I saw you deploy, what needs to be taken care of now? Their turrets are still down.

Chama: Hangar-side turret with the bent barrel, there's a hoard of them taking long range fire on our position! Take them out, now! I need to get in that hangar door before they deploy their last fighter and close us off!

Terv: Copy. You heard him, Iron Paw! Rain on that hangar-side turret once more!

As the ships begin their descent, Chama stands to peek at the enemy and he turns his radio back to his combat channel.

Chama: Everyone, move! Do not stop running! Do not engage in a firefight! Until Iron Paw bombards them, I will cover you!

Swiftly, Terv's squadron begins to fly overhead, their bomb doors hang wide open, when suddenly the enemy ground forces begin to separate, and their ships exiting the hangar take action on Iron Paw squadron, diverting their attention. Chama and his soldiers, dashing to the edge of the ship, take a quick glance above as the enemy engages the bombers.

Terv: Everyone, adopt defensive formation! I'll handle the surface myself, just retreat!

As they run, ships from both sides are seen firing upon each other above them, debris and stray energy blasts striking the surface of the starship carrier's hull. Once the 11,004th reach the edge of the hull, Chama stares down at the hangar door, slowly letting its starfighters out in pairs, giving his team an opening to rappel inside.

Chama: Rappel now! As soon as we're in, we execute the plan! Remember to spare no enemy!

Rappels click onto the hull magnetically, a single human manages to shoot one of Chama's soldiers off the ledge, he begins being pulled by gravity to the planet below. The soldier is caught by his rappel and dangles in front the hangar, motionless. The bombers above them are quickly destroyed one by one as their bombs strike the surface of the hull. Half of the counter attack team remains to shoot at Chama's squad, as the hangar door slowly begins to close.

Chama: Shit! They failed! Jump in, now or never! I'll get Hopling Bebedosa, you all provide cover fire once we're inside this thing!

The soldiers rappel inside, Chama dodges hellfire and an ejecting ship leaving the hangar, using it for a moment to jump from and grab the rappel of his fallen soldier, unclipping him and landing feet first inside the hangar. His soldiers open fire on the crew and pilots, vaporizing them and clearing the hangar.

Chama: Good work. We don't know the layout of this place, so we have to just push in the general direction of the bridge until we find a terminal to hack. Otherwise intelligence will have to guide us from the radio. Formation two! In front of me!

The squadron marches toward a tall door meant for humans, standing at the corners, aiming down the hallway, which curves slightly as it stretches down the ship, an alarm goes off as Hopficer Chama places his comrade against the wall, recording his tags on his Hoppist Network scanner, noting this soldier may have fallen in combat. Taking a moment to cover his body with a cloth, he marches directly down the center of the hall as enemy troops storm in and take aim. Chama shoots his repeater at them, forcing them back behind a hallway.

Chama: Everyone move up! Do not stop marching! This place is huge compared to our ships. If we do our job like every other division, we may turn this fight around!

A human crosses into the hall, being shot instantly, before an explosive falls out of his hand and detonates, clouding the hall in smoke. Chama pulls his helmet over his face and switches his camera to thermal vision, sending the footage to his HUD. Before he can continue up the hall, enemy soldiers have placed two mounted heavy guns on both sides, opening fire on the squadron.

Chama: Climb! Get out of their angle!

Three of his men on the left side of the hall are hit, while two scale the wall and return fire, only able to hit the shields of the mounted guns, one of his men screams in pain, as the group on his right leap onto a light fixture and crawl across the ceiling quickly, making their way over. Chama's armor takes several hits, one of which knocks him directly back, sliding him a great distance away from his squad. As he stands on his feet, his repeater appears destroyed, and his pistol across the hall.

Chama: Heavy infantry, do your job! I shouldn't have to tell you! I'm coming!

Sprinting up the hall, the frontmost members of his squad draw their bubble energy shields, withstanding most of the damage, pushing down the hall, halfway to the enemy. Human forces appear to shut the door behind them and cut the lights, to the surprise of all in the hallway. Chama, using his heat vision can still make out the shapes of the enemy, his men returning fire desperately down the hallway. Hopling First Class Pyip-Unim opens fire toward the last location he saw, causing minor damage to the operator of the MG. Scared, the operator turns around and limps to the door, failing to find the panel to open it, the other MG gunner sprays the entire hall, hitting Chama again, a slight crack appears in his battle cam, he stands to his feet again, running to the wall, where his three men are huddled together behind their shields.

Chama: Are you lot okay?

Soldier: Yes, but they're unable to walk, their belts got hit and welded their feet together, I-I can't get it off!

Chama: Leave it to me, then. I need you fighting that MG! We need to get to the bridge!

Soldier: Okay!

The soldier runs to Pyip, handing him a new cell for his repeater and shield, the light from his weapon giving away his position as the others cross the room from the ceiling, nearly above the gunners. Chama glances up after cutting their utility belts and armored skirts apart with his GloLite, seeing Pyip now running along the floor toward the MG gunners.

Pyip: You think you can take me? I was made for this fight! Get some!

Chama: No, Pyip! Stop, you'll be killed!!! Both of you! Hold position! Everyone else, tackle that fucking gunner!

Pyip is shot, the soldier behind him crushed under his comrade's gear, the other squadmates land on the gunners head, shooting him and the mounted guns, the other operator falls to his knees, pulling an explosive and detonating it. Chama gets his other men to their feet, they stare at the horror.

Chama: NO! You two, get to Pyip and Noomin-qo. Make sure they're okay, bring them to the hangar and set up a checkpoint for us to fall back to, stay on the radio. Got that?

The others affirm and rush to Pyip and Noomin's side, the smoke clears, two of his squad crawl out of the smoke, appearing to have been only blown back. The others lie on the ground, moaning in pain. Chama screams for them to report status, as they signal they are conscious, the door where the MG's guarded opens swiftly, several humans in heavy assault uniforms switch on the lights and open fire down the hall. The soldiers drag themselves back down the hall behind some cover, deploying their shields and using their armor to form a wall. Chama turns his thermals off, and stands behind his shield, GloLite in the other, he clicks his radio.

Chama: Everyone stay down! Shields! Wait until they reload!

Pyip: Momma! What did I do wrong? I was fighting for you and dad!

Chama: Shut him up! Listen for when they reload! If you're down, stay down! Play dead!

The chaotic firefight shifts over the course of moments, as heavy infantry stands to return fire at the enemy, however their armor absorbs the hits, and they take aim toward them, successfully shooting them down. Chama stands around the bend, waiting for their footsteps to close in. As two walk in front of him, he slashes their feet off with his weapon, jumps onto the back of one, and leaps onto the barrel of the gun of the man behind him, kicking his helmet before being grabbed and thrown to the ground. Playing dead for several seconds while his remaining team falls back to the checkpoint. Several footsteps march past his body, his checkpoint team screams and opens fire, as the squadron at the doorway appear motionless. Chama is conscious, and sits up after they pass him, grabbing his gear and begins crawling slowly to his fallen comrades, passively scanning them and looking around frantically.

Chama: Curse you monsters. My strike team...

Chama rolls across the hall and grabs a repeater from a heavy infantry's paws. Over the radio, Chama hears Pyip and the others are taking fire, the heavy troopers pushing back to the hallway, screaming in fear. Realizing he may be the last member of his team, he forces the door to close and uses his GloLite to weld it shut. He turns to look down the hallway, it is empty, as if set up to trap all in the hallway inside. A voice on his radio goes off.

Pyip: I'm in the hangar hiding under the cloth with Bebedosa... They cleared out the whole hallway, we only killed one of them with explosive- No! Stay back! I want to go home!

Rapid fire is heard, and all signals on his radio channel appear offline. Sighing, he places his shield on his back, he takes off his radio and lowers the volume and plugs it into his helmet to maintain a quiet profile. His camera stops recording. He starts the recording again, he is in a vent system that their ship uses, climbing quieting as patrols below him pass, he does not make any noise using his fur to cushion his movement, eventually he slips out of the vent, into the hangar he left, his men are missing but some of their gear lay on the floor. The hangar door is shut, and only a small number of crew line the hangar. Waiting for an opening, he waits for one of their ships to prepare to leave, as it takes off, the crew leave the hangar to clear for take-off. Chama syncs the exhaust noise with him cutting a hole in the vent chamber, dashing down to the floor and grabbing his men's fallen gear, and then latching unseen into the landing gear of the enemy ship, and it can be heard taking off and the sound of it alters as it exits the hangar. He then cuts the upper part of the seal, leading into the seat behind the cockpit, impaling the pilot and killing him. He then observes the controls, decides to press on a thruster pedal and steer with his ears toward the enemy ship. A radio signal beeps on the dash, he answers it.

Enemy Squad Pilot: Hello? Your vitals read critical. Report status.

Chama: Uh, nothing wrong, my controls are acting up.

Silence is heard for several moments. Chama glances out the canopy, glancing at the other ships in the squad the ship auto pilots toward. Their ships slow down, letting his drift ahead of them. He attempts to brake, but he is too far ahead, and peering out, they seem to aim at him. The radio beeps again.

Enemy: Repeat, what is *your* status?

Chama: Leaving!

Chama hits the eject function below the chair, and sends the dead pilot out the cockpit, he then slams it shut and begins to attempt to steer the enemy ship himself, toward their bridge.

Enemy: Shit! One-two is down! Enemy in his craft! Permission to open fire?

Enemy Operator: Negative, do not engage, he's in range of the bridge comms, lead him away to open space and fire away.

Chama: How about you all go fuck yourselves?!

After staring at the controls, he pulls a lever and strikes a button, which send the star ship dashing forward, in a panic the enemy squad breaks off and their ship fails to evade, Chama slamming directly through the glass of the bridge, then spinning out of control, the canopy cracked, leaking air and a wing missing from the ship. The ship drifts off and the enemy radio chatter ceases. Appearing to cut their loses, they ignore Chama and jump away from the battle. A distant Hoppist frigate notices the act and retrieves the ship, noticing the canopy damage and the pilot is missing. Once in the hangar, Chama exits and happily greets the crew of the ship, as they shove the enemy craft out the hangar due to its size being too large. Chama ends the recording. Further footage from the hangar camera show Chama giving his kit to another Senior Hopficer, and walking him away.

Chama submitted his own full account and report, citing his failure to lead that would have prevented his mission to succeed. Hop reviewed the footage at a later period and declared Chama a brave soldier and if he would like, he could retire and receive all his merits and benefits. In a surprise, he accepted it, under the promise he'd be let back in. Under veteran rules, Hop confirmed he would be able to whenever he was ready. Chama served the new 11,004th during the Hop Civil War, and all his men of the original division are forever remembered on the Temple of Sop on Karrots

E N D

L O G

The original 605th "Meteor Launch" (Utter Defeat, Lone Survivors)

Body cam footage begins on Hopficer Girrin-Tylee "Girnt's" uniform, walking down a rocky trail on a pitch black world with Hopling First Class Loobazah "Ooza", during a total solar eclipse. Two moons cover a bright blue star. Both are wearing infrared lamps on their helmets (due to ability of Hops to see in any light, but their enemies can only see a limited spectrum) while walking.

The unnamed world was toward the core of the galaxy it existed in, lonesome in the greater Teribay cluster, meaning these soldiers were guarding a remote world, being used a stop-gap for assaults or slowing enemy advancement in the area. Likely just starting their patrol, a short time passes, covering numerous hills and rockfaces together, Girnt looks up and points out something in the direction of the eclipses. Several Empire and GSA ships appear in the distance, dashing past the moons and toward the planet. The GSA flagship was damaged and flaming as it entered the atmosphere, falling toward the surface of the world, in the direction of the base they marched away from. Lighting up, the base responded as the flagship crashed into crust of the world, violently shaking the ground.

Ooza: What in the world is happening?!

Girnt: From what I can tell, they're in trouble. Quickly, get your weapons ready, secure loose talking.

Hopficer Girnt switches radio channels and speaks to his base command. The base and the GSA ship raise their energy shields, securing a perimeter.

Operator: Received, go ahead.

Girnt: Hopficer Girrin-Tylee on patrol here, I noticed someone from the fleet just arrived while being pursued. Are you in contact with them, over?

Operator: Just a moment... No, their comms look to be down due to the damage.

Girnt: They still have the enemy on their tail. Counter attack status?

Operator: Awaiting site chain of command's response. They are going to secure the ship first per protocol. Shields should hold. But hurry back.

Girnt and Ooza are seen hurrying back in the direction they came. As they approach, then halting suddenly, in the distance large amounts of fire break out between the base and the ship. Hopficer Girnt operates his radio to communicate with the operator, but Ooza shuts it off suddenly, and in return is smacked by his officer.

Girnt: What's gotten into you?

Ooza: That's a trap! They're baiting us into helping, but they were already taken over! It's like stories said!

Girnt: That so?

As the friendly fire continues, Girnt and Ooza slowly go prone and stare at the situation from a cliff, using their magnifying optics to view the scene, and as it was predicted, human enemies caught the base off guard and lured the soldiers on duty into a trap. Other patrols radio in on a private channel suddenly. Girnt is seen switching an option on the radio to promiscuously respond without revealing his radio's location. Note, this feature is normally used to reduce chaff and signal delay in high-density radio/comm device areas, like close-quarters combat.

Hopficer: This is Tier 7 Yuukig-Eron. Who am I speaking to?

Girnt: Decline to identify. Where are you from?

Hopficer: The fucking Meteor Risers! Who else? Can you see the base? They need all the help they can get. Please, meet up with us on the ridge behind the ship, we're going to flank them to provide covering fire.

Girnt stares away and lowers the volume, suspicious, he does not answer. Turning his body to the side, the camera captures that the enemy starships are coasting the horizon, attacking other bases on the planet from low-orbit. Ooza prepares his rifle, using it look at the enemy ships.

Ooza: What should we do?

Girnt: This turned into an unwinnable situation the moment those shields went up. You're not familiar due to your rank, but in emergency protocols, consent from the bridge and the base command is needed at the same time to drop a shield like that. They're dug in until one side wins. That flank tactic is useless, it's either a trap or the dumbest plan. Also Metoer Risers? A bad translation by the enemy, or this guy is a dumbass. We need to leave. There's a hangar pretty far away, off grid, but the chances of any of our patrolling ships caught on and went there is low. But we can wait there, make a plan.

Footage is cut at this point. Body cam footage from Ooza's uniform was recovered with Girnt's. Ooza's camera was removed from its pouch and placed hidden, in the corner of the hill, the radio they had been using, was in emergency ping mode. Footage from Girnt's cams resumes as they are walking away, but at some instances, turning around to view the hill and radio, which is flashing and beeping loudly. Some time passes as the eclipse ends, just as the sun begins to set. Enemy ships are no longer visible, likely making their way around the world. The distance light from the firefight at base is drowned out by the star on the skyline.

Ooza and Girnt are able to lean against a rockface, staring at it for sometime. After walking around it for a moment, Ooza presses a hidden button, making a dull thud sound. They both meet at the new hangar entrance, where nothing resides. The power appears to be working.

Girnt: So this is home for a while. I hope everyone makes it out okay.

Ooza: We're not getting in trouble for this are we?

Girnt: We are, but I rather have this all documented and submitted to the higher ups. This is one of those unspoken protocols, where getting information about how and why we lost is more important than blindly fighting back.

Ooza: Can I nap for a bit then? We've been out all day.

Girnt: Go ahead, confirmed. I'm going to stare toward your cam and the radio. See what happens. Turning my body cam off until something pops up. We're going to run out of storage if we don't upload to the Hoppist Network. Hate these old units. One rotation's worth is useless.

Ooza: Yeah, it is. I got written up for starting a recording and it ended early because the thing got full! I couldn't refresh it until the shift ended too! They need a delete button.

Girnt: Deletion is hiding evidence. That's why we don't have that. Anyway, rest up, but keep your gear on.

Ooza then marches into the hanger, up a catwalk and lies down facing the ceiling, his rifle next to him. Girnt stares outside and shuts his cam off. Some time later, the recording starts again. The planet's star sets below the horizon, the moons still in the sky, reflecting light. The base and ship are still brightly lit, but no activity is seen, the shields still up. Girnt is heard shuffling, then stands to his feet, and walks around the hangar, with his weapon drawn. Clearing the hidden building's rear, a small Hoppist armored dropship is seen powering down, a pilot emerges from the loading ramp. Girnt lowers his weapon and the pilot removes his helmet and stares at him.

Pilot: Hello. I am Kereris, Hopficer Tier 7. I ran off earlier when the division found out about that... whatever you call it. Attack, I guess.

Girnt: I'm Hopficer Girrin-Tylee, of the 605th. You in our division?

Kereris: Yes, I am. I'm... was stationed over in the base by the canyon. I heard about this place during the Hiprscip game last rotation. Good thing I did or I would have been shot down like those other guys.

Girnt: Who? Shot down?

Kereris: Other pilots on patrol and in the counter attack went and got themselves blown up or captured leaving the atmosphere. I have no idea what we should do.

Girnt: Before we plan that, is there a drive on that transport?

Kereris: Yes, but why? It's only standard loadout.

Girnt: We have something to show you.

Kereris: We? It's not just you?

Girnt and Kereris wake Ooza, and discuss the recent events. Once caught up, they all upload their battle cam footage to their dropship, save for Ooza's. They discuss hiding the ship in the hangar and moving as a group to recover Ooza's cam, which was recording footage from the hill, facing the base during its battle, and Girnt's radio equipment.

Footage starts again as the trio crawls along the ground, the moons in the sky are on the other side of the planet, suggesting they have waited, or been crawling nearly the entire night. Eventually, they reach the hill, where the radio is missing, Ooza digs into the crevice where the camera was hidden, he then equips it and stops the recording. Sitting against the ridge, he stares into the distance with his optics.

Ooza: All clear, looks like they took the radio and moved on. We should upload these to the ship and camp it out until later.

Girnt: Yes, that's what I thought too. Avoid the action, avoid detection, and wait until help shows or until they all leave.

Kereris: I prefer that over what I saw happen to everyone else. Forget the stories, being lost to time is worse than getting home with a loss on record.

Girnt: Indeed. Pilot, once we're dug into the hangar, I need your help with something, again.

They crawl across the world's surface for a long time again, the blue sunrise appearing over the horizon as they reach the hangar, an Imperial squadron flies across the sky, in a different direction. Once all inside the hangar, where the dropship takes up half the space inside, they kill the power to the outside and begin discussion.

Girnt: Given out situation the odds aren't good, but luckily no one in the division spoke up about this place, or likely the other off-record hangars and outposts. So, I think we should upload the footage, and stop recording all together. We're about to call this place home for a while. Kereris, please get me a list of everything on the ship. We need to leave a small amount at the door for anyone on our side that find the button. We're programming it to open the side door only. Once that opens, the place goes into lockdown, and alerts us from inside the dropship. Keep the noise down. Make it look like it was just someone's personal cache.

Ooza: So if they show, we're not letting them in?

Girnt: We can't trust anyone, yet. I risked letting Kereris join us, but without a ship, you and I were taking a far larger risk of never leaving here in the first place. Besides, he's alone. If a patrol shows, we can't assume they aren't serving the enemy.

Ooza: Traitors never happen.

Kereris: I disagree, but I've never seen any myself. But they may get forced into it. I agree with Girnt. As your Hopficers, we should be making the gameplan calls. You're just a tiebreaker.

Ooza: Better than getting yelled at back at base.

Girnt: That's because you're lazy. When was the last time since the GSAA you stripped the rifle?

Ooza: Last rotation, before the fight.

Girnt: Well, you're awful at it. I'll teach you to clean it right, in case we need it. How's your aim?

Ooza: I'm a worse shot than most, but only because I never sighted in the damn thing.

Girnt: We can't fix that without making noise. I'll pray luck is on our side.

Kereris: Speaking of aim, this dropship isn't something I normally fly, but the mounted cannons on the front and the turret on the lower floor are functional, I just haven't tried in order to keep a lower profile, you know?

Girnt: That all said, we should vote. Are we going to keep watch in shifts, or do you guys wanna sit this out and sleep until something happens out there?

The trio hold a vote and short discussion, once finished, Girnt and Kereris turn off their cameras and upload them to the dropship's terminal. An indeterminate amount of time passes, as they are in deep sleep until one day, Girnt is suddenly awake, and puts his camera on his uniform, staring at the other two, sleeping in the cockpit of the dropship. Addressing the ship's alarm, he shuts it off, and exits the hangar from the side door, the care package they arrange is present, untouched. Girnt grabs it and puts it inside the ship, leaving the building. Journeying outside alone, he sees in the sky, several GSA frigates and carriers passing the world above. Excitedly, he cheers and rushes into the cockpit, alarming the other two. He makes contact with the ships, at first, nervously trying to make certain that the passing ships are in fact Hoppist allies, which they are. All three fly their ship to the hangar of a carrier, and report their story, turning their footage in. Hop himself was present during the reclaiming of the galactic cluster, and boarded the ship, please to find survivors of the battle. Hop mentioned that their planet held out very well during the incident, citing it lasted longer than most other GSA forces in the fight. After discovering most of them fell within the same microrbit, the three were awarded by Hop and were welcomed into retirement. However, all three stayed enlisted and offered to help the newly reformed 605th fight against the Empire. Note that these three were the only known survivors of the battle, not just on their planet, but in their entire region of the galactic cluster. Most of the worlds in ther Teribay cluster were victim to starfall during the battle. A fate that tragically could not have been prevented at this point in the war.

E N D

L O G

Unknown Hopling First Class, Teribay Cluster Perimeter Guard (Lone Survivor, Unknown Fate)

Recorded on a terminal aboard a K'Ursan civilian-grade cargo-frigate, a GSA infantry soldier records and notes his escape, but not his identity, likely due to fear of being reprimanded for fleeing. Per Hop's wishes, all survivors of this battle are forgiven this violation and its punishments. Nearing the end of the conflict, this Hoppist audibly records his moments leading to his escape, and his plans, among other dialogue. The terminal, being a civilian make, does not require the soldier to enter credentials, as it is locally stored on the ship, and not upload to K.U.R.V.E or the Hoppist Network. His entry begins with him figuring out the terminal's operation as he continues to log the events.

Hopling: Test input... audio check positive. Finally, some good news today. Just gonna set this over here.

The sound of a rolling seat and clutter is heard, the iconic unloading ping of a Type-M V1 carbine is heard as a grunt is made.

Hopling: So, I hope we were the only ones to lose today, because that was a complete failure. The division leader is not going to like this news... Today we lost... On our normal perimeter sweep over the wild space between two of the larger outer-rim galaxies in the cluster, this... giant group of fleets appeared. At first, we thought it was our own forces, just to bolster our presence, but what actually went on was that the enemy arrived during our weakest moment. Every active-duty member on the main ship was winding down for a barracks inspection, like usual, meaning no uniforms, unloaded weapons, gear inventory, the normal things... As soon as our bridge was struck by some long range energy projectile, command lost their minds and the neighboring vessels fled or made for a counter-attack. Out of the entire fleet, we were not prepared on my ship, especially with the bridge out. There weren't any orders for engineering, who must have been startled and stood around thinking they'd be informed of how to handle the sudden shaking. I think the Hopficer in the barracks next to mine went to take charge, but he was outranked by someone else, and they got into an argument over experience and rank as another volley stuck the comms sector, leaving only the hangar, the hallways, our barracks and the engineering bay untouched. Those guys could have overridden everything and just flew us in any random direction. Headless flight is a thing we were trained on, but someone must have ran down there and told them not to move us. Well, I thought we were more stupid for staying put. The scariest thing was they knew we weren't finished until the ship was in pieces, so all they had to do was continue firing until-

A series of soft beeps on a console is heard, a button is pressed and the soldier begins to load his carbine again, the sounds seem to indicate he is cleaning it while recording, possibly distracting himself.

Hopling: It took moments from that second volley, then the same time frame for a third and fourth to hit. The damage pushed the ship a little bit, so instead of hitting our hangars and barracks, it mostly hit the bridge and hull again. The rest missed, but we could see them fly by out the camera feed displayed in the barracks. Suddenly, we were all dressed and in the hangar to board our dropships. We wanted to fly on over to the nearest intact frigate that had its lights on. We planned on taking cover behind our own debris and passing wreckage. The engies put a shield up, killing the engines and anchored the entire thing in place so we could be just still enough to dock.

The ship creaks, a hiss is heard before the soldier continues. He is heard walking around and briefly returns, as his seat squeaks and his rifle clangs shut. He begins to speak again.

Hopling: Vacuum hose leak. Didn't want it to interrupt what I was saying. So, I could see out the dropship window during the unloading process. The destroyers in our fleet that chose to counter-attack were doing pretty good, dodging the cannons and turrets, landing hits... As that happened, we got aboard anything with capacity. Lifeboats, escape pods, dropships... We just... left our ship and began unloading on their frigate. We were going to run out of space inside those really fast. In order to keep this from being an issue, we planned for the dropships to exit the hangar, deposit our numbers, return to our carrier, then repeat until everyone got out. It worked, as the main crews taking the fight back were at the center of attention. Our supply ship offered enough room for us to fit on... Problem was we were cutting it close with time... Any other Hoppist destroyer fighting back were running out of things to shoot, and the enemy positioned a huge second wave of ships above us all. It was terrifying to see it... Just the... space above us, flickering from black to white as energy was exchanged between huge groups of these warships. One could see the metal peel away and the suction of space pull the fleshies out into ether. Our ships are mostly airless, unlike theirs, because they have to... breath, I guess... If they don't, they uh, die. If you have never heard of that, someone said it's like sleeping forever, without dreaming and you'll never wake up or sense anything again. Numb and scary. They say it can't happen to hopfolk... but I've seen footage of... us, floating and drifting... motionless in black skies. Just, still... like, their soul and mind left their body. How does that happen? I think if my family was here with me, that they would send me right back home and never serve a day again. I miss them...

He goes silent for many moments, a clattering sound happens twice, and the click of his rifle's safety is disengaged, then just as quickly, engaged again. Sliding closer to the microphone on the terminal, his voice returns, softer.

Hopling: I keep getting the feeling I'm being watched... Like something is with me. I know I'm the last here... So how did that happen? Everyone ran and somehow they forgot about me. Maybe I was just too scared to focus, but the moment the enemy spotted us, I couldn't realize we were planning on boarding another ship. The noise of it all was overwhelming. I'm sensitive to sound... So when orders were given, I was still putting my uniform on, grabbing my rifle and running down the hall. Every blast was so loud. I could barely focus on the way I was going. I'd look to see the enemy and our destroyers exchange blows, and it'd cost me time. It felt like a glance. Looking back, it was obviously longer than that. No one even turned to look back and get me... This one works kind of fine. It's civilian model but we've used these for storage and ship-to-ship work in our division all the time. Looks like we didn't use this to fly people off my ship. When I walked into the hangar, it was just sitting there, open but no one used it. Didn't have time to see the camera footage. Actually, the footage wouldn't exist... bridge was gone. But, yeah, it's working.

His chair creeks, as if his is spinning in place on his seat. A hum is heard from him before he speaks again.

Hopling: I'm not sure if the other guys do that across the cluster... Truthfully, I wonder when this fight ends, if there will even be any of us in the entire cluster. This stupid place... we only have it because it was a strategic, tactically placed area. There's no real native life here. No one to meet or explore with. The few terrestrial worlds are just boring to me... but even if I'm alone, I'm trained and ready. My name is certainly going to be on a list somewhere unless I make it back to Karrots intact.

Another sound erupts, he springs to his feet and turns his safety off, becoming silent for several moments. A tick sound is heard in the background, growing louder.

Hopling: This leak is getting on my nerves. Why did we need air in this cargo ship? What could expire or break without it? Every damn uniform, weapon and tool we have works without it these days.

His voices trails off, as he is heard walking away. He returns to the seat again, it squeaks as he sits and places his firearm on the terminal, the slight rumble of it causes the audio to pick up the rattle of the stock slightly tap the housing.

Hopling: Now would be a great time for a random engineer to pop into the room and just help me fix all this. If this ship can get moving, we can at least land somewhere that we can be better spotted from. All this debris is just covering us up from a rescue team... If there's ever going to be one. If you're listening to this, just know I'm distracting myself, but also logging it for whoever gets around to it later. If not, just for me to listen to if I start suddenly forgetting who I am... Oh, hold on.

He is heard picking his carbine back up. A thud can be heard hitting the glass window behind the terminal. He hums and a few gentle keypresses are heard, until his seat creaks as he leans back in it.

Hopling: This terminal has lots of data storage on it. I could record myself for nearly 2 orbits straight. Wonder what this thing was really built for when we got it. Probably for all the logging of the inventory, or arrival and departure captures. That's the kind of thing the Hoppist Network is better at. We never worry about logging back home. I remember when Hop came to visit our division when we were training and he pulled this ancient terminal in, plugged it up to our barracks monitor to show us how it worked. Older tech displayed literally every line of what it did. These days it shows summarized versions of it. I could never ready anything other than Universal Script. It's pretty easy compare to Hoppist computer code... Oh, yeah, that's right. This thing probably doesn't ping to the Hoppist Network... I am done for. Well, maybe I can look for a manual, pilot this thing myself and just get in a position where someone can find me. But I rather be here than with the enemy. Gop is the only one who knows what they do to the captured. I'll never let them take me as prisoner. Well, can't quit now. Gonna stop this recording and get to looking around. I've never really explored one of these before. Kind of excited to get familiar with a foreign vehicle. Goodbye, listener, whether that's gonna be me or whoever comes looking for me.

The recording ends. Numerous other recordings exist, detailing his feelings and memories prior to the battle. In one, he confesses that his memory is poor and with each passing recording, the terminal will know more about him that he will. As his last recording is made, he has set up a training range in the storage deck, a large fortification in the crew quarters to defend himself and the bridge of the cargo-frigate has had its windows sealed off. He is peering through the exterior cameras in all directions when he is "on duty." The vehicle is in working order, but he does not know how to operate it, despite messing with several controls. The terminal's earliest logs indicate the Hopficer in charge of transporting items between ships in his division had ordered a lock to engage on the controls when a key was not present in the terminal's front interface, leaving the soldier with no way to possible fly it. His final recording begins with the sound of him taking a seat, but he has fixed the creaking of the stool, and only the sound of his legs and uniform rubbing on the soft material of the seat can be heard. He begins speaking after quickly racking his carbine's safety on.

Hopling: Well, I have to have been here so long that another one of our fleets pass by for routine handoff. What I don't know is if they've also been defeated in battle... If so, I'm alone here, forever. I'll make this place home until the day comes where someone finds me. But I'm taking my entire kit with me. I'm not dumping this stuff anywhere. I'm a proud soldier and ready to fight at any point.

The vacuum leak begins again, but stops shortly after.

Hopling: Finally! It stopped needing to be adjusted. The air in here finally circulates normally again. Found out why it's like that, too. So the terminals get hot during their internal diagnostics. The designer of this ship uses air to pick up heat, vent it to the engine bay, where the heatsinks take the heat out of the air, and the cold plate on the back of the ship saps the heat away. It's a cycle, using solar power to fuel everything. Really smart stuff I would have never come up with on my own...

He hums, his carbine makes a distinct click as he dry-fires it. A short while passes, as he continues to play with his carbine. The hiss occurs again, he stops humming as it blows air into the vents. As soon as it finishes, he begins to hum again.

Hopling: Even though I know it works, I like to listen for anything out of place. A few recordings ago I mentioned how I always check things several times because of the way our division was trained. Kind of weird to me, how we know to check the barrel and trigger of the carbines, but they never mention how to keep the surface of it clean. That factory polish is just a matte finish with all the damn scuffs I've put on it since the day it was assigned to me. Well, I did check the documents around here, and after plugging each one into the terminal here, they're all either blank or locked. I did find a tablet device from home since last time, under the desk next to the engine terminal, but it has no charge. Probably was a crew member's before the battle. If I could charge it, I could probably get someone to find me, those things have the ping built into them if they aren't connected to another device for a while. That's only if you get your commanding Hopficer to do it though, by connecting it to your division's part of the Hoppist Network... speaking of that, if I get home, I'm just gonna be a code interpreter. Really, I'm just gonna sit there all day and learn terminal stuff. I've enjoyed this thing so far. What could go wrong?