Their story began before the Gallic war with Bretonia. They were one of many elite specialized divisions, within the Galic Royal Navy. But this is not a story about glorious victories or military achievements. This is a story about horrifying experiences and the tragic perversion of these unfortunates into something terrible, corrupted, and dangerous to the very essence of human nature itself.
As Gallia was preparing for the war with Sirius, the GRN fleet was steadily replenished with new recruits, some of whom gradually became officers during the battles with the Council. The Vipère division was one of the more distinguished GRN divisions, including three regiments, whose flagships were the battlecruisers Grenoble, Vichy, and Issoire. The battleship Marseille was in the flagship of the Division itself. The Division executed special operations and received its first combat experience in several skirmishes with the Soviet.
At the beginning of the war with Sirius, the Division was redeployed to the front of the war and began to conduct active hostilities with Kusari and Bretonia at the same time, suffering only minimal casualties in this phase of the war. After advancing into the Tau systems and Bretonia, the Division met with almost no resistance, unlike those sent to the front of the war with Kusari. Due to its nature, tied to special operations, the Division often penetrated into the rear of the enemy and delivered accurate and destructive strikes.
Eventually, the Division reached the border with Bretonia and fought numerous battles with the Bretonian Armed Forces. During Operation Royal Flush, the Division lost a considerable number of its fighters in a direct confrontation with the BAF and LN's combined forces. Since the Vipère was not the only Division that suffered such losses, the GRN command ordered the Division to regroup in Gaul until the arrival of new cruisers, which were eagerly incorporated in the new Division when it finally returned to the war.
The war, meanwhile, had degraded into a trench war. Both sides were fighting for what relatively came down to inches. Eventually, however, the Gallic forces managed to push Bretonia back all the way to the New London system. Desperate, Bretonia dug in on the planet New London while the GRN was preparing to deliver the coup de grace.
Queue the return of the Division, its actions now bearing a significantly more brutal character, since, due to the new order, the Division had to demoralize the enemy's forces. Their modus operandi came down to conducting public executions, murders, and other atrocities so that the enemy either surrendered or lost morale.
Constant operations of this kind however, did not have a positive effect on the behavior of the members of the Division, they had gone from elite operatives to butchers and murderers. After some time, Vipère became a Division that did not ask unnecessary questions and did what they knew how to do best: destroy everything and everyone in their path with sadism and hatred.
This reputation soon attracted the attention of not only the special services of Bretonia but also the eyes of a completely unexpected party. They predated humanity, and they intended to outlive it long; Solomon K'Hara, better known as "Nomads" or, as they called themselves, "Vagrants." An intelligent alien species whose goal was the complete and utter destruction of humanity. The cruelty towards their fellow man, as well as the skill with which the Division performed the tasks assigned to them, impressed the Aliens.
An agent infected admiral Jean-Noel during his time on New Paris, and it is he who will become the variable that will forever change the face of this Division. With each new mission completed, the Division became more and more distant from the rest of the armed forces. Puppeteers did everything they could to gather as much information about them as possible, to mold and manipulate the members of the Division so they would be subjugated to their will.
The preparation time was over, and the Vagrants finally made their move. The admiral ordered the Division to move to Newcastle, according to him, to put an end to the SIS group there that was investigating the area and, if possible, cut off one of the routes for the arrival of reinforcements to the Bretons. Upon arrival at the site, all that remained of the aforementioned SIS group was only twisted wreckage of ships. The burial ground did not bode well.
The officers fell into confusion about this, while the sight of destroyed Bretonian vessels was reassuring, the question "Who could have done this if it wasn't us?" remained on everyone's minds. They were not left wondering for long, however, as if from nowhere huge creatures appeared, accompanied by several squadrons of civilian ships. They were like huge blue crystals and shone like stars, their equipment unknown to anything Gallia had seen before. It was in that moment of confusion, shock, and surprise that all the pilots felt a severe attack of headache and nausea, which was then replaced by melodies and whispers emanating from somewhere within themselves.
Someone screamed in agony, unable to withstand this pain, begging to "make it stop," someone else committed suicide on the spot. But there were also those who resisted. Overcoming the pain, they rushed to attack the creatures and their escorts, but then disaster struck as the unexpected happened. Amid the indistinct mumbling and prayers to some Light, an order was heard on the radio: "Execute the deserters!" The flagship Marseille, together with half of the Division, opened fire on their own troops.
Many died in the massacre that followed, a fate that was covered up and denied when brought up. When everything was finally over, the survivors disappeared alongside the mysterious creatures.
The Division was declared missing and was not heard of for two years until rumors spread among Freelancers of a group of madmen on old Royal Navy ships that terrorized merchant ships passing through the border worlds. They were no longer who they were once... Many of them even lost the most precious thing one could have - their humanity. If you were to ask the Bretonians, however, given what the Division was doing prior to their disappearance, one could argue they never had any humanity, to begin with.
Now their only goal was to survive and serve their new benefactors. Perhaps, this would be the end of my story, but another important event happened that determined the further fate of these poor unfortunate souls. Through another infected agent, they learned that the Gallic war had ended. Gallia was fragmented into several parts. The part that was still loyal to the Crown was actively searching for missing persons and deserters, hoping to strengthen their battered fleet.
Their dreams may have been shattered rather quickly. They had to realize that it would not be that easy to strengthen their rows with personnel if such would not be available to them at all the time. It struck them that they may not be in such an advantage as they first thought. Struggling for their day-to-day survival they were lucky that Sirius had some blind people who could support them with the most basic of materials. At least they did not have to worry about their Warships or that was what they first thought.
One day that was not much more special than any other day. Their mission within the gallic sector was compromised. One of their own pilots one they thought would be able to stay in the cover of the shadows made a grave mistake. He revealed himself with the Light and attacked the fleet that was a friend until that unfaithful day. Now their whole mission was at risk. Sadly any attempt to reason with their allies was unsuccessful, their trust was lost once and for all. Now with almost everything lost they were desperate to find new allies and friends. A task that would show to be a lot harder once all of their old allies knew who they truly were.
It was not long after when everyone in their close surroundings knew who they were. There was no station, no planet nothing where they could hide. The decision was made to use one of their Warships as a mobile base of operation. They soon ventured into the deep and dark Omicron Systems with all the assets they had left. Yet even this turned out to be a mistake that will not be forgotten easily by them. Those systems were tainted with Darkness and danger was always around the corner. For some who lived their whole life in those systems, it was nothing unusual to have your life at risk all the time. Yet the crew of the mobile base called Grenoble was never trained to sustain a Warship in those conditions let alone doing repairs while being under constant attacks by groups that were hostile since they arrived.
It was then when the leadership made a mistake themself. A rather unforgivable one. They started to openly admit who they are and tried many times to show that they did not intend harm to others, but rather search for harmony among them and the regular humans. A short while later in one of the biggest firefights, the Division has ever seen it happened. The Grenoble got defeated and their enemies were able to board it. They suffered heavy losses on their side and some were barely able to escape with the little they had left.