Project StormBreaker, also known as the Stormbreaker Wall and Frontier Wall after completion, was a project launched by the Coalition of Northern Kiithid in 1057 KDS. It is an extensive set of structures, the most massive of which is a large wall surrounding part of Kharak's northernmost regions. The aim of the wall is to protect the planet's inhabited polar region from the advancing sands.
History[]
In the decades after the destruction of Saju-Ka and Kiith Gaalsien's retreat into the desert, there was a natural tendency for the remaining kiithid to pull together. First, they worked to channel and settle the survivors of Saju-Ka, and later they joined in military co-operation against the Gaalsien raids for water and supplies.
Over the next 350 years, as Gaalsien marauders became little more than a bedtime story to tell children who refused to obey their elders, the loose coalition of mutual dependencies faded into memory... but was never totally forgotten.
What had once been a network of emergency co-operation became a system of trade and development links. While inter-kiith competition remained a factor in Kharakid society, a system of shifting alliances based on mutual benefit became an organic part of economic and political life in the north.
This way of life made a new Coalition possible when a new threat reared its head that was too big for any single kiith to handle.
During the last triad of 1057, Kiith S'jet called a meeting of the full Daiamid of Tiir to discuss the results of their first full analysis of the northern desert flow patterns, and their devastating implications. Their investigation of sand flow and weather patterns revealed that the Great Barriermountain range that protected the northern polar region, which had seemed insurmountable to storm and sand for centuries, would be overwhelmed within a hundred years unless something changed.
The necessary change was brought about by the combined power of the Northern kiithid in the form of building a giant ridge of sand baffle walls, a full kilometer wide, girdling the entire lower face of the Barrier Mountains. Project Stormbreaker was a wall thousands of kilometers long, designed to save civilization in the North.
Architectural planning and system design was provided by Kiith S'jet, while Naabal returned to the forefront of Daiamid politics to provide the engineering expertise for such a massive project. Hraal industrial know-how and construction equipment produced and placed the massive prefabricated sections. Kiith Somtaaw doubled their miningoutput for the entire duration of the project in order to keep the Hraal factories supplied, and Siidim Legionnaires provided security to the endless stream of convoys. Manaan money and statesmanship kept the project moving forward, despite the tensions between its member kiithid, and all the things that could go wrong.
The Stormbreaker wall took nearly a decade to complete, and during that time, Kiith Gaalsien began to make itself known again after centuries of hiding in the equatorialwastes. At first, their return was marked only by communiques plastered all over construction sites and prayer speeches tight-cast from the wastes into the polar comm relays. But no matter what the medium, the message was the same: mortal kiithid had no right or mandate to oppose God's will. If the North continued on this path, then this wall would fall, just as the one around Saju-Ka had once fallen. When words failed to inspire fear and obedience, the Gaalsien Kiith-Sa declared holy war against the North, a state of affairs which continues to this very day, the Desert Wars.
Small raids began against construction sites. From an historical viewpoint, it is clear that the Gaalsien were perfecting their modern military tactics at the time. Learning how to inflict the maximum amount of damage against more numerous but scattered enemies was their goal. Strikes became more ambitious over time, and caused more serious disruption to the construction schedule. Every triad, the sands flowed higher and faster.
Of course, the Gaalsien were not the only kiith learning and perfecting their warcraft. The wall builders had not forgotten the past. Stormbreaker was more than towering baffles and redirection nets. The fledgling alliance military branches had insisted that the project defend against more than sandstorms, and the Wall was fitted with a series of nested firebases and fortified command centers. The early activation of these defensive structures shattered a dozen Gaalsien raids and left hundreds of their infamous "Fist of God" warriors dead on the sand. For months after, there was peace, and the Wall sped towards completion... but the Gaalsien-Sa at the time could see that if the Wall were completed, it would break any chance of threatening Tiir for decades. For this reason, he ordered a full commitment to "Siifar Kor'shesh": the Night of Fiery Daggers.
On the first night of the year 1074, ten thousand Gaalsien Fists hit the twin gate wall forts guarding the main access valley to the interior, hoping to raze them and drive on into the rich lands beyond. The Guardian forts were still incomplete, but manned by 500 warriors and another 600 technicians and laborers.
Withering cross-fire took down the fanatics by the hundreds, but as the night passed, the Northern defenders were slowly whittled away. By the first ripples of dawn, the fighting had entered the main gates. The last of the Siidim warriors fought and died side by side with S'jet technicians and Hraal laborers who bravely sacrificed themselves to hold their position.
When the last of the Gaalsien reserves had been called into the breach, it was finally time for Naabal-Sa to give the order to close the trap.
One signal echoed out from the comm towers of the gate. "Bring the Red"
And with that, two full legions of Sobani mercenaries rose up from the desert floor and broke the Gaalsien army against the stones of the gate. The Naabal had spent many lives to lure them in and make sure the Gaalsien would be stripped of their army for a full generation... and it had worked.
Stormbreaker held, and the Northern Coalition was anchored in stone.
The world had changed yet again..[1]
The Wall also became an effective defense line against the next gaalsien's raids. Despite their growing number and higher technological level, they never managed to cross the walls... until their massive invasion in 1110 KDS. But the launching of Operation Khadiim, deep into their territory, forced them to retreat, and the same year, the Desert Wars finished with the gaaalsien's complete defeat.