Ultranova @Jenwuf @G4L4XY
As the Task Force nears the passage, a massive cargo hauler breaks FTL momentarily to recharge its drives before the final jump to Taros. As it passes by slowly, the RUPA forces can see the gaping cargo holds exposed to vacuum, and the Commander of the task force gets an idea....
And further away on Taros itself, a teenage girl walks into the Imperial Communications Center and shoots the desk officer in the head. She then goes over to the message console and inserts a cartridge that broadcasts one message across the entire Imperium.
Take to the skies.
This prompts hundreds of thousands of transports and haulers, packed full of civilians to begin fleeing the outer sectors of Imperial space and begin making way for the Throneworld and their salvation.
DarkPearl yobeefjerky boombox
As the beginning stages of the war unfold across the galaxy, reports of the gathering invasion forces reaches the eyes and ears of Imperial Intelligence officers. And on a massive orbital platform around a star, a man kneels before a shadowed throne and makes his report and waits for a response.
The laughter that rolls out of the shadows is thoroughly unsettling and leaves the officer feeling...unclean. Hesitantly he ventures a "My lord?"
The laughter continues for a minute, and then the figure on the throne leans forward, its metal skin glinting in the starlight.
"IGNORE THIS. ACTIVE THE RIFT ENGINES AND THEN READY A TRANSPORT TO TAROS."
The officer stammers in shock. "Bu-but my lord! What about the fleets? They will be trapped and we will be defenseless!"
A dismissive wave of a hand. "THE FORGE HAS A FLEET READY FOR DEPLOYMENT DOES IT NOT? I WILL TAKE IT WITH ME. AND AS FOR THE FLEETS ABROAD, LET THEM BE. THIS WAR WAS NEVER GOING TO BE WON OR LOST BY GALACTIC SCALE STRATEGY. NO THIS WILL BE DECIDED AT TAROS, AND MAKE NO MISTAKE, I WILL EMERGE VICTORIOUS."
The officer bows and then leaves to carry out the orders. And across the galaxy, spatial distorter pylons hidden in the black activate and the plane of the spiral is rent in two by a storm of epic proportions, making FTL transit across the rift impossible. Fleets on both sides of the conflict find themselves suddenly isolated and fighting without support.