A/N: Ok, this is gonna be a pretty long author's note.

Third time's the charm, am I right?

This is my third attempt at a war fic. Few of you probably saw my first, and there's no freakin' way I'm talking about it. That thing was an abomination to writing. My second was only marginally better. But THIS time around, I'm pulling out the stops. I have a beta reader (thank you Mark Ryan for that :)), I've done buttloads of research on wikis and whatnot, and I'm REALLY fleshing out the story.

Now, FF only has sections for Warhammer and Starcraft, so I put this down as a crossover for them. But this also involves Supreme Commander and Zorg Empires (an MMORTS I play, it has zero story, so I had a lot of fun coming up with stuff for it :D).

Now, about the story. I'm going to finish The Emperor's Daughter before I do any more with this, since that story's just a few chapters from being finished, then I'll get right back on this. This story is gonna have the longest chapters I've ever written, I'm talking SpaceCowboy13 long (if you've read the two chapters so far of Sins of a Galactic Empire, you know what I mean)...ok maybe not THAT long, but you never know...

History

The United Nations of Man had grown as a symbol of the worlds of humankind, as well as, for the most part, a beacon of friendship towards all alien races. Its formation did not happen, however, for a long time after what has become known as 'the Event.'

The Event has come to be known by many names, ranging from 'the Revelation' to 'the Impossible.' The last name is probably the most fitting, as this was an event that had been believed up to the point in question to be scientifically as well as mathematically impossible.

The existence of more than one Earth.

But it was true. There was found to be four Earths, each with almost the exact same history, though the paths of technological evolution varied greatly from one to the next.

It began with only three: Holy Terra of the Imperium of Man, the Homeworld of the United Empires, and the world simply called 'Earth' by the United Earth Coalition, or UEC. Their existences were revealed to each other with the breakthrough of the UEC's first intergalactic Quantum Gateway, a much larger version of the space gates that had previously allowed them instantaneous interstellar travel. The first half of the gateway had been sent to what was later shown to be the Imperial Milky Way several decades prior to the Event through the use of an experimental FTL drive. Due to the speeds of its transportation, the installation was unmanned. It self activated upon arrival, sending confirmation signals back to 'Big Brother,' the other half of the gateway stationed in Coalition space. In time, the UEC sent a heavily armed exploratory vessel through. Having only recently seen the end of the Infinite War and Seraphim Conflict, the Coalition nations – previously warring factions – were unwilling to venture any form of unarmed craft.

Meanwhile, the United Empires, easily the most advanced of the human nations, was in a golden age. Its empires spanned the better part of three galaxies, the various emperors and governments of the imperial states governed wisely under the central leadership of the elected Supreme Emperadas. As their steadily advancing technology allowed faster and faster travel, an exploratory fleet was dispatched to the present day Imperial State – then simply the Imperium's Milky Way – in hopes of discovering new alien races. The United Empires encompassed several alien member-races, but these races were excessively war-like and barbaric and therefore had to be treated much more like slave nations.

The three forces met when the UEC's Cybran battlecruiser came under attack from a Chaos battle barge and several strike cruisers. Despite its heavier armor and armaments, the UEC vessel was unprepared for the drastically different naval warfare of the Imperial galaxy, and quickly the Chaos flotilla gained the upper hand. At this point, both the United Empire forces and a nearby Imperial fleet had received the UEC transmission, overcame the superficial linguistic issues, and came to their aid. Under the combined assault of three empires, the Chaos forces were driven off.

The three forces hastily organized a meeting aboard the UEC vessel. There was great confusion amongst them – especially the ever-suspicious Imperials, who mistook the Cybrans for heretical members of the Mechanicum, due to their angular and dark ship designs. Fortunately, an Imperial commander quickly diffused the situation by noting the technology levels of the Cybrans were far beyond even Mechanicum capabilities.

Even the Emperian group was wary of the UEC, seeing their possession of quantum weaponry and the remarkable Quantum Gateway. These achievements were beyond the Emperian, who were decades ahead of the UEC in terms of technological development.

After a meeting of the commanding officers of each group, it was decided each would return to their respective governing bodies. A future meeting was decided upon, to be held at the Quantum Gateway. Despite their agreement, though, each side was naturally wary of the others.

Due to this, each government arrived in force with full armadas. With all three groups up in arms, it was decided they would only near each other in transports, and communicate from there.

The meeting went without incident, and the three nations soon began sending envoys to each other. Eventually, the nations formed beneficial relationships, trading technology as well as aid.

The first aid to be traded was the annihilation of the xenos horde in the Imperial Milky Way. Though the United Empires and United Earth Coalition absolutely refused to fight the Eldar or Tau, saying that the Imperium was blinded by religious over-zealotry in that matter, they went out in full force against the Necrons, Tyranids, Orks, and Chaos. The former three were all but extinguished. The latter managed to resist, giving horrific casualties to all three sides. It was then that the Coalition began using their experimental weapons.

Most of these did little to help, despite their massive size and firepower. However, the Galactic Colossus Sacred assault walker and the newly developed King Kryptor siege walker changed that with their weapons. Quantum weapons.

The effect was devastating.

On all fronts of the conflict, the weapons tore through every defense that the Chaos forces possessed. Even greater daemons that were expected to easily overcome the weapons were defeated. Eventually, the Warp spawn were chased straight out of the Imperium and into the darkest corners of the galaxy, where the combined armies did not dare venture.

Then the Imperials began to wonder as to why the Quantum weaponry had been so affective. They attempted to have the weapons examined through psychic means, but the psykers were unable to approach the weapons without experiencing debilitating pain. Any successful attempts to reach the weapons with a psyker ended in unmitigated disaster. Closer inspection of the wreckage of such events revealed that the psykers reacted to the Quantum weaponry like anti-matter coming into contact with matter. From this, a hypothesis was formed that quantum power was almost like an anti-Warp technology. Imperial scientists went so far as to venture that there was an alternate Quantum dimension, similar to but wholly opposite of the Warp.

An era of relative peace began. The United Empires still had to contend with a violent insurrection in this period, and the Coalition was experiencing great turmoil amongst its member states. The Imperium took advantage of the preoccupation of its allies, as well as its new wealth of resources and technology thanks to the nearly complete destruction of Chaos, to enact the extermination of the Tau Empire and the remnants of the Eldar. Both the United Empires and UEC expressed disagreement at these actions, but were unable to provide any real preventative measures at the time.

It was the in the midst of these struggles that yet another Earth was found.

It was most likely in the worst possible way, as well. An unidentified, primitive ship arrived in Imperial space by unknown means, registering a quantum signature. An Imperial strike force descended with all possible speed on the ship, and was absolutely shocked by what they were met with.

The ship was under assault by beings that nearly exactly resembled the all-but-extinct Tyranid, hated enemy of the Imperium.

The Dominion War

The Zerg – as they were known by this newly arrived force – were dispatched by the Imperial forces, using tactics that had been effective against the Tyranid. The immense confusion on the unidentified ship was quickly rectified by the Imperium, who realized they had likely found signs of another Earth. For a short period following, things went relatively well.

The United Empires and UEC both settled their own domestic affairs and rejoined the intergalactic stage. Relationships with the Terran Dominion grew and were cordial.

Quickly, though, new problems arose.

It soon came to light that the Terran Dominion was in a situation not dissimilar to that the Imperium had left not long ago: the Dominion was plagued by rebellion and external war. The Terran Rebels, led by a man named James Raynor, fought against the Dominion's totalitarian rule. The details of the dispute led to a division among the four human nations.

The rebels fought on the side of the alien Protoss, a highly advanced race that warily accepted the partnership. This cooperation automatically alienated the Imperium, not only due to their religiously ingrained xenophobia, but also because of the uncanny resemblance between the Protoss and the Tau and Eldar, both in technology, powers, and appearance. The very nature of these dissidents was contrary to the Imperial stance of total dominance over it's people, and their deep-seated hatred for disloyalty – such disloyalty having been one of the main issues for the Imperium in the times leading up to the Event. Naturally, the Imperials immediately sided with the Dominion and sent military aid.

They made the deadly mistake of threatening the Coalition and United Empires to do the same, however. Their message demanded that the other governments side with the Dominion for fear of military repercussions. The only response was outrage.

The two nations had never previously considered attacking the Imperium. They had, however, secretly agreed to send resources to the rebels, while staying officially neutral in the conflict. They looked down upon the totalitarian Dominion government just as much as the Imperium did on the rebels. Neither side reacted well to the threat.

The United Empires cherished freedom. It was this aspect of their culture that gave each empire-state the freedom to choose its own government, as well as what kept political corruption at relatively low levels, whether out of respect or out of fear of the terrible consequences. The outright threats issued by the Imperium were considered unforgiveable affronts. The Empereans promised vengeance against the Imperium, though, oddly, not against the Dominion.

For the Coalition, this was a forced, painful reminder of the days of the Infinite War. For the Illuminate and Cybrans, it presented a bitter memory of the ultimatum of the United Earth Federation. For the Federation, it was a strike at their pride, as no one living in the current nation considered the war to be a proud moment in their history. On top of this, there was no ignoring the clear messages in the Imperial communications. The UEC knew better than to consider them as threats. These were promises.

All out war was inevitable.

It all began with wild underestimation on every side. The Protoss wrongly assumed the Imperium to be as primitive as the Terrans. They were met with the seemingly immortal Adeptus Astartes, who far outmatched anything the Terran military had to offer. They were greatly shocked by this, even more so by what the other powers brought to the table.

The United Empires expected their ways of war to dominate. However, while they enjoyed their naval control of intergalactic space, their ground forces were outmatched and outgunned in every battle, even by the relatively primitive Terrans. There was only so much that their naval power could do.

The Coalition had believed that they were undefeatable with their Quantum technology, which all other factions had come to fear. The Imperium, though, was delighted to find that they had all misunderstood the relationship between the Warp and Quantum energy.

To summarize, just as anti-matter destroys matter, so matter destroys anti-matter. This was proved in a painful demonstration, when an Imperial psyker managed to defeat a Galactic Colossus with no more than a well placed bolt of energy. The Warp energy surged through the war machine to its Quantum engine, destroying it outright.

Quickly the conflict escalated to ferocious heights. It came to a point where the Dominion, Rebel, and Protoss forces could do no more than sit on the sidelines and watch in terror at the spectacle of warfare far beyond their imaginations.

The war dragged on in the Dominion's territory, but the Imperium was sure to be pushed back. Against the united front of the UEC and United Empires, Imperial and Dominion defeat was ensured. In time, the latter was pushed all the way back to Earth, where they were forced to surrender. The Imperium was pushed right out of the galaxy.

In the aftermath of the war, however, the sector was in total anarchy, and without any form of leadership. It was clear that without a form of centralized government, humanity would slip back into further turmoil in that galaxy. Harsh as the Dominion had been, many people in the sector preferred them to the Rebels, who they believed would merely be a second, harsher dictatorship, as the Dominion had been to their predecessors, the Confederacy.

As such, concrete decisions were made. The Earth would be ruled by a newly formed Terran Republic, while space would be set aside in the Greater Angelis cloud near the Imperial galaxy for the remnants of the Dominion. Despite bitter grievances, all parties came to be in agreement. Full support was given from the UEC, United Empires, and at length the Imperium – though it was clearly little more than half-hearted on their part.

It soon came to question whether or not there were more Earths and human societies in the reaches of space, and how civilized these societies might be. After all, four had been discovered thus far, so what barred the possibility of another? That in mind, it was decided that an alliance would be formed. The United Nations of Mankind.

At first, this overarching alliance was intended to include all societies – human or otherwise – that had been discovered. Naturally, the Imperium violently had refused to be party to any such alliance. The Supreme Emperadas, President of the Coalition, and other leaders were exasperated to the point that outright exclusion for the Imperium was considered, just as the Imperials were ready to retract their request to join. But a realization on all sides changed this.

As much as the Imperials hated to admit it, they had grown greatly codependent with the other governments. Their new stellar drives, derived from Emperian technology, required materials that were scarce in Imperial space and abundant in the Empires: zorg crystals. They had also begun using quantum technology begrudgingly loaned to them by the UEC, which would certainly be gleefully rescinded should the Imperium fail to join.

The Coalition and UE had recognized their heavy reliance on the Imperium, as well. While they had plenty of rare metals and crystals, the sheer number of habitable planets in the Imperium – equivalent to more than half of the United Empires, which spanned three galaxies – allowed much easier access to heavy building materials, which was in great demand. And, despite the strife that afflicted some of the planets, from remaining military threats to even the massive pollution and infrastructural disrepair, the Imperium possessed one thing that the others did not.

Adamantium.

This light, extremely strong metal had proved perfect in Quantum power sources, as well as several aspects of Emperian technology, but it was found only in the Imperium. Losing it would send the two nations back several years, technology wise. It was easily mined, refined, and even made through artificial means by the Imperials. It was almost enough to make an Emperian or UEC officer wince at how common it was, being used in everything from bolter shells to ceremonial swords made purely from the metal.

It was eventually decided that a compromise would be made. The alien races would be barred from the alliance, but would remain on treaty terms with the human nations – including the Imperium. All sides agreed to the terms, if somewhat hesitantly.

Thus, the United Nations of Man was born.

It has been almost fifty years since the UNA was formed, and peace has reigned for that time. Now something stands on the horizon, an enemy known by all sides in the war to come, an enemy that wishes for nothing but the ultimate destruction of Mankind and its allies. It is an old enemy, one far older than any of the races, one that long ago claimed the Universe as their own.

They shall soon come to reclaim it.

Author's note: From here on out, this is info about the military forces of the United Empires. I thought I should put this since people will be familiar with stuff from Warhammer 40k, Supreme Commander, and Starcraft, but probably not from Zorg Empires, partially cause a lot of you probably don't play it, and also because a lot of this is made up by me, since the game doesn't give much info.

The United Empires' navy consists of two forces, the Home Navy fleets of each member empire – governments that were generally sovereign, though they answered to the authority of the Homeworld – and the United Navy, which is formed from contributions of the empires. This organization made the Emperian United Navy an impressive and varied force to behold, as each empire had its own style of ships.

Ships:

Morthos Class Destroyer- A far departure from what a destroyer typically is in other navies. The Morthos is the absolute largest regular combat ship in existence, dwarfing every other vessel used by any nation. It is armed with a pair of the most fearsome weapon used besides the quantum cannon, the ion mortar. These two massive systems, one on the underside and one on the top, fire a massive shell weighing hundreds of tons surrounded by a wreath of ions. This acts as a one-two punch. The ions pierce and shred shields more efficiently than any other weapon, while the several hundred ton, high explosive shell completely vaporizes small ships and rips larger ships to pieces. Powerful as it is, though, the Morthos Class has its weaknesses. For one, the ion mortar's gauss coils can take from five to fifteen minutes to cool, depending on the size of the ion wreath, and a twenty second pre-firing phase is required to gather the wreath. The Destroyer itself is vulnerable to fighter attack, being too large and cumbersome to maneuver adequately, its ion mortars being useless against them, and having few point-defense weapons, its design instead focusing on secondary anti-capitol plasma and ion cannons. It also caries massive amounts of delicate hardware and sensors dedicated to the ion mortars. While these have adequate backups set deep in the ship's hull, there is significant downtime as the systems switch to undamaged ones.

Judicator Class Battleship- The main combat ship of the United Navy. This ship is manufactured by an empire of harsh worlds, dedicated only to the form-to-function doctrine. As such, the Judicator class resembles little more than a glorified, flying brick. Nonetheless, any crewman who has ever served aboard one can describe it in three words: One tough sonuvabitch. True to this description comparative to its defenses, weapons, and size, the battleship is the most powerful ship in the UE navy. It takes a ship-killing hit to knock it out of action, as its incredibly sturdy design allows it to continue fighting even when hit with several crippling blows. Its ion cannons, gauss marauders, 4 triple plasma cannons, and squadrons of fighters tear holes in any fleet before going down, often outlasting capitol ships with far more powerful weapons. Its only weakness is being surrounded, as that can allow it to be battered into submission before it can mount a true attack, as it has a limited number of turrets. The most famous ship of this class is the UES Reaper, which, while stranded from its group, still managed to take out several Imperial battleships during the Dominion War. It was destroyed when it rammed a battle barge in an act of mutual destruction.

Ghost Light Fighter- Little more than a cockpit, engines, and a light plasma laser. This craft is extremely light to the point of being incapable of atmospheric flight, but effective due to its above-average maneuverability. While useless against anything except space-based fighter craft, it does its job exceedingly well, swarming in and destroying entire squadrons with few losses. Its weakness, however, is its obvious vulnerability. It takes very little to destroy it, and its maneuverability does little to protect it against ship-based point defense systems.

Tangent Heavy Fighter- A heavier support fighter. The Tangent is meant to carry out what the Ghost is simply incapable of, atmospheric combat and heavy support. This two-man craft is armed with two sets of Vulcan cannons – one set in the wings, meant for firing forward, and a turreted set just behind the cockpit, controlled by the co-pilot. It also possesses internal slots for missiles or bombs. While much larger than light fighters, they are still too small for an energy shield, though they have moderate armor. They have the same general weaknesses as Ghosts, though. They are vulnerable to ship-based weapons. Though they are moderately armored, there are usually fewer on the battlefield than there are light fighters, and therefore can be overwhelmed.

Dynamis Class Battlecruiser- Of slightly larger size than the Judicator Class, this class comes from an empire quite fond of organic-looking designs. The Dynamis isn't actually intended for combat with other ships its size. Instead, it is loaded with heavy anti-fighter weapons and extremely fast engines for a ship of its mass. Though it shreds through squadron upon squadron of fighters with ease, battleships and capitol ships can easily overcome it.

Dalphalon Class cruiser- A small, agile vessel designed for a single niche. The Dalphalon is essentially a super heavy fighter, designed to take out other fighters. Its smooth, polished design sets it far apart from the bird-like Tangent and mosquito-like Ghost. Fighters are little threat against it, nor are ships with a similar purpose as the Dynamis.

Salamander Heavy Bomber- A devastating, small, and heavily armed craft. Though initially designed to take out planetary defenses and provide short range air support, the Salamander was quickly found to be quite affective against ships. It is the smallest ship in the navy to be equipped with an ion mortar, though it is an extremely small version. This, as well as its meltabunch plasma loaded missiles and railcannons, make it a force to be reckoned with in groups. Despite its lethality toward heavy ships, however, it is far too slow to evade fighter groups, though it is able to fend them off to extent with its two small Vulcan cannons. Like all UE naval vessels, it possesses a stellar drive and – unlike fighters – an intergalactic warp drive. It will typically hitch a ride on other ships with magnetic clamps, being too large for the fighter bays, to avoid using its much slower drives.

Deimos class supercarrier- While many Emperian ships possess fighter bays, conditions in battle commonly call for far more strike craft than they can carry. Thus the Deimos class finds its niche. Constructed by an empire made up of the Homeworld's oldest colonies, the ship resembles the ancient planetside aircraft carriers used before space travel. Hundreds of aircraft call these vessels, each nearly the size of a Destroyer, their home. The carrier is also armed with sufficient guns to defend itself, but usually remains at the rear, as it was not intended for front line combat.

JA-983 "Death Star" Ultra Heavy Assault Platform- Though named after a famous super weapon from an ancient sci-fi series, the JA-983 is not, in fact, planet buster, though it is capable of destroying a planet's surface. Though limited in that aspect, the Death Star is nonetheless an ominous force to behold. The size of a small moon, the massive assault platform is capable of carrying hundreds of craft inside, from Ghosts and landing craft to Salamanders and Dalphalons. It has no 'super laser,' but is instead armed with thousands of smaller turrets, hundreds of gauss and plasma cannons, and six massive ion mortars, even larger than those carried by Destroyers. The massive station has only one true weakness: cost. The amount of resources necessary to construct a single Death Star is atrocious. Its cost is large enough, in fact, that only five have been built in the entirety of the United Empires. Luckily for the Imperials, two of the five were still under construction during the Dominion war, and the Earth government did not deem it worth the risk of sending in one of the finished three, as some freak accident could easily destroy it when the normal forces were holding their own quite well. The JA-983 is by far the slowest stellar craft in the entirety of the United Nations of Man, capable only of traveling at a crawl to avoid crashing into a planet, which smaller ships only need small maneuvers to avoid, and even give stars (which are of no consequence to smaller ships while in stellar space) a reasonable space. On the flip side, it is also the absolute fasted warp craft, as it is able to devote far more energy to its drive during the acceleration period of the travel. A JA-983 would only take three days and two hours to reach the Greater Angelis cloud from the Regnum Victoria galaxy of the United Empires. The two are on opposite sides of all known space from each other.

Constructed Death Stars:

City of Vengeance

City of Desperation

City of Judgment

Legacy of Torment

Envoy of Damascus