Linch, the Annihilation

Ash. That's all that's left of Alecto-b, they say. A planet lit only by fire. The sound of gunfire and exploding ordinances has created a dull, reverberating sound that sweeps across the entire planet--a sort of planetary tinnitus. And yet, it's people, along with those of the other rebelling systems, couldn't be more emboldened. Now, with the temporary truce with IPS ended, judgment has arrived. Either they lie buried in unmarked mass graves within their homeworld, or they emerge victorious: free from the IPS.

Somewhere, a soldier escapes from their coffin--a stolen IPS mech painted over with crimson red and grey. She steps out into a shelled-out crater, as far away as she can get from active combat, yet the blasting of ordinances still rings out in the distance. In the crater, waiting, is a waterwalker of the Reminiscence. They wear a white hardsuit signifying them as a non-combatant--a reporter.

The soldier takes off the helmet of her scavenged hardsuit, letting out long ash-red hair and revealing a face painted with dozens of scars. The most striking feature is a long scar on the side of her head, where an IPS neurological "enhancement" chip once was but has since been ripped out. Her eyes give the appearance that her mind is somewhere far away from where she's currently standing.

The two look at each other in silence for a moment. Each are from entirely different realities, one from a world plagued by constant war, and the other from one far, far away from it--even when the Synthesis War still raged. No sense of understanding will likely be derived from this meeting.

Artillery fire rings out in the distance. The soldier breaks the silence:

"Let's get on with it."

The reporter takes out a small tablet and begins writing notes while he introduces himself:

"My name's Issac Lucidia. As you know, I'm here on the behalf of the Erudition Collective. I'll ask you a few questions and then I'll let you go. First, can I ask your name?"

The soldier is only half-listening, the reporter's voice drowned out by the haze of memory.

An aerial firefight above a graveyard of a city. A bright blue IPS mech lays down cover fire upon crowds of rebels below. In the distance, a rebel mech's engine screams in agony for the soldiers below, diving between buildings and firefights to engage the IPS mech. The blue mech disengages its artillery cannons and faces the rebel chassis. Both mechs are of the same IPS-N BLACKBEARD frame, the rebelling mech's only difference being a red and grey paintjob.

The soldier responds:

"My callsign is Siren-Song-43. That's all you need to know."

Issac grimly nods towards the soldier, writing a few things down before asking another question:

"Many thought the rebellion would end with the conclusion of the Synthesis War. Most don't understand why you're still fighting. Perhaps you could elaborate on that?"

The soldier's eyes are clouded over still.

The rebel mech fires its thrusters, taking out a pair of composite-alloy chain axes and serrating the IPS chassis with a flurry of strikes. The IPS mech responds with a massive kinetic hammer, guarding blows with its haft and knocking the attacker back with concussive blows. The two engage in animalistic type of combat--no attempt is made to switch to ranged weaponry or widen the gap between them. They start to slowly descend, too distracted by one another to keep their elevation.

The soldier blinks twice before responding:

"We're not free, and so we continue to fight. This war is, in a sense, no different from that of the Cygnan crusade against Tazarak, or IPS' war with the apperatums: it's holy war. Such conflicts don't end easily. Most of us remember what it was like before we stood up to our oppressors, and we would rather die than have to live that again."

The soldier grazes her hand across the scar on the side of her face while she speaks. Issac presses further:

"You don't look old enough to have lived through that time--the rebellion started some fifty years ago."

The soldier inhales deeply and explains:

"I was put in cryosleep--my whole family was--after the apperatum attack shortly after the beginning of the rebellion. They were shipped away to the inner worlds, hoping the IPS would take care of them. I opted to stay. I knew I was only safe under Linch's gaze."

Issac silently nods, perhaps feeling regret after accidentally breeching upon a touchy subject. He makes another inquiry, though:

"Rumor has spread throughout IPS worlds that IPS-A soldiers have committed numerous war crimes, and many are displeased by the use of guerrilla warfare by rebel armies. What are your thoughts on that?"

Quivering for a moment, the soldier appears startled by the reporter's question, losing themselves in a memory once again.

The IPS mech fires its engines, charging towards the rebel mech with hammer in hand, attempting to make a pulverising strike. The rebel mech outsmarts them, though, sidestepping them and latching their axes to the mech, swinging them around towards the ground and firing their own thrusters. The two mechs slam into the ground, losing their weapons in the process. Mechanical fluids spray out of each mech, but the two continue on without their weapons, fighting hand to hand. The two eventually latch on to each other with their mechanical arms, ripping the front off of each other's mechs, opening up the cockpit inside.

The soldier wakes up, answering with indignation:

"I can assure you that such acts of barbarism are not sanctioned by IPS-A higher-ups, however, I also don't blame those soldiers who commit such acts. They have enough cause. They have suffered more than you could imagine, and with as much pent-up rage as they have towards their oppressors--its fascinating that our army is as noble as it is. Here, such acts are met with condemnation, but understanding.

The reporter holds a slight look of disgust on his face, hearing that response. The soldier notices, and continues:

"You would certainly do the same, if you saw it like they have."

The stare in silence for a moment. A gunshot rings out nearby.

The reporter, slightly startled, asks:

"If I saw what, exactly"

The soldier turns away, towards the sound of combat. A wistful look in their eyes, they can feel memory strangling them, trying to take them away.

"The truth. As it drives your people to grave with twenty-hour shifts. As it shells your cities to oblivion, with no care as to soldier or civilian. As it abducts your friends, the bravest, most passionate people in the world, and marches them to the wall to be a crimson stain like the rest. As you look it in the eyes, in all its wrath and terror. Then you know."

The reporter looks, quizzically, for a moment.

"Know what, exactly?"

The rebel soldier grabs a knife from their cockpit and leaps into the enemy's. The IPS officer wrestles for his pistol, firing stray shots into the darkness, before the rebel soldier rips off his element and throws him out of the cockpit. The rebel soldier leaps onto the prone officer, standing atop them, knife held in preparation for the kill. The text along their helmet reads 'SIREN-SONG-43', glowing against the light of their burning mech. The soldier looks deep in the eyes of the officer, in their brother's eyes, for just a moment longer before plunging the knife deep within them.

"That the IPS officers--that the bourgeois--are not human."

Annihilation is a word without a positive connotation. And yet, to their followers, Linch provides the most ultimate of solutions to cosmic questions: destruction. Linch, known as Unbinder by their followers in IPS-Annihilation and the False Vacuum by their followers in Heat-Death, is the Numen of obliteration. They seek the destruction of all things--the ending of the status quo in the universe. They will not stop until the cosmic order is completely eradicated--not dissimilar to the Deluge that ended the First Age of Expansion.
Linch emerged from the planet of Alecto-b after IPS labor practices caused people to throw themselves into the sea in a form of protest-suicide. At some point, the Arbiters spoke to one of the drowning workers, ascending them into Numenity as Linch, and thus beginning the IPS-Annihilation rebellion. The birth of Linch is believed to have consumed Relent, the Flood, due to their current's overlapping.

Linch & Mortals

Linch blesses a great deal of mortals, and acts upon the material plane somewhat frequently compared to other Numen. Most believe that this is due to their relative youth, much like ev8.
Many lancers receive Linch's blessing. Those who seek a rebellious path or wish to stride away from the current order typically receive their blessing, though those who are simply particularly destructive also tend to receive it.
There are a number of Harbingers of Linch, almost all of which are greatly feared and infamous throughout the cosmos. Most work for either IPS-Annihilation, within which they are called Redeemers, or Heat-Death, within which they are called Extinguishers.

Follower Factions

The most prominent faction following Linch is IPS-Annihilation. Nearing the end of the Synthesis War, IPS was rapidly losing the war of attrition in terms of resources, as the Inorganic Collective had taken control of most of IPS' industrial systems. As such, IPS lacked much of the machinery that kept humans from working industrial factory jobs. This caused them to start employing their workforce on Alecto and nearby systems into what was basically slavery in order to survive. Workers were forced to receive neural implants that allowed them to function on little sustenance and little sleep, working almost twenty-four-hour shifts. This led to mass protests and eventually the birth of Linch. The rebellion spread from Alecto to Achlys, Megaera, and Tisiphone, whom all united under the name IPS-Annihilation in mockery of their former oppressors. They stole IPS-N blueprints from weapons factories with the systems, manufacturing their own mechs based on their designs. In what was considered the most brutal theater of the Synthesis War, the rebelling planets saw three-way combat between the rebels, IPS, and the Inorganic Collective. A short truce was made between IPS and IPS-A to bring forth an end to the Synthesis War once Tazarak was imprisoned, however, it didn't last once the Tetrad Treaty was signed, and the war continued for twenty more years, ending with an unstable white peace. Linch is held in extremely high reverence in the IPS-A worlds, with most believing them to be a great liberator of peoples throughout the cosmos. IPS-A systems function under a loose, decentralized government backed by a powerful civilian militia--a somewhat unstable, but hopeful system. Only in the past few years has IPS trade passed through IPS-A controlled worlds, signaling an uneasy peace, for now.

Another prominent faction is Heat-Death. Heat-Death emerged sometime in the middle of the IPS-A rebellion as a collective of interastral criminals who seek to upend the social order of the cosmos. Most members seek power above all, and wish to use that power to cause a great astral calamity to bring and end to the current status quo--not dissimilar to the Deluge. Seeing how the Deluge brought humanity the Arbiters and a great deal of knowledge, those within Heat-Death believe that another cataclysmic event is necessary for civilization to evolve further. Every member of Heat-Death has an astronomically high bounty, and even IPS-A looks down upon them as a bad example of their faith. Many IPS advocates use Heat-Death as justification for the obliteration of IPS-A, reasoning that Heat-Death is what IPS-A will eventually become. That view is still scarce among IPS citizens, however, the more acts of ritualistic violence and havoc that Heat-Death commits, the more prevalent that view will become.