Ashreksas

Ashreksas
Species	Ashderian
Factions	Currai Imperium (formerly), Vokyran Ascendancy (formerly), Armada of Namine's Fire (formerly), Crysek Heretics
Age	115 post revitalization, true age unknown
Status	Deceased
Height	Unknown
Weight	Unknown

It's too late... I am become the monster you all feared I was.

Ashreksas' response to Nikan and Vespid's last attempt to help him after he escaped Armada imprisonment 976 PRE.

Ashreksas was a Currai Imperium born Ashderian terrorist, anarchist, and deceptive mastermind commonly known for his acts of savagery and oppression. He was most well known for orchestrating the Syndicate-Conglomerate War and Hivemind Crisis, which almost destroyed the Syndicate. He was the arch-nemesis to Sovereign Commander Nikanicreon Dara'croix.

Early Life

Ashreksas was originally an agent of the Imperium. Very little specific information has been revealed about his specific duties for the Imperium, or his mission. What little is known was heavily classified by the Vokyran Ascendancy.

Discovery and Reintegration

In 864 PRE, while exploring the Milky Way Galaxy, the Vicricai's flotilla discovered an Imperium frigate floating in space with a functioning power system, and a single intact inhabitant sealed in a cryotube. Upon boarding and verifying the control thrall was dead, they took the vessel into the flotilla and began scientific analysis. In the process, they chose to awaken Ashreksas. A brief but tense meeting ensued, where the crew had to fill Ashreksas in to several thousand years of history, including the fact that the Imperium no longer existed. To the crew's surprise, he was peaceful despite taking the news fairly hard. Now in a new millennia with everything and everyone he knew being gone, he had nowhere to go. The crew struck a deal with him: for several years of granting his expertise on Imperium culture, history, and technology, they would give him citizenship in the Ascendancy, with the option undergo an experimental integration procedure which would see his body revitalized to the state of a young-adult and his memories suppressed until an older age so that he could have a fresh start and a new life in the Ascendancy. Ashreksas agreed to these terms.

In 870 PRE, Ashreksas was returned to the Ascendancy homeworld, Voyakarai, and underwent the procedure agreed to in the terms of his deal. Here, with his memories suppressed, he would grow into a new person over the next twenty years. It was in this time he met another individual who had been given a similar deal: Nikanicreon Dara'croix. Over this reintegration process, the two would forge a long-lasting friendship. At the end of this time, his memories were restored, and he was kept under supervision. During the restoration of his memories, he would come to personal interpretation that he was no longer the person he was before. The Imperium individual he once was reflected a different life and in this new life he had been granted the advantage of having a previous life-time of experience and knowledge. Ashreksas went as far as to refer to his former life as a separate individual, and was close to changing his name but was convinced otherwise by Nikan, who believed it was important to keep from separating themselves completely from their former selves. Once he was cleared, he was released; his integration with Ascendancy society was complete, and he had his new life. Despite having served the opposing force, Ashreksas would harbor no ill-will towards Nikan, and vice versa. The two gained a new respect for one another, both plucked from their respective times and given a fresh start in a new time-period with the Ascendancy.

New Life

In his new life, he would go on to attain several degrees in engineering at a rapid pace. Displaying excellent aptitude for military service, he would join the Ascendancy's Non-Rivioki military volunteer program. After distinguishing himself further here, he would be accepted by the Riviok, and trained as a combat engineer. He would be sent on his first deployment a mere 8 months before the Fall of Voyakarai. He would continue serving for the next 50 years in the Ascendancy's military as a combat engineer. During this time he gained a reputation for his violence of action; he was swift, decisive, and was not afraid to make decisions that were risky or ethically questionable. These facts only worsened his position when his status as a former Imperium operative was be made public amongst his peers in the military. It served to chain down his career, and he would spend years fighting the stigma, hatred, and mistrust of his compatriots. In this time, his friend Nikan would consistently come to his aid in this matter, fighting for him time and time again.

Eventually, Ashreksas would prove himself despite the stigma surrounding his origins. This merit, along with help from Nikan, allowed him to finally progress in his career. This advancement in his career was bitter-sweet. Ashreksas knew he would never be able to realistically achieve the life he had dreamed for himself and would never become the high-ranking leader he believed he was intended to be. He felt as if the universe was taunting him by trickling him success. Reflecting on the order of things and panged by uncertainty mixed with self-doubt, Ashreksas began to look to his former life for strength; something he had never ventured to consider for many decades. He used his newfound strength to serve the Ascendancy with vigor, even if it did come from a past he had intentionally grown away from.

The Great Crusade

When the Gray Storm spread throughout the Milky Way, Ashreksas became a prominent figure in a large unit of combat engineers and scientists that deployed alongside the combat flotillas of the Ascendancy. His unit would be moved to the First Fleet as it converged with the Armada of Namine's Fire during the Great Crusade, and he would oversee joint science initiatives for the Ascendancy alongside his old friend Nikan. Ashreksas' actions caused his former professional reputation to rear itself in full force; he would stop at nothing to attain an advantage in the fight against the Corruption. His methods, while questionable, got results. His work was instrumental in many of the breakthroughs in the fight against the Corruption. His achievements in the lab, and on the battlefields would not go unnoticed: he would foster a friendship with Vespid Heterodonyx during this time, and the two would greatly respect each other. For a time, the success and spattering of friends he made and kept across the Armada would sate his needs. In time he became boisterously confident, fighting his status as a pariah with egotism and merit, though he could never completely shake it.

Downfall

"In retrospect, the poison had been manifesting itself for a long time. He jumped to the ethically questionable choice...too easily. It's one thing to make those choices when there are no other options, and to do so with remorse. That's the mark of a leader who's adept at making the difficult decisions. Ashreksas... didn't do that. He jumped to that choice immediately. Allowing the ends to justify the means should be a last resort, not a first one."

Nikan, reflecting to Vespid on where Ashreksas started to go wrong during a sorrowful session of drinking. Ashreksas had just disappeared, ending their manhunt.

No matter how many friends he made, no matter how much further he distinguished himself in service to the Ascendancy, and now the Armada, and despite the cataclysmic events happening around them, the treatment he received from his peers would only worsen. Driven by frustration and resentment, he would double-down, becoming more fanatical. He insisted that controlling the Corruption was the key to their success, and eventually their salvation. Furthermore, he was compulsively spiraling back into the dogma of the Imperium. The Ascendancy chain of command saw these things, dubbing him and his experimentation dangerous. The other Armada factions concurred, and this would result in his work being shut down, and him suspended from active duty; shunned by all. Both Nikan and Vespid advocated for him to no avail. Feeling anger at this apparent betrayal, he disobeyed the directives of his superiors, and took things into his own hands. Ashreksas begun experimenting on the Corruption in secret. This experimentation would be his downfall. A lab accident resulted in his infection with a violent strain of Corruption, and caused a multitude of preventable deaths on his lab-ship for which he showed little remorse. The Ascendancy dishonorably discharged him from the military on near-treasonous charges, and imprisoned him; they were going to let him succumb to the Corruption in a cell. Filled with rage, he put his ingenuity and expertise to work and made his escape.

Nikan and Vespid would risk their necks to help Ashreksas one last time, pleading with him to do the right thing so that they could save him from the Corruption, and his grim fate. Fueled by rage at those who wronged him, and a new-found disgust and hatred for the Armada, he refused. He no longer wanted their help. He chose to fully succumb to the ways of his old life; he fully embraced the violent, xenophobic, and nihilistic dogma of the Imperium and became what everyone feared he was. He believed that the Ashderians had failed in the rat-race against entropy, deserving destruction just like all of the other aliens, and he hated them more than any other species for it. After a string of terroristic attacks, which would see Nikan and Vespid tasked with stopping him, Ashreksas would disappear, not be seen, or heard from for many years.

Recent Undertakings

Ashreksas would surprise the Syndicate by orchestrating the Syndicate-Conglomerate War along with the Hivemind Crisis. In the former, Ashreksas manipulated the Syndicate powers to deal massive casualties to the Holy Conglomerate of Litiket by twisting and warping information to make it appear that the Conglomerate intended to use newly constructed Veil-based superweapons in a first-strike attack on the Syndicate. In the latter, as a follow-up to the conflict, he conspired with a traitorous, power-hungry Imperial Tribune to partially reactivate the Helminth and reinstitute its influence over Keilicaela across the Empire of Namine with the Insanity Hub as a means to turning the Keilicaela into a hivemind under his direct control. His plans failed thanks to the actions of the Syndicate--not to mention the interference of his own business partners.

After Ashreksas's plan failed, troubling evidence was revealed suggesting that the Compact of the United Civilized Systems of the Milky Way Galaxy had funded and funneled supplies to Ashreksas for his operations; a move which enabled him to nearly fell the Syndicate. The aftermath gave credence to the commonly-held Syndicate suspicion that the Compact was undertaking actions to undermine their position in the galaxy.

Death

Ashreksas was finally slain in the Insanity Hub, ending the Hivemind Crisis. Sovereign Commander Nikanicreon Dara'croix is credited with his death.

Personality

Ashreksas was calm, cold, and calculating. Even when something of great excitement for him (such as watching a colony being leveled) was taking place, he kept his energy contained. He took pure delight in watching others suffer, and would often commit heinous acts just for his own personal amusement. It was even more delightful for him when the ones who cared about his victims got to watch. His personality and psychological profile shows clear symptoms of sociopathy.