Really wonder why there is no speculation thread about the coming months after the weekend's news. :) In my community the speculations what happens next are intense and who will be the traitor to the Human Sphere. Personally, I think, we can expect a faction switch in favor of the Combined Army. The campaign on planet Dawn, the "Kill Don Peyote!" hint... I wrote the following plot apart from Dawn last year to create some background for our latest tournament. (Btw, I am no native English speaker, so be kind, please. ;)) Nice idea would be to sepsitorize the banned characters after the backlog crisis as well and create a new sectorial for the CA. But a whole factions switch would balance the Human Sphere better for future campaigns and events. *** STRIKEZONE: WOTAN - AROUND WOTAN GATE He was cold. Not for long and it was over. The energy of his space suit would not last long enough to counter the icy cold of the universe. On the cover of an old 2D movie about alien monsters, in no way inferior to Shasvastii, he had read a sentence that strangely recurred to him: In space, no one can hear you scream. The emptiness and the vastness of the universe was depressing. Viktor Orlow saw the Don Peyote escape through the Wotan Jump Gate. A huge ship by human standards, but only a small point in the gigantic cosmos. And so no one would hear him, no one would find him anymore. Far too small was his radar echo between the space junk, which was flying around Svalarheima anyway - just like around any inhabited planet -, now joined by the debris of the unspeakable conflict surrounding the Wotan jump gate. With the coming sparks of the wisdom of a man who was aware of his imminent death, he shook his head in thought. What a madness, thought Victor. Nothing had been gained in the last weeks. But everything had been lost. Instead of mastering the threat to humanity from the Combined Army, humans have fought against humans. Countless victims were to be lamented. Especially for the Nomads, the numerically weakest nation in the O-12, the losses were a major blow from which they would take years, maybe decades, to recover. Even after the events surrounding the first attack on Paradiso, where many of Nomads' outposts were being dragged by the Combined Army until the O-12 finally decided to act. Viktor Orlow, was an experienced specter and had been a member of a reconnaissance squad of Spektrs, Prowlers, and Zeros who had been on Combined Army's light attack cruiser Raxora to observe what was going on there in case of doubt before the O-12 assembly would gather which would be scheduled after the Wotan blockade. But he now doubted that the Nomads, after all that had happened, would sit down at a table with the other representatives of the O-12. The betrayal of his people weighed too heavily: The allegations of Flamia by YuJing, in spite of the sacrifices made by the nomads, the allegations by Ariadna, the destruction of La Forja by forces of all O-12 nations and the attacks by Aleph, who had recently rendered the Don Peyote incapacitated. And all happened under the eyes of the superpower PanOceania, who stood by idly. The Nomads would not forget this. The Nomads never forgot. But he would not see if the split O-12 could stop the new threat. When they landed on the cruiser Raxora, the battle between PanOceania and the Combined Army was in full swing and at its peak throughout the ship. And as his team had cautiously worked their way through the ship's corridors, they had made an observation that he hoped would, hopefully soon, reach the Nomads' Council. They had to be prepared. The Raxora had not been a simple cruiser. She was a harbinger. The harbinger of a storm. Many chambers had been empty when they scouted the ship, but evidence showed that they were either inhabited or stocked with supplies. Rescue capsules were missing. So it was not surprising that PanOceania had an easy time on Raxora and gradually brought the ship under his control. For as soon as they would have conquered it, the would realize that the Combined Army had triumphed over them in the face of defeat. Raxora was a Dropship. And where one was, more would follow. And as the cold got him more and more exhausted and his eyes were only small slits, his gaze turned to the only habitable planet near Wotan's jump gate: Svalarheima. *** DON PEYOTE - AFTER THE WOTAN INCIDENT The captain of Don Peyote had deep worry lines on his forehead. What the survivors and witnesses of La Forja told him was explosive. And made the Don Peyote a target. Witnesses were not left alive. *** DAWN - PLANET OF ARIADNA Dawn had become a powder keg. The Nomads sought retribution. And the rest of the O-12 were trying to rescue from their ally, what could be saved. But the invasion and infiltration of the population of Ariadna had progressed too far. The EI was on the rise in the Human Sphere and had a new ally. *** SVALARHEIMA You could blame the Nomads a lot, but not that they were not friends of humanity. When the Combined Army's first landing capsules hit Svalarheima, the Nomads traders and soldiers stationed on the planet responded quickly. They sent an emergency call into space: Save our souls. But the Tomcats, who were then sent to rescue them, have never found the callers.
Well, that would be an interesting twist. I expected the next Theater of Operation to be Svalarheima. Right now, in our local group, we're at Human Edge, from which we can be recalled at any time.