Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/The Silent Hierarchy

"..."

- The voice when Hierarchy is selected in the Conquest mode.

The Silent Hierarchy are one of the fifty DLC factions added in Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict.

Description
"Till all the stars are silent!"

-A motto of The Silent Hierarchy

The Ukrazols are a species from the Whirlpool Galaxy emerged from the oceans of their homeworld to eventually claim the stars around them. Coming to see themselves as the primary civilizing force in the universe they explored they started to develop an ideology based around the "Civilizing Wind", which blew from their world to other societies. Under this philosophy, they believed that it was not only not morally wrong to conquer other societies but that it was a sacred duty and imperative so that they could be raised to the levels of the Ukrazols. However, other societies could not be trusted to raise themselves to a proper civilized level of existence and might get deviant ideas about what is civilized and so the means to militarily subdue them were developed. And of course, the Hierarchy had an idea of what was civilized that differed quite a bit from what many others would find tolerable; they were believers in absolute meritocracy. It doesn't matter how unpopular someone is, or how many favors they have, if they were deemed more worthy by their system they would have to be in the positions that they deemed to be best fitting for them. This of course means that everyone is where they should be and there is no need to try and level the playing field; and that virtually every other society is organized along "wrong" patterns that must be corrected before they can be civilized.

This eventually led to them coming into conflicts with their first real enemies as they expanded elsewhere in our local supercluster who could actually be considered meaningful peers of their military machine, leading to a great slowdown in their rate of conquest as these enemies such as the Star Federation ended up introducing to them the concept of geopolitics. This greatly slowed rate of civilizing other societies led to a pause in the growth of their society. They had come to incorporate the act of conquering other societies as a cornerstone of their Hierarchy and the concept of their society not being all-encompassing was deeply philosophically disturbing. However, even with the restrictions of having other powers in place who would certainly act if they were being too brazen with their attempts to expand, there were ways with which the Hierarchy could continue to grow so that it may come to encompass all civilized life and bring it under the stabilizing influence of a superior method of organizing society and thus liberate them from the burden of their uncouth and savage ways. Thus the Civilizing corps was created with the mission of observing, studying, and then invading societies with lower-grade weapons and munitions to not arouse the notice of other states that the usage of modern weaponry would.

This slower rate of conquest allowed them to subvert more worlds into their growing Hierarchy even without having to pick through the stars to find suitable and uninhabited worlds. The ideas and cultures of those conquered civilizations would be examined; if there was anything of value produced by these lesser civilizations they would be dutifully incorporated into the Hierarchy while other ideas would be suppressed and replaced with the superior higher culture of the Ukrazol. The strengths and weaknesses of the conquered species would be analyzed and they would be given fitting places in Ecumenical society. Given time some might even show enough merit to become great leaders or otherwise noteworthy persons within the Hierarchy's government and its economy. They would be imbued with a love of the Hierarchy and its concept as a nation, a homogenizing force in the cosmos that will put everyone where they deserve to be and a force of civilization that dispels the darkness and banishes the fel powers of savagery. That many people died and continue to die in the process of this civilizing mission is of ultimately little consequence to the Hierarchy; what are the lives of millions and billions to the spreading of the gift of the winds of civilization to the arms of whole galaxies at a time?

However, they would meet something that would truly terrify them, not just the planet-stripping Hierarchy or the dreadful Silence, but the unfathomable vastness of the Scrin. A power with matchless resources and unfathomable age even to the ancient Hierarchy, a society that operated on a timescale of billions of years and had mining operations to harvest the green crystal it had seeded across more a significant portion of the observable universe. Only their lack of success in miniaturizing their wormhole threshold-based faster than light systems limited their expansion; requiring them to rowboat to places outside of their threshold tower network's range but allowing them virtually instantaneous travel anywhere inside of it. And through their mastery of the crystal that was integral to their biology they were also an utterly matchless industrial power.

While they had to slowly expand through the creation of Threshold Towers and Stations, once they could open their wormholes in a corner of space it would be inevitably overwhelmed by their endless numbers and technology, and any planet that had so much as a scrap of their crystals on it would be known to them as they would hunt across the stars for their addiction and let it poison and ruin one world after the other. The Ukrazol could not stop the advance of the Scrin through their territory, only flee out of its way and observe for scraps. This would not do, the Council of Minds refused to accept the idea that there could be a power greater than themselves to such a degree and began a system of scouring every potential source of technology and methods that could claim victory against not just the Scrin, but their rivals such as the Federation and the Swarm who were doubtlessly also searching for means with which to challenge the Scrin Juggernaut. Even primitive societies may have something of interest, some advantage that could make territory conquered by the Scrin reclaimable. And so the observation fleets were chartered as an integral part of the Hierarchy, dispatched to every corner of the stars with the one advantage the Ukrazol did have over the Scrin; far more portable faster than light travel.

The Observer fleets would generally use museum pieces and lower grades of technology to avoid the attentions of third parties who'd be scouring the stars for signs of activity by their rivals in the cosmic great game. It also of course, reduced the cost of these fleets and allowed them to be equipped in a way that would not impact the military's own requisitional needs. Furthermore, the idea was to probe at, experiment with, and test the targeted civilizations; then signal for reinforcements to begin a conquest. Simply squashing them flat with the full breadth of their technological superiority would not merely be wasteful, but tell them nothing. So they would look to the creative and the ambitious to man these fleets, those who were willing and able to get better results with fewer resources and the patience to maintain often decades or centuries-long experiments to probe a society for all its worth and push them in a direction that would be easy to rule.

After all, the barbarians would doubtlessly need civilising, to learn the folly of coddling weakness and the harsh lesson of the order of things where the weak and unworthy are culled or forced under the protection of their betters while the strong do what they must and as they please. And even if they must kill off huge portions of the indigenous population and lay waste to their historical records and culture; the survivors can be raised in their ways and taught their proper place. The conquered would naturally come to love their chains once they understood why they needed them, just as nearly every society conquered by the Ukrazol had come to see their civilizing winds as the source of greatness, and the brutalisation, assimilation, and often outright exterminations carried out in the process of that as necessary evils. This is a cruel universe after all, and only cruel people can have the strength to offer a little mercy to those who should be thankful that they were made better and had their excesses cut away like cancers.

The Observational Fleets would be engines of imperialistic conquest that would greatly enrich the Hierarchy with resources, sophontic capital, new angles and avenues of technology, and territory with which it could carry out further operations; all for less cost and a potentially higher return on investment than sending in the military to squash every primitive they came across. And with many of their rivals being addled with pointless ideals of noninterference and compassion towards uncontacted primitives, it was a gold rush of easily grabbed territory that the Minds were not the least bit sorry about lifting the one-in-a-million worthies of each miserable world they dragged screaming into the storms of civilisation. One could make a great career out of this, and many of the most successful and famous Council Minds would prove themselves in this lucrative field of parasitising off of younger civilisations and then breaking their backs to force them under the Lightning and Aegis.

In this system would rise some with particularly strong ambitions; such as Fleet Overseer Orluk Udranor and Council Organizer Manager Arakrast Medunara. Orluk was deeply steeped in the culture and the habits of the Hierarchy and was considered to be greatly loyal to the Hierarchy as a concept while Arakrast is virtually hellbent on the advancement of their career to transfer from attachments to the Civilizing Corps and getting a post in the proper military commands of the Hierarchy. Orluk seems to be seeking commendation as a particularly exemplary Fleet Overseer from the ruling councils of the meritous of the Hierarchy; to make a name for themselves so that they may be in a position to advocate for some changes in Ecumenical policy, a rarity in a society that generally thinks poorly of questioning one's superiors. Soon the two would be attached and would make a name for themselves bringing thirty other civilizations under the influence of the winds of civilization, earning them many distinctions and increasingly prestigious commands. Coming to know figures such as Planetary Ika-Amarani Ikizer Ulgost, Organizer Makuran Kolkressa, Intelligence Officer Parasa Meela and Soundwave, Decepticon Amarani Megatron, Fleet Amarani Kamal Re'x, Ground Amarani Temostos Ullra, Ground Amarani Starscream, Ground Amarani Jalakras Wola, Science Amarani Zefto Pilbor, Science Amarani Golasa Issara and Mercenary Ymtrast Nuraffi; they assembled an all-star cast of subordinates who helped them take over each world in turn.

As their fleet wandered the void looking for signs of new civilizations to bring into the fold; their attention was brought to a planet that had recently started to transmit its first radio messages just a few light years away from a system being surveyed by their fleet. The curiosity of the fleet was immediately piqued as the fleet was not expecting a world with intelligent life so near to their prior expeditions. The signals were faint yes, signifying that the planet was likely beginning to experiment with radio, and had folded space receivers not been in place it was unlikely they would have picked up these weak radio signals, but a world was a world regardless of its level of advancement. Determining that it was worth investigating; the Civilizing fleet waited a year to decipher any further radio transmissions from the source before making the folded space jump into a solar system with five gas giants and several independently revolving terrestrial bodies; with four within the asteroid belt.

Upon determining what they estimated was the planet's general effectiveness of technology and locations of militarily and technologically relevant polities, they began landing their first scouting parties in areas of the world where they could function without too much prying. Inaccessible mountain ranges, enormous plains and deserts where one could walk a thousand miles before going anywhere of importance, huge trackless forests and jungles, but most importantly they needed to be able to keep tabs on each of the relevant factions. A job that proved to be quite interesting as the political makeup of the world changed quite frequently, with the first planetary conflict they observed ending in the demise of four empires and the conversion of one to a political system that deeply rankled the Hierarchy's beliefs. The Hierarchy at first wished to simply roll in and conquer the entire planet, but the detection of dormant ships already in the Kuiper belt that matched the description of civilization the Hierarchy regarded as uncivilizable and a danger to the wider Hierarchy forced a change in calculus as it took orbit around Jupiter.

It was likely that if they called in reinforcements the normal way; they would awaken the dormant fleet and they would be forced into an undesired interstellar conflict and risk getting an enemy long constrained by slower-than-light travel access to their own faster-than-light systems. On the other hand, they did not have enough troops to occupy the planet outright and fight off a potential awakening of the other fleet long enough to set up a wormhole generator to call in a fleet; however primitive they were, so they needed to take the time to build up their fleet and their armies; a task that was possible with the manufacturing systems available to the fleet, but one that would take time as they increased the overall fleet population in terms of both numbers of ships and "citizens" of the fleet. So they would wait and watch, dispatching observers to the planet to watch this planetary war of the humans unfold and see how humanity's technological progress would unfold. Similar in shape to several other known species; the Hierarchy believed that Gaiaterra could have use in the Hierarchy even if they detested the human form as ugly for the same reasons the rather Octopoid Ukrazol disliked the forms of those species who resembled them. Their resilience towards lower temperatures and suggestibility in pre-adult stages of life would be particularly useful.

When they arrived, reports of crop circles, stories of abductions, tales, and absurdly blurry photographs of what people claimed to be aliens started to climb. They had to take care to try and not abduct anyone of importance lest any substantial number of people believe them, but they could only be so careful with such a purely academic understanding of humanity. Some of these people would form communities, huddling together to discuss their experiences since the world at large didn't believe them, one that would become an issue for them and others who would rather remain in the darkness. As the world changed, it only continued to get more and more interesting, prompting the council of commanders to decide that the world was of high priority to be brought under the blessed winds of civilization. Meticulously careful when it came to covering their tracks; the Hierarchy was less than a shadow. The great masses of humanity were content to believe that they were alone in the world, and the Hierarchy was willing to let them continue to have the delusion. After all, it made operating on Gaiaterra so much easier when most governments couldn't act on their existence because they didn't even know they were there.

But in time, some with actual influence did take notice and try to follow the trail. The Voshkods were perhaps the first when scattered reports from the first human forces to meet the Hierarchy in battle filtered back to the Imperial government, but the Tzars, already shaky in their rule over the Empire believed that going public with such fragmentary reports would cause unwanted upheaval, so they kept these reports secret. These reports would find their way into the hands of Eorzeas enemies and more secretive forces who could access the motherland's records; particularly in the turmoil of the Revolution. They didn't find much, but they did find enough to alert some of the more astute factions that something was amiss. Many still dismissed the talk of aliens as ridiculous, preferring to go for more "plausible" explanations, but others believed those who had survived an encounter with the Ukrazol and decided to try and uncover more about this shadowy threat, which would lead to the forming of the Network. It also put the Hierarchy on the map of the Order and the Heralds, and when Robb gained access to the secret files of Eorzea, he organized a task force to try and combat this danger.

Gaiaterra only continued to arouse interest in the Jovian Fleet as it built up its numbers and reverse-engineered Ecumenical technology that was not already in the fleet's armouries. The political developments of Gaiaterra were at times disturbing, the notion of all being equal or all being deserving of a share of society's fruits didn't chime well with the Hierarchy's own ideas of fairness where everyone would get what they deserved; no more no less. It was rather akin to the talk of enemies, but the Hierarchy had survived ideological challenges before and these errors would be corrected when the fleet around Jupiter was ready to launch a full-scale invasion of the planet. What particularly intrigued them about Gaiaterra was the paths of technology it began to take. Despite the unusual delay in the discovery of nuclear technology (though not entirely unprecedented) the various races were still able to get around this and make use of several very energy-intensive designs. The Voshkods at first piqued their interest with their edge in unusual technology in the second world war (in Gaiaterra its better knwon as the Great Voshkod-Aquilan War); deploying such devices as Tesla weapons and engines, Earthquake machines, Iron Curtain devices, and cyborg super soldiers that shocked the world; perhaps more so than the development of SPAM that so utterly changed industrial warfare, but the Alliance' progress into Chronotechnology and GAP generators also proved to be fascinating.

Technology seemed to rapidly diversify in amazing ways after the Second World War; beyond the first human forrays into space was virtually every faction of global significance rapidly developing technology along entirely different paths. It was like all at once humanity went from a single line of development to radiating into a dozen "phyla" of scientific progress. They began to theorize on what could be incorporated into the Hierarchy, what was truly unique, and what was simply just things they had already seen before but not quite understood as something already known yet. What an exciting time for the fleet! And accordingly, as the years progressed and the fleet grew larger the Hierarchy's activity began to increase. More observation outposts, more abductions, more raids, more missions of study and understanding. As expected the world descended into another world war when Cherdenko decided to make his gambit to become the master of the world, followed by the Empire and the Africans' attempts to realize their respective destinies as the Axis powers struck at both the Allied and the Communist bloc. This time around, there was much to see and much to debate, but the arrival of a meteor from the Kuiper belt and the spreading of an immature form of a dreaded terraforming agent followed by the nuclear annihilation of Embry was what kicked the Hierarchy into high gear.

Before the Hierarchy was starting to believe that humans would never be able to create a proper nuclear warhead and thus make conquest a simple affair; but with the arrival of nuclear weapons as a tool in the human kit, there came the possibility that the conquest might lead to the planet becoming ecologically spoiled and thus bring a demerit on the heads of the fleet due to needing to spend resources to clear up the planet. In addition, the confirmed interest of the Kuiper belt force complicated their plans, as did the awakening of rogue self-replicating A.Is in many reclusive parts of the world. But there was not only bad news, the end of the Third World War seemed to add little in the way of stability to the world as it seemed to emerge from one crisis only to rapidly lapse into many more localized crises. The most geographically widespread power bloc was ailing from a dozen wounds and running sores of insurgency, Embry recovered remarkably quickly from their nuclear conflict to wage war on all they could reach, the Communists and the Ulthuan were facing an identity crisis, and war still raged between a major major mercenary force and the Africans as well as between an offshoot of the Communists and some of the Allies.

Orluk and Arakrast agreed that the time to move in for world conquest would be soon. With the quick cycle of global conflicts, it was likely another one would erupt quite soon and exhaust the strength of the humans to resist while their fleet had been building in preparation largely uninterrupted for more than half a century. Once they were suitably bogged down in such a conflict, they would launch their invasion and the storm of civilized life would crash down upon the barbarians until at last they saw the daybreak of proper living and gave up on their barbarism to become one with the superior culture of the Ukrazol's Hierarchy as others had before. Even concerns regarding the increasing nosiness of the Technocratic humans living in the middle of the secondary landmass and the increasing interest in space held by all factions; including the once largely ignored humans living in the small southeastern landmass; were not enough to dissuade the planners from concocting their strategy to bring the world to their control and add yet another notch in the belt of Orluk and Arakrast. Arakrast eagerly anticipated adding yet more glory to their legend, while Orluk was delighted to get an opportunity "to demonstrate my ideals" in a test against so many others.

Efforts to probe at and understand humanity increased dramatically, including projects to try and create superior warriors out of them that resulted in such beings of power as Aira, and the world has begun to witness a spike in the sightings of unidentified objects in the skies and the seas and unexplained circumstances. But with the world already so strange, it is not quite the reflex of many people to immediately assume that extraterrestrials are responsible any more than they are to assume that robotic doomsday armies would be responsible for these incidents. The armies would be readied for battle and the ships would be gathered in preparation for the invasion of Gaiaterra. All that was needed was a proper opportunity to exploit a chaotic situation, divide the humans among themselves by setting them against their enemies, and shocking and awing those deemed to be sufficiently compatible with the Ecumenical ideal to accept their reign to serve as stooges and to ensure neither the Kuiper belt fleet nor the machines stole their prize from them. With a world in seemingly endlessly increasing strife and turmoil, could it be that some may even accept the Hierarchy's rule to know peace in a world at almost constant war?

Lore Articles

 * The Silence Of The Stars
 * The Destruction Of Cybertron
 * The Shattered Planets And Extinct Races
 * The Shasvastii
 * Femtotechnology

Relations

 * Grey Goo: At War
 * Scrin: At War
 * Great Swarm: At War
 * Star Federation: At War
 * Sundered Alliance: At War

Tactics
* TBA*

Veterancy Levels
The ranks of the Hierarchy are the bases of these veterancy ranks.

Notable Characters

 * Soundwave: Hierarchy EVA
 * Skywarp
 * Devastator
 * Lockdown
 * Shockwave
 * Barricade
 * Blitzwing
 * Brawl
 * Slipstream

Legendary Generals

 * Megatron: General of the Decepticons
 * ???: General of the Craver Landing Party
 * ???: General of the Shroud Attack Force
 * Kamal Re'x the Abductor: General of the Hierarchy Invasion Fleet

Commandos

 * Starscream: Decepticons Commandos
 * Bit and KISS!: Craver Landing Party Commando
 * Aira: Shroud Attack Force Commando
 * Nufai: Hierarchy Invasion Fleet Commando

Sub-factions

 * Decepticons
 * Craver Landing Party
 * Shroud Strike Force
 * Hierarchy Invasion Fleet

Arsenal
Main Article: Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Hierarchy Arsenal

Mobile Structures and Hardpoints
The Hierarchy uses massive, customizable walkers in the place of the majority of their structures. Each walker has 3 or 4 crown sockets on the upper part of their bodies that allow hardpoints that enable new abilities, new units, and weapon enhancement to be built. In addition, each walker has a hardpoint socket on each leg that can have utility items that reduce unit teleport times, unit cost, walker repair or add additional turrets.

These hardpoints can be swapped out at any time, provided funds are available. It is advisable not to do this in battle, since hardpoints are particularly vulnerable while being built in the same way a building under construction is. Some hardpoints are granted at the beginning of the game but most are granted through research.

Stripped Until Hollowed Bones
Unique to the Hierarchy, and emphasizing their desire to consume. Their equivalent of an ore refinery, the Observation and Abduction Processing Facility, is effectively a staging ground for their harvesters, and is in of itself capable of spying on the enemy, granting the commander access to protocols that allow for long-ranged sight. Upon construction, the user will be provided a complimentary observer. And they have more then one resource gathering unit, many of which can also abduct their foes to reduce into resources.

Blood Is Fuel
The Hierarchy harvester, while not needing to return to a refinery, suffers from a small and slow resource gathering, unless they abduct something small like a cow. Instead, the Hierarchy gains a resource bonus when their forces are engaged in melee/close-ranged combat. A necessity due to their combination of their weak economy and the expensiveness of their forces.

Blood in the Water
It is well known that Hierarchy despises trickery and deceit. As such, many of their soldiers have the ability to detect infiltrated units. In addition, researching "Ability: Blood Smell" at the Science Walker will allow even more units to detect infiltrators at close range.

Pillage Or Plunder
The Hierarchy has a soft branch that is unlocked at the Assembly Walker and changes their builder and unlocks the tier III/IV units of a specific branch. Selecting Invasion Forces will keep the Glyph Carver and give you access to the Tier III/IV Legion (infantry), Walkers (vehicles), Aerial Ships (airforce), and USO Navalcraft (navy) emphasizing direct assault and destruction. Selecting Devastation Fleet changes your Glyph Carver to Technomancers and gives you access to the Tier III/IV Warborn (infantry), Hovercraft (vehicles), Strike Craft (airforce), and Surface Navalcraft (navy) emphasizing maneuvering assaults and amphibious mobility.

Structures
Basic Structures Walker Hardpoint Defense and Support structures