Among the infinite existences and the terror that plagues them, there is but one single existence that pulled itself from absolute, impending death.
It started off as all do, a something that came from nothing, a standard beginning. It held one of the first universal Empires however, formed very early in its life-span, one of the very earliest amongst all realities and certainly the most successful at the time. This Empire, simply known now as “The Former” were a successful interspecies Empire that ended up spanning approximately 75% of the entire universe, successfully maintaining its population without any major events for at least 50,000 years. The Former were incredibly successful by all measures and conquered all milestones set in their path with grace and efficiency, maintaining an Empire of their size wasn't easy but by all means, this was a pleasant, successful and powerful dominion.
At the height of their power, the Legion attacked. There was no warning or indication, no way of even predicting an event like this could even happen, but all over the universe, hell erupted as the Legion poured out of their wormholes and began destroying and reclaiming everything in their path.
The Former quickly mobilised their armies and resisted the reality-shattering invasion to an astonishing degree, these invasions were usually a crushing assault but the Former were able to mount substantial defences and killed vast quantities of Legion forces, but this was a sheer numbers game and the Legion had more.
In the Former's citadel, the very heart of their operations, the smartest and best minds the Former had were working on any possible solutions and strategies they could implement. Every hour they spent engineering ideas, planets worth of people were lost and their fate drew ever closer. The Legion's rift entrances might the cause of all their problems, but it was also the start of their solution. The massive damage to the reality fabric was causing anomalies all over the universe as everything became more unstable, pockets of anomalous materials began to form.
The war between the two was only a week in and the damage was catastrophic, both on the Former and the very plane of existence itself, the prolonged fight (By usual standards anyway) meant that the universe was becoming increasingly unstable at an accelerating rate, vast quantities of Anomalous materials were forming...
Sending their most mobile fleets out, the Former managed to gather up useful Anom-materials and began research and production of experimental weapons. The Former's best thinkers divided themselves into several divisions- Stealth, Survival, Direct warfare, experimental weapons/tactics and Escape, each with obvious goals in mind. Stealth was dedicated to finding ways to avoid detection and perhaps save people through that means, Survival was dedicated to saving the people who were out there right now, performing surveillance and organising civilian rescue, beyond that, they were also figuring out ways to rebuild should they actually survive this. Direct warfare were in charge of upgrading current arms and fighting the Legion. Escape was looking into the possibility of using the Legions rift to escape to another universe themselves and finally, experimental weapons and tactics were looking into absolutely any possibility of victory by any means, no matter the cost.
With absolute havoc tearing across the entire universe, anomalies ripping into existence left right and center and the very end of the Former's empire mere weeks away at this rate, each division found themselves overwhelmed with pressure. Experimental weapons and tactics is where our story takes us, as it was this division that ultimately succeeded in their goal. They had two main projects, both of which played a vital role in the survival of this reality.
The first project was a successful machine/organic hybrid think-tank, the very brightest minds in the division pledged themselves into the project and merged their minds with the most powerful AI systems in the whole Empire, the Chosen scientists were able to meld together with the AI into a perfect unit, combining the raw calculative power of AI with the creativity and intelligence that led the Former to their success to begin with, this super project eventually referred to itself as “The Chosen” and from the very minute it was successful, began producing concepts and ideas for how they'd beat the Legion, this was computing power and idea creation on a scale never seen before, only possible because of the unstable nature of the universe itself at that point, strike while the iron is hot after all.
The Chosen were able to produce designs for a completely unique life-form, one that only exists within this reality, creatures made from anomalous materials, soldiers sculpted and brought to life with the impossible creations that were tearing their universe apart, you had to fight fire, with fire. The proto-Azuri's were born, crude in their first incarnation, with simple AI direction to fight the Legion until death, but they were extremely effective, causing untold damage to the advancing Legion strangle-hold that was now firmly winning against the Former, crushing their outer colonies and focusing their efforts towards the core of the Empire.
It was quickly discovered that using these Proto-Azuri's as crude, blunt instruments would never be enough however, they needed soldiers, not walking weapons. The Chosen continued to refine their design and also came up with a super-soldier like design for one reason, they now needed live volunteers to be turned into their next generation, but a choice would be offered. Become Azuri or become Battle Sister(Although they weren't called this initially). Azuri's would be completely sculpted from Anomalous materials, this transformation was irreversible and would change the life of those who volunteer forever, but the other alternative would become the very best nature could offer instead. Azuri's would be engines of war, giving their everything to win, Battle Sisters would keep their humanity in exchange for being limited in power in comparison. At this point, the Former were running out of people, there were only female volunteers across the board for both projects, hence the name “Battle Sister”.
The hyper evolution and engineering was only possible through the unstable nature of the universe, like The Chosen, these things simply couldn't be done in a reality that was working correctly. Through it, they could speed up millions of years of development into just a few hours and it worked. The Chosen managed to produce several thousand Battle Sisters and a few hundred Azuri's for battle and had a master plan to kick the Legion out of this existence, they produced a bomb, able to reverse the tunnelling wormholes the Legion used to attack, this action would instantly remove all matter that didn't spawn within this reality, effectively casting out the Legion in one move.
With the Former's Empire in tatters, there was little left to support this attack and they needed to get access to a wormhole and luck would have it that a new wormhole had just opened up on the core-world, so it was up to the remaining soldiers alive, Azuri's and Battle Sisters to hold the front against the first assault. But the Legion were mounting for their final attack, bringing their dire armies down into the Citadel before the Chosen's bomb was ready. The Azuri's took the front lines, the Battle Sisters stood behind the Azuri's, ready to fight. The first engagement was brutal, Battle Sisters were slain in their thousands, normal soldiers all but dead, but the Azuri's held. Their bodies enduring the walls of Legion munitions they were forced to stand against. The first assault was fought off valiantly. But the second assault would be here in mere minutes and huge numbers of the Azuri and Battle sister forces were so badly injured they could barely function anymore.
Azuri's with limbs missing, lumps of flesh tore from their bodies by explosive rounds, guts hanging out and exposed from torn mid sections... Yet they took their positions once more at the ruined front gates of the citadel and prepared once more. Amongst them, a black dragoness with white hair and deep blue eyes, stood fearless with her sisters. The Chosen rustled up what they could, producing AI soldiers to help hold the line from their lab. Should this battle be lost, the Former would be destroyed by the Legion.
The second assault poured in, more numerous than the first, clashing and smashing against the lines of remaining warriors, erupting through their ranks and pouring into the grounds of the citadel. Yet more battle sisters died but the Azuri's held their ground again, enduring more than anyone could have expected. Bones broken, skin battered, muscle pierced, organs ruined and yet they still stood their ground. Gravely wounded Azuri's who were supposed to be recovering hauled themselves from their beds and fought in the grounds of the citadel, just buying whatever time they could. The second assault seemingly going on forever but yet never quite breaching the final divisions HQ.
The Legion eased for a couple of days on their assault to reconfigure and gear up for another assault, they were honestly getting worried about the strength of the Azuri's. They were becoming extremely resistant to damage and were becoming an active threat on the battlefield, but without the Citadel there, they knew that it would only be a matter of time before they fell. So, they geared up to just bombard and assault the Citadel directly and try and rush past the Azuri front lines. But the Former's had their own plans. The time had come to deploy the super weapon and remove the Legion.
That would mean fighting through the Legions unstoppable tide to reach the Rift on this planet. So, they risked everything. All Azuri's, Battle sisters, few remaining soldiers and AI warriors would be used to transport this bomb across the ruined planet to deliver the bomb to its destination. Azuri's would assault the front, everyone else would hold the flanks. The final battle was horrendous, killing vast amounts of the Former's very last force. The Azuri's initially pushed well, but the battle sisters flank fell from a sweeping assault and the result was the Azuri's being attacked on every side, tearing their force apart as the Legion brought their heaviest firepower in to down the Azuri's. Their numbers being crushed from 150 Azuri's, to a mere 13. The remaining and surviving battle sisters lost their nerve and fell back to defend the remains of the Citadel, the AI's were flanked and crushed but continued to fight however they could, even self destructing to simply buy the Azuri's more time. The remaining 13 Azuri's roared out in fury, grabbing the bomb from its armoured truck and carrying it by hand as they fought through the tides, refusing to fall and die. Their bodies being torn to shreds by the volleys of hellfire and void winds that tear the flesh off people who dare stray near the wormhole.
A massive wall of Legion soldiers, tanks, gunships and hell beasts formed to prevent the Azuri's advancing any further, but just when it seemed all was lost, the very last AI warriors hurled themselves into the front line, their ruined chassis's falling apart as they lunged forward and self destructed to blast a hole through. The Azuri's with their very last strength advanced and fought to the very last round in their weapons, then simply body blocking for the bomb carrier to advance forward, just protecting her from the vast flurries of bullets and slugs raining down from every direction until she got close enough to hurl the payload into the Void.
The deafening roar of the blast combined with the eerie screeching of the Void's call erupted into a cosmic event, the Legion being forcibly ripped from this plane of existence and cast back to their own existence. The battlefield left peacefully still from the events. All looked to be dead until a few hours later, where by a single figure stirred and stood, her single remaining eye searching for her fallen Azuri's who woke shortly after, the surviving 13 Azuri's helped one another. The last attack the Legion made before being annihilated had destroyed all but one area, The experiential weapons and tactics HQ. With a few surviving battle sisters and the combined super computer that was the heart of the Chosen. The Former's empire was no more, there was so little of it left that it was pointless to try and rebuild. This group was the only real form of survivors from the attack, the only surviving creatures in the entire universe...
But this was still not the end. As previously detailed, Legion invasions cause catastrophic trauma to the fabric of reality, causing the appearance of numerous high level anomalies and the formation of anomalous material, this had been the key to the production of the Azuri's, but it was going to be their end...
The survivors were initially overjoyed at the result of the battle, when one of them noticed stars were flicking in and out of existence in the night sky, a Absolite comet hurtled past the planet, freezing half its surface in minutes, there were vast quantities of destructive crystal structures appearing everywhere... there was no time to rest, if they didn't act immediately, reality itself would be decimated.
So began the Universal Restoration Project, a desperate battle against a collapsing reality, the Chosen, Battle Sisters and Azuri worked together to find ways to neutralise the anomalous materials and begin to repair the fabric of reality. This was an insurmountable task and was only made possible by the existence of the Azuri's themselves, these creatures never stopped increasing in strength or toughness, endlessly. When a Novarium comet is approaching trillions of degrees in heat, there is no known material that can approach it, how are you supposed to destroy something like that? This is what destroys other realities at this point, but the Azuri's were able to do something, they suffered through impossible conditions to neutralise the out of control Anomalous Nodes that were destroying everything in their wake.
The next 100,000 years were spent in a mad dash to combat the universes self-destructive cycle. The Chosen would produce plans for neutralisation, cleverly playing certain materials off one another or using their limited force of Azuri's to break others, The Battle Sisters worked tirelessly to produce infrastructure and support the effort and just barely, by an atom's width, the universe pulled through, forever changed and scarred by its scrape with death, but alive. It was an impossible dream, but if the survivors had learnt anything, impossible was just a word.
The work that went into stabilising the the entire universe is difficult to comprehend with words, but slowly, planet by planet, atom by atom, the survivors forged a brilliant existence from the ashes of the impossible assault, hope was rekindled, life was regrown, it was down to the endless work of the Chosen, Azuri's and Battle Sisters together.
These are the events of a distant past, very few within the Heavy Weapons universe know any of this... The creatures that now walk this existence simply think anomalies are the way the universe works. The impossible spasms of the universe spawn a gift, or perhaps curse, just a quirk of the cosmos themselves. Children learn their ABC's and their anomalies, “Make sure you report any drastic changes in temperature or weird sightings!” - “When it suddenly gets very cold... don't just find a hand to hold! Tell someone you trust!”, this is what they know, this is how its always been for them, they'll never know what a stable universe is supposed to be, but this realities close brush with death as enriched it with a unique history and creatures, for the Azuri are a universal unique, no other reality has produced living creatures from anomalous materials and that was the key. What doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger.
