The Silent

The Silent are an undocumented species that live outside the borders of the known Kingdoms.

Biology
The Silent are humanoid with angular bodies, digitigrade legs and armor.

History
Proteus Rex and his fugitive Citheronian ward Midnight Indicating Shame, followed the remnant memories of disgraced Chancellor Rho 7 Baryon of the Imperium. Through Proteus's recollections of the Chancellor who had saved the galaxy from the Obdurate scourge by teleporting a white star into the Obdurate system. However the precise method of such a thing was censored. Proteus Vex now possessing the Chancellor's memories found that strangely there was a vague connection to the Silent. Upon deeper investigation both he and Midnight Indicating Shame discovered that the Chancellor had dealings with them and that the Silent began attacking Mutaveron outposts, which the newswaves officially reported as one time incidents. Midnight Indicating Shame saw from her view that the attacks were attempts but the Silent to map out the Mutaveron Framework and predicted their next attack.

A conspiracy was later uncovered by Proteus Vex and Midnight Indicating Shame, that the Imperium Ascent was deliberately covering up the incidents. Vex being a Flesh-Pilot was able to enter the mind of a Silent captive and learned to his horror that the Silent were actually survivors of a great travesty by the Alliance against the Obdurates. In order to destroy the Obdurate homeworlds, a white dwarf star was required by the Scorchers. However the only white dwarf was one which was inhabited by the Silent. The Silent at the time being a newly discovered race, refused to give their sun and the Alliance was unable to evacuate the Silent due to the ongoing war. So the Black Fleet of the Imperium Ascent did what was needed, they took the sun by force, using it to destroy the Obdurate homeworlds, but at the cost of millions of the Silent. Only a few thousand survived the genocide as they had been offworld. The Imperium Ascent knowing that their actions would be looked on with horror by the other kingdoms and realizing they could not hunt down all the survivors, silence the misbegotten species. They installed devices throughout the Mutaveron outposts that prevented translators from understanding the Silent to keep the truth secret.

Proteus Vex disgusted by the actions of his superiors wanted to release the truth. However he was declared a criminal due to his revealed staus as a Flesh-Pilot and targeted by his own allies. The truth was later disseminated by the Citheronians in exchange for releasing Midnight Indicating Shame which Vex agreed. The crimes of the Imperium Ascent were made light to the galaxy at large, and the former was forced to admit it. To compensate the surviving Silent the Imperium gifted them a new homeworld that was once an Obdurate colony. In time the colony would become a new member of the Imperium.

Ironically the Silent's racial history in their struggle to clear their name would cause historians to frame them as heroes against the tyranny of the Imperium Ascendant.

Culture
The Silent were no more technologically advanced than the other races of the Kingdoms, but they were noted to be fast, unrelenting and unpredictable.

Appearances

 * 2000 AD Issue #2213: Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor Part 2 (2021)
 * 2000 AD Issue #2214: Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor Part 3 (2021)
 * 2000 AD Issue #2215: Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor Part 4 (2021)
 * 2000 AD Issue #2216: Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor Part 5 (2021)
 * 2000 AD Issue #2217: Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor Part 6 (2021)
 * 2000 AD Issue #2218: Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor Part 7 (2021)
 * 2000 AD Issue #2219: Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor Part 8 (2021)
 * 2000 AD Issue #2221: Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor Part 9 (2021)
 * 2000 AD Issue #2222: Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor Part 10 (2021)
 * 2000 AD Issue #2223: Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor Part 11 (2021)