This episode is sponsored by Paradox Interactive.
The Star Union was home to many secrets.
Even now, centuries after its fall, scavengers and would-be usurpers sift through its ruined
worlds, eager for any scrap of knowledge or power.
In the dark age that has fallen across the galaxy, wonders and terrors of such worth
beyond measure are traded by the ignorant for a sliver of land or a trickle of coins.
The superstitious warn any who will listen that some secrets are best left buried, that
a time may come when something that should have been forgotten is again unleashed across
the universe.
Those who have encountered the Assembly understand that time has already arrived.
What the Assembly might once have been, what it was intended to be, can never be known.
Some accounts claim they were created to save the galaxy from a virulent plague, others
describe them as the next generation of super soldier, an unbeatable army designed to put
an end to any rebellion or perhaps merely a colony of test subjects.
Facts surrounding their origins are few, but it is clear that at some point during the
collapse of the Star Union, the Assembly rebelled, overthrowing their imperial masters and escaping
into the unknown.
A race of clones unable to reproduce naturally, the Assembly has embraced a grotesque manner
of propagation.
They have turned to cybernetics to sustain their ravaged bodies, replacing withered flesh
with every manner of augmentation.
The oldest among them are more machine than man, twisted and evil.
To be captured by the Assembly is to become the newest member in their ranks.
Even death offers no escape.
Captives and corpses alike are analyzed, reduced to a list of valuable components and recycled
as the Assembly sees fit.
An individual incorporated into the Assembly might become a labourer, soldier, or specialist,
or simply merged with dozens of others to become a monstrous living machine.
Dozens of tortured bodies are pieced together to create the largest Assembly war machines,
engines of suffering and death.
Here, science is blended with art, and the mortal form reconstructed with an eye for
both efficiency and aesthetics.
The minds of those who survive are carefully curated, passions, motives, and causes are
collected and processed, rendering any emotional extremes impossible.
Unity within the Assembly is absolute, it’s control over its subjects, unyielding.
This is not to say that an individual’s mind cannot survive, at least in part, within
the Assembly.
The most horrifying constructs are made from those who joined the Assembly willingly, damned
souls who now find joy and purpose in their work.
The Assembly is guided by the belief that the galaxy is one of chaos, one that must
be stripped down to its core and reassembled into a place of order and stability.
Every star system, every planet, every living organism must be collected and repurposed
to better suit their needs.
Nothing is to be wasted, for the Assembly can find uses for things that others would
discard.
Diplomacy is of little use in the pursuit of these goals.
Those who resist are visited by ambassadors of the Assembly who promise peace and goodwill
even as their armies deliver endless slaughter on the battlefield.
Every facet of their conquest is built on cruelty.
Their soldiers are fearless in combat, confident that should they fall, it is only a matter
of time before they are reconstructed.
Their weapons draw power from the skies themselves, creating ion storms from clear skies and even
ripping their foes out of reality itself.
Whatever guiding intelligence drives the Assembly forward is no less callous to its own subjects.
A type of annual review occurs across the Assembly, with the bottom performing percentage
culled and repurposed into more productive elements.
The brains of its captives’ aid in its processing power, while the minds of its enemies are
extracted so their own knowledge and discoveries might be used against them.
For all its many faults, its corruption, greed, and arrogance, the Star Union, for a time
at least, possessed the strength to contain the worst aspects of its nature.
With a force like the Assembly unleashed across the galaxy, how many of the Star Union’s
harshest critics might now argue that perhaps it might have been best if the Union never
fell, and it’s darkest secrets remained undisturbed.
Thanks to Paradox Interactive for sponsoring this investigation into the twisted cruelty
of the Assembly.
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