Amidst the wash of the cosmos. There are marvels of engineering, a final relic, inhabited by the Reclaimers of Mankind. The Bastions, their size are unimaginable and the complexity of its engineering and the wisdom that built it, forever forgotten. Upon these great shelters the successors of man inhabit and maintain the Bastions to the best of their ability. The four races aboard these vessels are the Dawi, short and stocky with an eye for finer craftsmanship, Dawi spend their time maintaining the hull of the Bastion. The Orcimur are tall and strong with great big teeth that can tear through meat. They are the laborers of the Bastion and ensure any and all cargo is safe and transported. The Eldar are also quite tall, slim and elegant, their beauty can at times be almost uncanny. They are the wealthy business owners, a kind of social nobility. Finally there are the Kromites. Their planet was dark and dangerous leading to adaptations to see in the dark, also adapting lighter frames for quiet movement. They have become the engineers of the Bastion.
What sparked the creation of the Bastion was not for peace or science, but shelter, safety, an unyielding fortress but a fortress guarding from what? The Sickness. A plague, an infection, a cancer. This tumor is not a common infection. This bacteria spreads like no illness ever known or recorded and its destruction is unparalleled. It is what brought an end to the star empires of Man and ushered in the era of the Reclaimers and then the era of the Bastions.
At first the sickness was a cure, meant to be the final cure. This vaccine would cure almost any disease and even halt the effects of aging upon a cell. The dream of immortality was just within reach, but this was no cure and soon the Sickness purged the home worlds of life. It killed everything, every plant and animal upon a planet’s surface. Then great and horrifying black tendrils wrap and squeeze the planet’s crust. At the crossroads of these tendrils grew great black pustules . These putrid masses expunge their noxious fumes into the atmosphere condemning the planet as a whole to infection.
Humanity created the Bastions to protect from the infection but the Reclaimers would be the ones to live within. But curiosity can kill and an expedition brought along an old enemy. It is unknown how or why the crew would bring back a sample they only ever said “We had to.” The effects were immediate. A crew member spread it to a scientist, who spread it to a superior, who spread it to their family. Soon one of the seven sectors of the Bastion had been completely consumed. The major connection points could not be removed without compromising the Bastion as a whole. So they were sealed and guarded. But the infection does not relent, it keeps lurching forwards trying to get in, wanting to get in, it’s learning to get it.