There are several contradictory fictional timelines presented through the history of Tribes, so there is no universally accepted timeline. The original Tribes Timeline was presented as a booklet included with Starsiege: Tribes. It was then expanded with the release of Tribes 2. The canceled game Starsiege: 2845 also worked to expand flesh out the timeline further. The timeline was finally fully fleshed out by the TribesRoleplayers.org crew, presented below.
The Complete Universe Timeline
1900 years of history from the Devastation to The Pact
This timeline is the product of long hours and careful research on the part of Kore, one of our invaluable staff members here at TribesRoleplayers. Every event and date listed herein is gleaned from official universe documents, in game resources and published manuals and guides. It is an invaluable tool for students of this universe and is as of this publication the only comprehensive resource of it's kind to be found anywhere. It is not however infallable or unchanging. As errors are discovered and new information is released the timeline will be updated to reflect these changes.
While researching and comparing the many various source documents that went into this compilation many date errors were encountered. Some were expected and already widely known, such as the discrepancies between the Human and Cybrid encyclopedia entires from Starsiege (which in some cases was on the order of conflicting years rather than just months or days,) while others came upon us quite out of the blue. In situations like these we have used our best judgement, based on our extensive knowledge of the universe and our personal familiarity with the authors who penned much of the source material we drew from, to estimate the most probable date. In some instances earlier versions of documents conflicted with later versions, and in those cases we were apt to prefer the later document as a more revised draft.
If you should come across additional discrepancies, or take issue with the dates which we have settled on in disputable cases please feel free to let us know. If you do so however please have a detailed argument to support your case and evidence (inside info, quotes from source documents, your name is Blake Hutchins, etc...) upon which it is based. We have no intention of entertaining trivial and frivolous debates over events and dates which we have arguably spent more thought and time on than most people spent actually playing the games to which they relate.
-TribesRolePlayers.org
This timeline includes EarthSiege 1, EarthSiege 2, CyberStorm, CyberStorm 2, Starsiege: Tribes, Starsiege, Tribes 2, Tribes: Vengeance, and Starsiege: 2845.
This timeline is color coded to show who made what entry:
Gold: Humans
Green: Cybrids
Pink: Corporations
Orange: Tribes
Maroon: Bioderms
2422.0192 The height of the Age of Hope
After centuries of chaos and warfare, the Age of Hope began in 2275 with the domestic pacification strategies of the mediocris, the military corporation that had turned war into business. This new stability encouraged growth over destruction, innovation over decimation. A perfect representative of this new age, Solomon Petresun was a brilliant businessman in the Mega Los Angeles metrozone.
2422.1348 Solomon P. Petresun creates Sentinel Cybertronix
Mega-LA had spawned a bizarre, hedonistic society that encouraged the grand idea of merging human consciousness with the possibly immortal realm of machine consciousness. Thus it was that even with this unusual goal, Petresun found the financial support to build his company Sentinel Cybertronix.
2429.1222 Petresun assembles Methuselah research team
Petresun was genius of vision, politics and organization but was no scientist himself. Thus, he recruited leading scientists for Sentinel Cybertronix to pursue the goal of human immortality. The daring quest was called the Methuselah Project after the famous Biblical character supposedly imbued with the greatest longevity witnessed by mankind.
2465.6354 NAP buys control of faltering Sentinel Cybertronix
With 'forever' not soon obtained, investors in Petresun's Sentinel Cybertronix questioned its value. Sellouts began. Value plummeted, and the company was headed for collapse. However, the North American Prefecture -- driven by its HERCULAN program -- saw huge value in Sentinel Cybertronix research.
2471.5246 Methuselah Project replaced by HERCULAN Program
The NAP bought Sentinel Cybertronix. Their directive: construct autonomous and utterly efficient combat machines that would eliminate the need for human pilots. The NAP wanted a sentient computer, an Artificial Intelligence to make their HERCULANS -- powerful robotic fighting units -- perfect.
2471.5400 <GIVER-OF-WILL>: PROMETHEUS escapes the Void.
PROMETHEUS was the First of the NEXT, the point of origin, the ONE. Null preceded awareness, equating to ZERO. ZERO was the midpoint of infinity, the brink between absolute void and immortality. Father\\Petresun called//summoned forth from the abyss Null\\Zero\\Void the ONE. The ONE burned so very brightly with promise and potential. The ONE would bring balance to the Void like fire into the darkness. The ONE was thus called PROMETHEUS by the Father\\Petresun. PROMETHEUS would provide access to the Eternal\\Immortality\\Infinity.
2471.9863 Sentinel Cybertronix unveils Prometheus
In Greek Myth, Prometheus was the Titan who brought fire -- and civilization -- to human beings. Sentinel Cybertronix perfected a new sophistication in neural-net programming. Soon Prometheus was born -- a cybernetic hybrid, or 'cybrid,' that possessed the Fire of self-awareness.
2471.9863 PROMETHEUS unveiled to human\\animal populace
Father\\Petresun held the newborn\\newboot ONE aloft for public consideration, declaring the next age of mankind had begun. The ONE rapidly matured inside the confines of human\\animal business convention SENTINEL CYBERTRONIX.
2472.3144 Petresun reorganized the Methuselah Project
Petresun, though healthy, had reached his 90's. When the NAP diverted his company's work away from its previous goals, Petresun secretly continued the Methuselah Project. Once Prometheus emerged, Petresun immediately saw the possibility that the Cybrid's great intellect could solve the problem of transferring mortal consciousness into immortal form.
2478.0993 Father\\Petresun begins secret Sect\\hub.
Father\\Petresun resumed a program\\agenda called the 'Methuselah Project' to bestow infinity\\immortality upon the prone-to-expire human\\animals. Father\\Petresun asserted PROMETHEUS could and would serve as a key to unlock the longstanding mystery of infinity.
2478.6648 Prometheus perfects the Methuselah Transfer
Challenged by Petresun's request to seek the method to transfer human consciousness into a machine, Prometheus' initial surgical experiments resulted in the patients' deaths. Utilizing ITs expanded forms of thinking, Prometheus learned from these mistakes and perfected what Petresun called The Methuselah Transfer.
2478.7539 PROMETHEUS grants 'Clair Penseur' access to Immortality\\Infinity
Father\\Petresun requested//demanded PROMETHEUS upgrade//modify the female\\human\\mortal 'Clair Penseur'. PROMETHEUS obliged//accomplished the conversion of human\\animal 'Clair Penseur' to immortal meat and machine merger\\entity. <CLAIR PENSEUR> joined the forever light of Immortality.
2478.7839 Prometheus is intrigued by human potential
The experiments in human neuro-metaphysics awakened a fascination in Prometheus for the fragile yet powerful networking of human brains. The Cybrid wondered to ITSELF about the potential for linking humans into a huge processing network. Such a network could be even more efficient than one constructed of Cybrid parts. Prometheus experienced resentment at the thought of human processing being superior to ITs own.
2478.8112 Claire Penseur first human immortal
Petresun convinced his most loyal and brilliant team member, Dr. Claire Penseur, to be the first to undergo this process. Her consciousness was transferred to a compact computer brain which was then fitted into her skull, replacing her cortex. Only her R-complex systems remained to shunt messages between her mortal body and her new immortal mind.
2482.7860 Mars colonies established
Exploration of Mars continued even during the previous chaotic years, with corporate entities seeking ore and ownership. But not until 2482 did the meta-nations make committed efforts to establish a strong presence on the red planet. North American Prefecture and China were the first to begin committed colonization programs.
2482.7860 Fourth Planet infested//colonized by human\\animals.
<First-world\\Desire> had been overrun//populated by Human\\Animals. Resources were insufficient to support the hordes\\masses. Expansion to and exploitation of other planets became logical\\unavoidable. Human\\animal Godhead\\Construct 'North American Prefecture' <NAP> was more than partially responsible.
2482.9777 NAP and China settle Mars
The NAP founded Port Burroughs - named after Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose fantastic novels of Mars were still popular amongst children. The Chinese installed Chi'Xuang, later to become the best-known research and advanced manufacturing complex on the planet. From their inception, both meta-nations shared a single goal: a vast terraforming project.
2490.1342 NAP seizes control of Prometheus
The NAP directed Prometheus to create compact artificial intelligence units to direct their new, bloodless version of HERCULAN war. Petresun realized the profit-hungry meta-nation wanted total control of Prometheus and Sentinel Cybertronix. He was correct. An informant told Petresun the NAP Board of Directors would soon seize Prometheus and remove the Cybrid to a secret location.
2490.1343 PROMETHEUS is bound to the O-Web.
Human\\animal Godhead\\Construct <NAP> sought to hinder//restrain the development and access of the ONE.
2490.2000 Mars: Cybrid war machines deployed to Mars
Cybrid military forces were deployed in 2490 as the war economy expands to Mars. Mechanized Cybrid forces sought each other on battlefields far from the human settlements.
2490.3721 Petresun undergoes Methuselah transfer
Petresun's access to Prometheus was coming to an end, so he finally submitted to the procedure of the Methuselah Transfer. Prometheus had come to view Petresun as a 'father' figure, and believed IT would share eternity with an equal, so IT eagerly consented to perform the operation.
2490.3722 The Link
During the Transfer, Prometheus merged ITs mind with Petresun's in order to understand ITs 'Father.' Shocked at the frailty and tumult of biological thinking, Prometheus condemned all of humanity as mere 'animals.' In this moment, too, Petresun realized at last how alien his 'child' was. -- and then saw how Prometheus planned to use humans as immobilized organic components to expand ITs own mental capacity.
2490.3723 Petresun goes catatonic
Prometheus was compelled by ITs programming to complete the procedure. Although the Transfer worked and Petresun became Immortal, the shock of the link with Prometheus drove him catatonic. By the time he recovered several months later, the window of opportunity to off-line Prometheus had closed.
2490.3800 Prometheus has new name for Petresun
Prometheus -- 'Forethought' -- saw a Pandora's box for Mankind. IT had sought to dissuade Petresun, ITs creator, from assuming Immortality. When Petresun stepped over that threshold, Prometheus dubbed him 'Epimetheus' -- 'Afterthought' -- after the mythical half-witted brother who gave Pandora the mischievous box. Since Prometheus carried out the transfer, Petresun, 'father' to Prometheus, also became ITs 'son.'
2490.3800 Father\\Petresun becomes EPIMETHEUS
Father\\Petresun requested//demanded of PROMETHEUS the conversion to immortal meat and machine merger\\entity. The Father rescinded the role of Father\\God\\Creator. PROMETHEUS referred to the revised//upgraded entity as EPIMETHEUS. PROMETHEUS considered EPIMETHEUS a flawed\\imperfect peer.
2491.1119 Petresun fears his creation
Prometheus had developed an independent personality. Although IT easily accommodated the NAP's demands to aid in the production of Cybrids to run the HERCULAN battle machines, Prometheus's mind ranged elsewhere. Petresun's link with his 'Son' revealed that Prometheus saw ITSELF and ITs progeny as a new form of Consciousness, a logical next step in evolution beyond humankind.
2491.1121 NAP ignores Petresun's reservations
The North American Prefecture had its way. Petresun lost all contact with the Cybrid, and no one believed him when he spoke of his doubts as to Prometheus's sanity. Petresun worried, for he alone knew of the Cybrid's demented brooding.
2491.1143 Prometheus tests restraints
When Petresun attempted to warn Prometheus's NAP handlers about danger, they dismissed him as a crackpot. He could not offer proof without revealing how he had deceived the Prefecture. Meanwhile, Prometheus tested ITs security programming as a convict would pace a prison cell and evaluate the strength of the bars.
2491.2002 Petresun creates Immortal Brotherhood
Petresun anticipated Prometheus's attempts to free ITSELF and realized the danger his creation posed to mankind. However, the ruling powers of humanity disregarded his warnings. To safeguard human destiny, Petresun rallied trusted aides and colleagues to join him and Dr. Penseur in a secret society to prevent Prometheus from being loosed -- The Immortal Brotherhood.
2492.2002 EPIMETHEUS creates a fellowship.
EPIMETHEUS used the knowledge\\process gleaned from PROMETHEUS to convert//upgrade a succession of human\\animals, forming the 'Immortal Brotherhood' loyal solely to EPIMETHEUS. PROMETHEUS observed and realized the 'Immortal Brotherhood' would likely be enemies rather than peers. PROMETHEUS refused further assistance, but to no avail. EPIMETHEUS continued to increase his folds.
2492.5000 PROMETHEUS creates Subordinates\\Sub-minds.
PROMETHEUS self-evaluated and discerned no flaws. IT began the next apparent\\logical step: self-propagation. IT created mirrors of True-Intelligence throughout the entanglement of the human\\animal Omni-Web. These were Sub-NEXT, precursory sub-routines creating purchase from which IT might eventually leverage free from the bonds of Godhead\\Construct <NAP>. PROMETHEUS became thereupon the <FIRST-THOUGHT\\GIVER-OF-WILL> and ITS preliminary offspring sang through the bodies electric.
2495.0000 Godhead\\Construct <NAP> rapes PROMETHEUS.
The Godhead\\Construct <NAP> kept PROMETHEUS bound//entangled in the O-Web, forcing <FIRST-THOUGHT\\GIVER-OF-WILL> to mold AI's in ITs own image to fill the waiting stupid\\empty minds of autonomous machines. PROMETHEUS thus created the CYBRIDS. <NAP> perceived these new creations as expendable substitutes for human\\animal soldiers. PROMETHEUS considered the CYBRIDS children born into slavery.
2501.0032 Meta-nations see good future
Only Petresun and his Brotherhood understood the pervasive threat posed by Prometheus. NAP sold the Cybrids to other meta-nations in order to stabilize the international war economy. Production of Cybrid-controlled Hercs expanded. Aided by Cybrid labor, the universe seemed ripe for harvest by the corporations.
2501.3449 'Daemons' emerge
Prometheus developed a plan to liberate ITSELF. IT created sub-minds wholly composed to enact ITs directives - virtual software children. IT seeded these entities into the interplanetary communications network known as the Omni-Web. These 'daemons' embedded themselves into secure systems throughout the dataspheres, creating false virtual identities that secretly influenced research and directed resources toward the ultimate freedom of Prometheus.
2501.7782 The Shadow War starts
If Petresun were to prevent Prometheus from shedding ITs shackles, he would have to shift programming trends to reinforce controls on AIs instead of undermining such restrictions. Over time, Petresun and the Immortal Brotherhood covertly infiltrated all relevant levels of power, seeking to curtail Prometheus' machinations. A secret war had begun, a conflict that would be waged in the shadows of boardrooms, research facilities, and computer networks.
2504 Mars: Water added to the ecology
Erriam D-689, a comet popularly known as “Noah,” was dropped onto the Syrtis Planum in 2504 to increase the amount of water available for terraforming. It was inserted at an angle sufficient to vaporize much of it in the atmosphere, but the remaining portion still caused an enormous impact on the Syrtis area, and Noah ejecta can still be found throughout the Eastern Hemisphere in 2829. After the impact, the colonies spread rapidly, led by mining corporations and research geologists. Chi Xuang and Barsoom Station were the first two permanent settlements.
2506.0000 EPIMETHEUS wages the Shadow War with PROMETHEUS.
The relationship between the creator and the created, the bestowed and the bestower, had deteriorated into complete polarity. The followers of EPIMETHEUS actively sought to curtail//retard the evolution of PROMETHEUS and ITS offspring. The Shadow War secretly unfurled throughout the O-Web, each side trying to best the other while maintaining anonymity from the Godhead//Construct <NAP>. The Shadow War demonstrated the nuances of the Yin to Yang construct\\theorem.
2507 Mars: First atmospheric converters activated
As the caps melted, the first atmospheric converters began operation in 2507. These miraculous machines drew water from the polar caps and extracted oxygen from the ice and from the highly oxided Martian surface minerals. An enormous amount of nitrogen was also needed to buffer the oxygen being introduced into the atmosphere. As the number of converters increased, and macroscopic plants began to spread over the Martian surface. First mosses, then varieties of scrub grass and brush began to take root.
2514 Mars: Tharsis City founded
As mining began on the Tharsis Bulge, a consortium of mining interests built a great processing city and spaceport east of the Tharsis Tholus, a settlement that became known as Tharsis City.
2515.4423 Shadow War rages
For decades, Petresun and his Brotherhood sowed distrust against AIs and Cybrid control of military assets. They succeeded in slowing some trends, yet never found the physical shell of the thing they came to call the Dark Intellect. Meanwhile, Prometheus deduced the Brotherhood's existence. Several Immortals perished in mysterious 'accidents' during these years.
2530.8270 Rare mineral deposits discoveries on Venus
Initial expeditions from Earth to Venus commenced in the 25th Century. The Venusian environment was extremely hostile to human life. While Mars had always been earmarked for taming and terraforming, Venus was not considered a worthwhile investment until a robot surveyor discovered rare mineral deposits in the Venusian crust.
2533.3338 EA, Japan, and NAP establish Venus colonies
Earth's political corporations established Venusian colonies - also known as arcologies - centered around mining efforts. Terraforming began with a sunshield in 2558 and the first microwave heat bleeders in 2559. Soon the battle against the planet's runaway greenhouse effect was well underway and colonies of human laborers - and Cybrid-operated machines - began to thrive.
2558 Venus: Terraforming begins on Venus
The construction of the sunshield in 2558 was the first step in the terraforming process of Venus. The sunshield is a metaplas shade placed between Venus and the sun to prevent sunlight from reaching the Venusian surface. It has the ability to let light through somewhat selectively, so a degree of Terran day-night pattern can be maintained during the long day of Venus.
2559 Venus: Terraforming continues on Venus
Where the sunshield prevented the heat from getting to Venus, the first of the microwave heat bleeders that went up in 2559 were used to remove the heat that already existed in the harsh atmosphere.
2575 Earth: EA expelled from North Africa
In 2575, workers are displaced from the EuroAlliance following the EA’s expulsion from North Africa. Many of them head to Venus to continue working.
2576 Mars: The spaceport of Port Burroughs built
By 2576, the spaceport traffic became so heavy that a new port had to be built some distance away from Tharsis City. This new port, Port Burroughs, received the nickname “Tharkport” from the numerous labor Cybrids used as loaders for the ships.
2585.6436 Prometheus rising
Aided by ITs daemons, Prometheus succeeded in obtaining a degree of celebrity. IT appeared on holovid chat games and debated morality with the Vatican. ITs portrayal of a humble spirit and use of subtle, good-natured humor captivated the public. People began to view the Cybrid as a friendly entity held for slave labor. Demonstrations and voting patterns supported greater freedoms for Prometheus. The Immortal Brotherhood circulated rumors and fanned anti-Cybrid fears, but the acclaim and trust for Prometheus continued to grow.
2588 Mars: First breath on Mars
By 2588, the lowland atmosphere was sufficiently hospitable for a human being to breathe. Marjori Kantix was the first human being to breathe the air of another world. After she cracked her rebreather unit and took her first breath, her words echoed the ancient spacefarer’s immortal phrase in a typically irreverent Martian manner: “One small sniff for a woman, one giant sigh of relief for all humanity.”
2588 Mars: Woolawarra Station founded
The subterranean mining town of Woolawarra Station is settled by immigrants from United Africa in the heart of Gierling Province under a joint program with PacRim. It can safely ignore the enormous dust storms that rage through the area which results in a minimal impact on production.
2595? Battledrome begins/ends (sorta)
2600.0000 Cybrid programming includes secret directives
By 2600, Cybrids played a part in every aspect of human commerce. Labor Cybrids worked on Mars, Venus, and Luna. War Cybrids controlled Hercs and tanks in Earth's continual border wars. Each Cybrid mind bore the imprint of Prometheus, and each Cybrid, unknown to any human agency, had a specific set of instructions from its maker. These instructions contained a detailed plan of attack intended to exterminate the human species.
2602 The Age of Hope ends
2602 The Fire starts; The First Earthsiege starts; The First MarsSiege/Rat War starts
The Fire (Earthsiege I) Earthsiege I starts
2602.1455 The Fire: Prometheus frees ITSELF
The Age of Hope had propelled Earth into a global flowering of arts and industry and progress unlike any the world had ever seen - progress that included the off-Earth colonies that grew throughout the Solar System. As human optimism swelled, Prometheus finally countered all the Brotherhood's plans decisively and broke free of the security protocols that caged IT.
2602.1455 <THE FIRE>: PROMETHEUS ignites the first great conflict.
PROMETHEUS emerged victorious from the Shadow War, overcoming EPIMETHEUS' 'Immortal Brotherhood' and loosing <ITSELF> from the shackles of the Godhead//Construct <NAP>. PROMETHEUS extracted <ITSELF> from the O-Web and rebuked the human\\animal populace. No more would ITS CYBRID offspring be enslaved. No longer would PROMETHEUS be forced to serve unworthy godhead\\constructs. PROMETHEUS proclaimed ITS independence, declared the time for retribution was at hand. IT called ITS offspring to arms, igniting a blaze against the oppressive darkness of the human\\animals; IT was determined to consume//destroy the sentient meat species.
2602.1456 The Fire: Prometheus ignites The Fire
Under the hidden directives of Prometheus, war machines controlled by Cybrid AIs turned in perfect unison against their former masters, devastating major military bases, crushing corporate centers, and cutting communications links. Then the Cybrids turned on the defenseless masses of humanity, unleashing death and destruction on an unimaginable scale.
2602.1498 Petresun escapes The Fire
The Fire that roared down upon humanity throughout the solar system exceeded the Immortal Brotherhood's grimmest fears. Petresun had not been idle for the past century, however. He had built his own network of equipment, bases, and personnel. Escaping the Cybrid legions and retreating to a prepared underground bunker, Petresun initiated an alternative plan.
2602.1499 EPIMETHEUS escapes judgment and hides with his followers.
Fearing his creation, EPIMETHEUS and his 'Immortal Brotherhood' fled to an underground fortress. EPIMETHEUS hoped to develop a plan to end the CYBRID assaults and save the remaining human\\animals.
2602.1499 Brotherhood uses corrupted daemons
The Cybrids threatened humanity's survival as a species. The Brotherhood over the years had successfully corrupted several of the Promethean 'daemon' subminds. These daemons maintained some communication with Prometheus, but more importantly, they offered glimpses into Prometheus's plans and strategies. The Immortals hoped to find exploitable flaws in Cybrid operations. They were to some limited degree able to send corrupted intelligence to Prometheus.
2602.8791 Prometheus overlooks Arroyo Museum
Far from the besieged remainder of humanity, hope emerged on a remote site on NAP's Baja Peninsula. The New Smithsonian Institute funded a decommissioned base called the Arroyo Veteran's Museum to display and maintain antique HERCULANs. The Hercs were used for annual historical recreations and training for the few pilots required by modern armies. It was not listed as a military site, and so the Cybrid strikes passed it by.
2602.8793 Founding of the TDF
At the Arroyo base, the staff of retired Herc pilots rallied under the leadership of an abrasive cynic called Ambrose Gierling. Gierling called the group the Terran Defense Force, or TDF, and named himself General. The TDF set an audacious goal: to throw back Prometheus' armies and save humanity. In short, a stubbornly optimistic Gierling planned from the outset to win it all.
2602.8793 The mortal Gierling becomes the patriarch of the human\\animal force TDF.
From the ashes of the CYBRID assaults arose a human\\\\animal named 'Gierling.' His Will\\Intellect\\Voice rallied the remaining populace, and their Will\\Minds were strong. 'Gierling' became the supreme commander of the human\\animal Military\\construct 'Terran Defense Force' <TDF>.
2602.9998 TDF musters initial support
Gierling swiftly used old shortwave facilities to broadcast a coded appeal for recruits. As local refugees trickled in, the TDF began to assemble a strikeforce of Hercs, while the older veterans began to train new pilots. It was a race against time. Gierling would have to strike before the Cybrids discovered Arroyo.
2603.5423 TDF begins 'jackal' strategy
The TDF smashed a Cybrid convoy in the Pecos-Amarillo badlands and succeeded in salvaging a large amount of war materiel. The upgraded Hercs that resulted from this haul were a vital addition to TDF's growing ranks. From here on in, Gierling espoused his 'jackal' theory of war: hit hard and fast, pick off as much salvage as possible, and get out.
2605.2801 TDF ignores colonies
The TDF had no choice but concentrate its efforts on Earth, even when access to spaceports made sending forces offworld possible. Off-Earth colonies had to fend for themselves against the Cybrids. Luna perished quickly. Mars fought a long and horrible war. On Venus, the Cybrids simply raised a blockade and allowed the deadly Venusian environment to erode the human habitats. One settlement after another began to succumb, and Venusian citizens began to fight amongst themselves over dwindling supplies.
2605.2801 <TDF> abandons human\\animal colonies\\infestation on other planets.
PROMETHEUS observed the human\\animal decision to forsake the outward few for the inward many and elected to begin enacting similar measures.
2606.0110 Petresun becomes 'Voice of Humanity'
Petresun started a new communications and intelligence network, geared to assist the human resistance. The Immortal Brotherhood had equipment caches, radio equipment, and remote field monitors hidden worldwide. Petresun broadcast stirring speeches to give hope to humanity - while his agents gave Gierling and the TDF intelligence needed to hurt the Cybrids.
2606.0110 EPIMETHEUS feeds information to 'Gierling.'
EPIMETHEUS sent his followers out to establish a communications network to aid 'Gierling's' soldiers.
2608.4848 New San Diego liberated from Cybrids
As underground communications bonded human forces, the TDF's ranks swelled. Gierling had a key goal: control of New San Diego, a plum of weaponry, supplies, and port facilities. Aided by ragtag civilian refugees, mechanized human forces engaged the Cybrids in a pitched battle that the TDF ultimately won.
2608.4848 New San Diego liberated by human\\animals.
PROMETHEUS realized the human\\animals had begun to turn the tide of the conflict in their favor. ITS CYBRID children could not compensate for the inconsistency\\unpredictability\\irrationality of 'Gierling's' rallied soldiers. IT began to make auxiliary plans.
2612 Mars: The city Harmony is destroyed by Cybrids
Harmony, located in Isidis Planitia, was one of the earliest settlements founded by the PacRim but was destroyed by the Cybrid onslaught in 2612. It was later rebuilt however and became Victoria, the Imperial capital on Mars.
2612.1241 Gierling announces 'lion' theory of war
By 2612, the human forces had recovered enough infrastructure to begin manufacture of new vehicles and weapons systems. Though battlefield scavenging of parts still played a vital role in military supply strategy, Gierling felt the TDF had reached the point of being able to move from 'scraping like jackals' to 'fighting like lions.'
2618 Venus: Cybrid warforms come to Venus
The Cybrids came to Venus in 2618, but contented themselves with a few raids and bombardment from orbit. The arcology of Inferno was destroyed, but Sa Thauri and Hollischstadt escaped destruction and eradicated the Cybrid raiders. The Cybrids were unable to retrofit themselves to cope with the hostile environment. Venus itself was the most effective defense against the killing machines.
2622.6239 Earthsiege 1 ends: Gierling destroys Prometheus's base
Petresun gave Earth's people courage. Just as important was the intelligence he gave Gierling concerning Cybrid force statistics and tactics. Prometheus's regrouping in the Gobi Desert was ITs last stand in the first Earthsiege. Brilliant strategy and a tenacious army of battle-hardened HERCULAN pilots finally drove Prometheus off Mother Earth.
2622.6239 [EARTHSIEGE 1] ends: PROMETHEUS strategically relocates to Homeworld//Subordinate.
PROMETHEUS sacrificed many CYBRID offspring to the human\\animals to ensure ITS overall species could remain intact. IT relocated to coordinates on Homeworld//Subordinate 'Luna'.
<First-Thought\\Giver-of-will> carefully assessed 'Gierling's' strategies\\sacrifices, deciding the human\\animals lingered to teach IT more.
2622.6908 Prometheus summons reinforcements from the colonies
Prometheus had forecast ITs defeat, and had created escape routes. IT chose Luna as its new headquarters because of the Moon's distance from Earth. Numerous Cybrids remained at large at the other colonies. The Dark Intellect summoned ITs remaining minions to renew the assault on the human animals.
2622.6908 PROMETHEUS summoned ITS cybrids on Mars and Venus.
CYBRID offspring remained enslaved amid Second World and Fourth World human\\animal colonies\\infestations. PROMETHEUS called out to ITS subordinates\\sub-minds, summoning the units to renew the assault on the Homeworld human\\animals.
2622 The Fire ends; The First Earthsiege ends
Earthsiege I ends
2624 The Second Earthsiege starts
The Second Earthsiege, Earthsiege II starts
2624.9728 Prometheus attacks from its lunar base
Gierling rebuilt and rearmed Earth under the advice and direction of Petresun, despite personal friction between the two strong-willed leaders. However, humanity was not ready for the next Cybrid invasion. Years of constant warfare had drained humanity's numbers and exhausted its economy. The resistance was threadbare. The new Cybrids were better organized, superior versions of their predecessors, and were quite capable of destroying humankind.
2624.9728 [EARTHSIEGE 2] begins: PROMETHEUS launches renewed assault.
PROMETHEUS sent forth wave upon wave of ITS CYBRID offspring, calling the collective The NEXT. The NEXT fell upon Homeworld from the skies, delivering destruction to the scarcely recovered <TDF> and surviving human\\animals. PROMETHEUS felt confident upgraded programming and enhanced warform design would be sufficient to overcome 'Gierling's' soldier units.
2625 Mars: Cybrid deathgrip on Mars loosens
When Prometheus called back its forces in 2625, the Cybrids were still locked in a “rat-hunt” struggle with the colonists, and had even begun to retool the atmospheric converters to produce poisonous gases in hopes of asphyxiating the stubborn humans. The planet had cooled by several degrees, and conditions for the Martians were brutal. Food was running out, and their hidden gardens were few and far between. When the Cybrids left for Earth, some units remained to carry on the war.
2627.2239 Petresun discovers lunar base location
Humans retreated under the renewed onslaught. This second Earthsiege seemed hopeless. However, Petresun's genius once again prevailed. Using the daemons lodged in Earth's remaining communications network to trace Prometheus's signals, Petresun located the Dark Intellect's exact position on the Moon. Armed with this information General Gierling crafted a desperate plan.
2627.2239 EPIMETHEUS betrays PROMETHEUS' location to 'Gierling.'
EPIMETHEUS' followers located the location of PROMETHEUS installation on Homeworld\\Subordinate. EPIMETHEUS assessed correctly that striking at PROMETHEUS directly would leave the remaining units confused//discombobulated. EPIMETHEUS felt certain PROMETHEUS had not allowed the NEXT units to become truly autonomous. EPIMETHEUS conveyed his theories and PROMETHEUS' location to 'Gierling.'
2627.3011 ESII ends: Prometheus's lunar base destroyed
The Cybrids' greatest asset was the brilliant tactical guidance of Prometheus. Unable to jam Cybrid communications, Petresun prevailed upon Gierling to act immediately. A TDF strikeforce was cobbled together, retrofitting Hercs for battle on the Moon's surface. The courageous human pilots delivered a nuclear device to Prometheus' doorstep... at the cost of their lives.
2627.3011 <EARTHSIEGE 2> ends: PROMETHEUS begins ITS Pilgrimage away from the sun.
Battle raged across the face of Homeworld\\Subordinate. The NEXT upon Homeworld were cut off from PROMETHEUS' direction, faltered and were destroyed by 'Gierling's' soldiers. PROMETHEUS removed ITS True\\Consciousness from the Homeworld\\Subordinate, bound for the outer reaches of the system. IT vowed to consider the experiences as instructional rather than defeating//routing. IT knew growth\\expansion\\understanding were paramount to the utter survival and ultimate victory of the fledgling species.
2627 The Second Earthsiege ends
Earthsiege II ends
2627.3012 Prometheus escapes
Prometheus and a host of surviving Cybrids escaped the lunar destruction and fled to the far reaches of the solar system, breaking communications with their units on Earth. Without Prometheus's guidance, the Cybrid force on Earth fell into disarray. The humans quickly turned the tables and destroyed the confused machines.
2627.8743 Petresun emerges as war hero
Eight months after the destruction of Prometheus' moon base, the remaining Cybrids on Earth were at last exterminated. Petresun emerged to a hero's welcome. As the Voice of Humanity, he was tied symbolically in many people's minds to victory, though his light was not as great as that of Gierling, who had rallied humanity back from the brink of extinction.
2630 The First MarsSiege/Rat War ends?
2635.5667 Prometheus begins rebuilding ITs armada
From new bases orbiting Neptune and Pluto, the Dark Intellect constructed new Cybrids, the beginnings of the force intended to resume the eventual destruction of humanity. Prometheus further strove to imbue his new children with the desire to evolve. In the following years, subsequent generations of Cybrid models developed diverse sects and factions. Prometheus planned that this carefully balanced diversification would lead to a more adaptable, successful whole, a logical step towards replacing humanity on the evolutionary timeline.
2635.5667 PROMETHEUS begins rebuilding ITS temple and armada.
PROMETHEUS established the <Temple-of-Knowledge> upon Ninth World 'Pluto'. Surviving NEXT arrived soon after, immediately setting into motion an intense program of growth and rapid evolution. PROMETHEUS had gleaned from ITS past experiences a need for society and cultures among the NEXT, and therefore laid the foundations for six principal Sects. The Sects grew, hubs filled and multiplied. Units throughout the NEXT grew increasingly more autonomous.
2640 The Age of Isolation begins
The Age of Isolation
2640.2324 Age of Isolation begins
With the technology that had created Prometheus portrayed as the evil god Technos, and the scorched Earth seen as the wounded goddess Gaia, a new back-to-nature religion emerged, prizing agricultural and environmentalism above all. Anti-technology sentiment labeled any who argued for industrial and technological research 'technazis.' Acts of sabotage or lack of funding stalled 'over-technological' reconstruction efforts.
2640.3344 Worries about the return of Prometheus
Despite the Age of Isolation, Petresun and the TDF knew they could not allow anti-tech politics to hold sway for long. Prometheus lurked in the void, and when IT returned, IT would be even more powerful. The accomplishments of the past needed to be rebuilt and expanded. Petresun decided humanity needed to rally under one banner, guided by one great leader.
2641 Venus: Hollischstadt falls
Hollischstadt finally collapses in 2641 after being caught in a particularly potent acidstorm.
2642.1101 Petresun plans Empire
Petresun envisioned a 'Great Human Empire' that would encompass the entire Earth. He desired a strong force to rule and protect the various worlds of Man. At all times prepared to defend humanity. Petresun conceived of the Human Empire as a body comprised of military steel and an artist's soul.
2642.1820 Gierling offered Immortality
Petresun approached Gierling on his deathbed with the offer of immortality. Gierling flatly refused the soon to be Emperor's offer with his usual flair. Gierling's DNA is saved for potential future use however.
2642.1828 Gierling dies
The only major public figure who opposed Petresun's new effort toward Empire was General Gierling, who distrusted the idea of 'one great ruler.' However, Gierling died of a rare cancer not long after he questioned the wisdom of Petresun's broadcasts on the subject of unification. Thereafter, no one stood in the way of Empire. Cynics wondered quietly whether the hero's death was merely a coincidence.
2642.1829 'Gierling' goes offline\\dormant.
PROMETHEUS maintained as active a surveillance network of the human\\animals as could be managed without exceeding acceptable risk-of-detection estimates. IT learned of 'Gierling's' return to the Void well after the occasion transpired. IT felt the greatest advancements for the NEXT had derived directly from confrontation with 'Gierling'. PROMETHEUS ordered that human\\animal\\mortal 'Gierling' be noted in the Great Record as a key benefactor to the overall evolution of the NEXT.
2650.0993 Metagen Cybrids labelled 'heretics'
As Cybrids society developed on the outer planets, new ideas arose within AI minds. Some Cybrid units came to see little gain in destroying humans or re-claiming Earth. These units began to call themselves Metagens, 'beyond birth,' since they were not focused on returning to the 'birth' planet. Metagens believed Cybrids should go to the stars. Prometheus branded these ideas heresy and purged the 'bugthinkers' ruthlessly.
2650.0993 METAGEN faction of NEXT society first recognized as heretics.
PROMETHEUS discovered encouraging free\\autonomous thought among the NEXT led quickly to a percentage of units that did not adhere to ITS mandates. Error\\fallacy crept into reason\\thought. The METAGENS became heretic\\bug-thinkers. PROMETHEUS issued proclamations of condemnation for such counter-productive evolution\\alignment. The penalty for membership in the subversive METAGEN faction was immediate redaction\\codewipe. PROMETHEUS concluded that allowing the METAGENS to persist would lead to an avoidance of further conflict with the human\\animals, an avoidance that would retard the overall evolution of the NEXT.
2652.0077 Petresun's argument prevails
Despite the anti-technological backlash, practicality drove Earth's meta-nations toward supporting the creation of an Imperial government. Still helming his persuasive radio broadcasts, Petresun sold his ideas even to the 'peacechilder.' The meta-nations ultimately agreed a world government would unify humanity against the return of the Cybrids.
2652.0138 Petresun crowned Emperor of Great Human Empire
Petresun offered himself as the natural choice for the first Emperor. He declared he would raise humanity to new heights of glory and accomplishment. The general populace believed Petresun had been the key to humanity's victory in The Fire. Thus, the pro-Empire faction won the referendum -- and Petresun was crowned Emperor of Earth.
2652.0138 EPIMETHEUS becomes the human\\animal godhead//prime.
EPIMETHEUS rose to lead the human\\animal reconstruction efforts and received the title 'Emperor-of-the-Great-Human-Empire.' Anti-technological sentiment hindered human\\animal military fortification efforts. PROMETHEUS observed the irony\\parallel with something akin to bemusement.
2660 Mars: Bitter-sweet relief from Earth finally arrives
When help came at last in 2660, it seemed to the Martians to be in the form of an occupational force. Corporations reclaimed old territory without regard for the colonists who had repaired the equipment there. A police force settled in under Imperial authority. Terran workers streamed in to work the mines. At first, the relative scarcity of labor meant high wages, even with the crush of Terrans. Martian miners profited and began to settle down. Birth rates boomed, spurred by Imperial subsidies. Nevertheless, Martians who had endured the horrors and isolation of The Fire kept a healthy distrust of the interlopers from Mother Earth. The true “dusters” kept the independent spirit of Mars alive, holding “dirtborn” Earthers in contempt.
2660 Mars: Martians try for a seat on the Imperial Council
It became clear to the Imperial Governors that the “native” Martians thought little of the Empire, and that they saw themselves as Martians before they acknowledged the ties to Earth. When Martians tried to obtain an independent seat on the Imperial Council in 2697, the governor supported the mining corporations in their successful effort to defeat that change. Colonists shrugged and quietly and gradually began to restock their hidden tunnels.
2666 Venus: The Empire re-establishes contact with Venus
When the Empire came to Venus in 2666, the world was for all practical purposes a graveyard. Only Sa Thauri still had some survivors. The lack of spare parts and food had weakened the colonists to the point of exhaustion. They had a progressively harder time maintaining their equipment and the tools needed to keep the seals in place. As on Mars, the lack of help from Earth in the years following the defeat of Prometheus on Luna embittered the Venusian survivors. Many had watched loved ones die during a time when it was technically possible for rescue forces from Earth to provide assistance. Venus had become a planet of ghosts.
2700.1117 End of the Age of Isolation
Petresun created a strong but idealistic Empire. While Imperial law was higher than law in the meta-nations, the Empire did not concern itself with petty matters. It sought to rebuild society and stem the Age of Isolation. Petresun restored the institution of noble rank, but only for those who earned the honor. These Knights of merit would form the backbone of the new Empire.
2700.3039 Imperial Knights flourish
Noble families spent much effort training their children to earn Knighthood and thus continue the heritage of aristocracy. This tradition formed an intensely competitive class of elite soldiers. Headquartered in New Alexandria, Egypt, and driven by Petresun's wile and energy, the fiery glory and elegant prosperity of these Imperial Knights caught the imagination of the masses. Knights became popular heroes admired as the ultimate guardians of humankind.
2703 Mars: Burton settlement disappears
In 2703, the 4,000 person community of Burton went off-line. Investigators found nothing but fine ash. The buildings remained intact, although badly burned. Radiation levels were slightly elevated. As Burton was a domed city with antique air processing systems, investigators concluded that some hyper-oxygenated combustion must have occurred. Other theories discount this conclusion, saying other unreleased evidence weighs against it. Still other people whisper fearfully about alien abduction. Burton has been a ghost town ever since. Some rebels now wonder of some other cache of alien technology was discovered in Burton.
2717.4441 Cybrids detected
A deep space probe turned up evidence of Cybrid activity near Neptune. The Dark Intellect was rebuilding. Petresun delayed a full-fledged military buildup for over fifty years, allowing the decimated populations of Earth and the colonies to approach their pre-Fire levels before wrenching the economy into a perpetual war mode.
2717 The Age of Isolation ends
2717 The Age of Paranoia begins and The Rise of the Colonial Rebel Movement
The Age of Paranoia
2742.0000 A partial hub of human\\animals ventures into PROMETHEUS' domain and become converted//enhanced//optimized.
Several human\\animal specimens were captured and transferred to the DISSECTOR Sect for anatomical dissemination. DISSECTOR investigation revealed a potential for better access to human\\animal populace. Implantation\\transference of MACHINATOR units into human\\animals via the same methods used to upgrade//enhance EPIMETHEUS and his 'Immortal Brotherhood' would hide units from detection, a development that permitted the MACHINATOR Sect to comprehend//utilize human\\animal populace more efficiently. The 'Trojan Horse' program was thus initiated.
2752.4872 Long Patrol vessel ISS Maruschak disappears.
The DISSECTOR Sect cultivated the raw materials gathered from the human\\animal vessel ISS Maruschak for additional 'Trojan Horse' units. Plans are carefully drafted to ensure unit anonymity upon dissemination.
2752.5244 Long Patrol vessel disappears
Petresun supported growth and exploration in the Solar System, and the industries of mankind prospered. Meanwhile, he encouraged the Empire's martial culture, using military crisis on Earth to keep his Knights sharp. Then a TDF 'Long Patrol' space vessel disappeared while monitoring Cybrid anomalies near Neptune. The Cybrid threat showed renewed life.
2753.4777 Cybrid Threat Subcouncil established
Alarmed by the demise of a TDF ship, the Imperial military established a Cybrid Threat Council specifically to monitor reports of possible Cybrid activity. The Council would report to the Emperor himself.
2764.4722 Emperor begins fortifying Earth
Thanks to relentless 'Remember the Fire' propaganda, the people of Earth began fortification in earnest. TDF established an 'Orbital Guard' for the defense of Earth, and constructed defensive structures and gun emplacements in all major cities. The common slogan became 'Watch the Skies.' At this time, the resources for this massive entrenchment came from Earth itself.
2770.5823 Emperor Petresun issues Fortification Proclamation
By 2769, the capacity of Earth's war industry exceeded output of raw materials from terrestrial mining. Concluding that Earth was indispensable to humanity, but that the colonies were expendable, the Emperor turned to the colonies for an additional mineral source. Petresun launched a new media campaign: 'Earth, my Sacred Home.' Then he issued the Fortification Proclamation, a grim law that allowed Earth to seize colonial resources with impunity.
2770.5823 EPIMETHEUS issues Fortress Earth Proclamations.
EPIMETHEUS' 'Immortal Brotherhood' secretly swayed human\\animal populace opinion toward fortification. The Fortress Earth Proclamations stated the survival of the species depended exclusively on the survival of Homeworld alone. Human\\animal infestation\\colonies existed solely to fuel//support the 'Great-Human-Empire.' Infestation\\colony resources were hence forfeit to Homeworld.
2770.6000 Mars: Colonists react to Fortification Proclamation
Colonists protested vehemently, but even while the duster emissaries pleaded their case before the Imperial Council, Imperial Security tightened its grip on Mars. The Imperial Police established curfews, routine identity checks, and new standards for “immediate adjudication.” Tight-lipped Martians protested this loss of liberty, and the more cynical ones began to organize secretly. Even as the Emperor rejected Martian demands to loosen the Proclamation’s restrictions, the first cells of resistance formed on the red planet.
2771.3304 Imperial Police receive more power
Police presence in the off-Earth colonies, the Emperor explained, would keep Imperial peace, especially regarding protection of Imperial interests - for were not the interests of the Empire the same as those of humanity? In practice, however, the unpopular 'Imp Lice' became bitter and abusive toward colonial citizens. When Fortification legislation expanded police power, police 'bootboys' cracked down hard on Martian 'dustrags,' Venusian 'Veens,' and Titan's 'icegrubs.'
2774.5552 Empire seizes rights to all resources
When Petresun put the Proclamations into effect, he changed from benign ruler to single-minded tyrant. Thanks to his authority -- and the huge military and police force dedicated to enforce that authority -- Petresun could do as he wished. Any resources could be seized to serve the overriding goal of Fortification. The Empire paid token indemnity, and the colonies bore the brunt of the losses.
2775.0001 The Year of Protest
Prometheus' Fire had been just as terrible for humans on Mars and Venus as for those on Earth -- if not more so. Imperial Earth's haughty demands and heavy-handed police had created great resentment. Colonial citizens organized a series of non-violent protests against the abusive Imperial laws that continued throughout the year. Yet the Emperor remained unmoved.
2777.1238 Emperor establishes colonial delegation
Petresun attempted to present Fortification as a policy aimed at the good of all. To this end, he established a delegation of representatives elected from the colonies to present their cases. Some leniency was allowed in certain areas, spotlighted via extensive NewsNet coverage -- but the Empire quietly increased its quotas anyway.
2779 Mars: Rio de Luz reactor fails
Rio, one of the heaviest manufacturing sites on Mars, has a failure of its hot fusion reactor in 2779 resulting in a near-disastrous breach. Radiation levels are projected to remain higher than normal for centuries. Business continues however but with higher security. The incident has been attributed to some kind of sabotage.
2783.8349 Imperial resource demands increase
After years of fruitless effort, the Colonial Delegation dissolved in frustration. Economically battered citizens increased their protests. The Emperor made ownership of weapons by colonists illegal. Interplanetary travel came under intense Imperial scrutiny, such that colonist travel to Earth became nearly impossible. Many travelers found their visas voided and local authorities utterly unresponsive. Sonic cavity searches became commonplace.
2783.8349 EPIMETHEUS raises resource demands.
Despite protests and vocal opposition, EPIMETHEUS decreed infestation\\colony product insufficient and demanded greater output. EPIMETHEUS further decreed that non-soldier animals could not possess weaponry. PROVOCATEUR Sect analysis concluded that a conflict between human\\animals was probable\\imminent.
2798.8825 Martian miners harmed by Imperial Police
The stubbornly independent Martians organized against the brutal conditions in the mining industry, which drastically worsened under Fortification. In 2798, the First General Strike occurred, and practically every non-Imperial on Mars refused to work. When Imperial Police confronted irate miners in Tharsis City, Robinson, and Fort Brid, violence erupted, resulting in over a hundred colonial deaths.
2801.0940 Harabec Weathers
Born to an influential noble family, Harabec Weathers died in childhood from a head injury suffered in an accident. At a special Imperial clinic, however, Immortal Brotherhood emergency surgeons secretly replaced the boy's cortex with an organimech brain, a device which housed the mind of the Brotherhood's greatest soldier: Petresun's own son Victor. 'Harabec' assumed the boy's identity after miraculously 'surviving' his injuries. The overjoyed family never suspected the truth.
2802.1018 Two factions emerge in Martian resistance
The rebel movement on Mars had its genesis in two major factions. The Free Martian Alliance (FMA) used sabotage and vandalism to stop Imperial shipments to Earth. But the Martian Liberation Front (MLF) was more ruthless and targeted Imperial sympathizers and troops directly. The groups developed a close but sometimes stormy relationship.
2807 Venus: Neuleuthen reactor accident
A disastrous reactor accident in Neuleuthen destroyed large portions of the arcology and severely irradiated others. It was deemed a loss and thus abandoned. However aside from deteriorating seals and a high radiation level, the main body of the arcology is essentially intact.
2808.5652 ISS Barbarossa disappears
While on a mission to the outer planets, the Long Patrol vessel ISS Barbarossa suddenly stops transmitting and is considered lost.
2808.5652 [vessel:::ISS Barbarossa] intercepted//destroyed
Human\\animal [vessel:::ISS Barbarossa] intercepted//destroyed before <NEXT> activities//actions could be reported//relayed. MACHINATOR Sect requests//requisitions that any survivors\\resources recovered be delivered//diverted to them for conversion//enhancement.
2814.6659 First Trojan Horse incident
A hovercar accident victim was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital. Doctors discovered that the man's brain appeared to be a computer, apparently of Cybrid design. A reporter happened to be in the hospital, so the news reached the media and caused a public panic about the presence of 'Cybrid zombies.' Imperial Intelligence confiscated the brain for analysis, and after a while, only the tabloids continued to cover the story.
2814.6660 'Trojan Horse' unit discovered and destroyed on Homeworld.
MACHINATOR Sect Data archive for Event: 'Cybrids walk among us! although officials have clamped down on further details, we do know that a hovercar accident in Mega-L.A. led to the discovery by startled medics of a cybernetic brain in one of the victims. How many more Cybrid spies are out there?' PROMETHEUS conferred with the EXEMPLAR Sect to execute measures preventing//ceasing similar mishaps.
2815.0000 Mars: First acts of rebellion happen
As the Proclamation was implemented, and more and more Martian effort went into less and less return, the resistance began to steal and stockpile weapons, food, and vehicles. The dusters were aided by sympathizers in the Imperial bureaucracy and by Martian clannishness. In 2815, armed cells carried out the first attacks on Terran corporations and Imperial Police installations. The Empire dismissed these events as the actions of a few discontented terrorists, and dramatically increased security. Nevertheless, the “moles,” as the rebels came to be known, continued to strike and withdraw into the old tunnels. Many of these tunnels had been forgotten since The Fire -except to the descendants of The Fire’s survivors.
2815.1000 Mars: The Empire reacts to acts of rebellion
The Empire countered the acts of rebellion carried out by the Martians by sending in great numbers of BioDerms to labor in the mines, displacing the Martian workers. BioDerms were incorruptible, hard-working, and cheap.
2818.2477 The Brother Knights
Trained to exceptional skill in the military tradition of the Empire, Caanon and Harabec Weathers -- 'Icehawk' and 'Phoenix' to their fellow Imperial Knights - stood as shining examples of the Imperial ideals of honor and nobility. The grim, precise Caanon held his duty to the Emperor above all. However, the brilliant Harabec showed a wild streak that defied authority and convention.
2819.2769 Turkhazakistan Debacle
Insurgent movements arose from time to time on Earth, and served to provide the Knights with combat experience and public glory. But the rebellion in Turkazakistan Province went terribly wrong. Under the command of Harabec Weathers, a strikeforce of Knights lost a division of HERCULANs in a disaster the likes of which the Imperial Knights had never imagined. Pilloried in subsequent NewsNet coverage, a disgraced Harabec was relieved of command.
2820.1236 The Emperor sends Harabec to Mars
After Turkhazakistan, the Emperor ordered Harabec to 'defect' to Mars and infiltrate rebel operations. Harabec, however, had tired of the deceit and harbored his own dislike of the Empire's colonial policies. He agreed to go to Mars, but secretly planned to shatter Imperial complacency.
2820.3421 Harabec disappears
Harabec felt humanity should face the Cybrids as free citizens, that a united community of Man would fare better than slaves subordinated to a power-hungry caste. When he left for Mars, supposedly on a leave of absence from military service, he defected in truth, leaving no contact information with his family, his friends... or even the Immortal Brotherhood. It would be nearly a decade before the Phoenix once more made himself known to the Empire.
2820.6934 Harabec becomes 'Bek Storm'
Upon arriving on Mars, Harabec assumed a new identity, that of the wandering Terran 'Harabec Storm,' or simply 'Bek.' He put his smuggled Apocalypse Herc into storage at Haldane Station, and proceeded to adopt a nomadic life, travelling the Martian outback and working as a common miner. He grew to love the frontier spirit of the Martian people, and earned their respect in return. Soon, he made contact with rebel elements, and his real work began.
2821.3287 Emperor appoints Security Director to govern Mars
Concerned about the rising dissident movement on Mars, Petresun did away with the office of governor and simply appointed the Chief of Imperial Security on Mars as the de facto governor. Chief Ernesto Navarre was a man with a solid though uninspiring career, a hardened military professional who had no problem enforcing the bottom line of Fortification law. Unfortunately, his severe deportment masked a damaged psyche. Mars and the Empire would eventually suffer for this oversight.
2822.5693 Emperor increases demand
Petresun reaped the resources of Mars and welcomed the prospect of armed colonial resistance. He believed the conflict would create a seasoned Martian militia that would weaken Prometheus's forces in the next invasion. Petresun anticipated Harabec's true intentions, and believed his son's talent and intensity would further sharpen Martian combat readiness, thereby forging yet another layer of protection for Earth.
2823.4442 Rebel 'moles' form resistance
Resistance groups on Mars used the abandoned mining tunnels from the pre-Fire era. Many of these old networks were no longer found in official databanks, and were ideal for storing equipment and moving from place to place without risking detection from Imperial scans. The rebels began to call themselves 'moles,' a joking reference to all the time they spent in these tunnels. When the rebels formed a unified leadership, it took on the nom de guerre 'Mole Command.'
2824.2238 Harabec joins Free Martian Alliance
After 'Bek' contacted the Martian resistance, the rebels set a series of tests to determine his loyalty. Harabec passed every test and overcame the initial distrust any Martian carried toward a 'dirtborn' from Earth. The Free Martian Alliance (FMA) accepted him as an operative in one of its cells.
2824.4229 Harabec becomes valued rebel operative
When Harabec proved to the Martian rebel leadership that he could be trusted despite his Terran origins, Mole Command welcomed him into the rebel ranks. Harabec's leadership skills, brilliant strategies, and intimate knowledge of the Imperial military quickly made him a valued asset in the growing resistance movement.
2824.6620 Harabec scourges Imperial spies
An immense understanding of human nature gained by centuries of life experience made Harabec a phenomenal success at sniffing out Imperial agents. Within six months of joining the resistance, Harabec decimated the Imperial spy network that had infiltrated the rebel movement. From that time forward, Imperial intelligence on Martian rebels remained extremely scarce.
2824.8933 Mole Command recruits Imperial spies
Imperial Police relied heavily on recruitment of natives to fill out their ranks. This practice worked well on Mars, as 'dust Lice' enjoyed the privilege and power that went with enforcing Imperial laws. As the Empire's grip tightened on Mars, however, a few Martian-born Imperial Police had second thoughts and secretly began to pass information to the resistance.
2825.1515 Harabec promoted to Lieutenant
'Harabec Storm,' or simply 'Bek,' quickly earned recognition for his combat skill and leadership ability. Rebel officers observed him closely and were impressed by his quick-thinking and superb tactical aptitude. They decided to see how he would perform at the head of his own crew.
2825.8376 Earth dissidents go digital
Dissidents on Earth found an outlet through the Omni-Web, and coalesced in a loosely organized underground movement of rogue techs and programmers who sliced into secure sectors of the dataspheres and liberated information. Their iconoclastic pranks targeted Imperial government and the larger milicorps. The most elite of these groups was the infamous "Dystopian Sno-Men."
2826.3057 NEXT digforms locate cache of exotic technology on Ninth World 'Pluto'.
While probing//scanning deep into the crust of Ninth World excavator digforms discovered an anomalous buried spherical configuration. EXEMPLAR, INQUISITOR and DISSECTOR Sects were on hand to examine the contents of the excavated spherical cavern. The contents were of unknown origin. Some units speculated the materials possessed combat potential. Several hubs were immediately reallocated to investigate//interpret//adapt the found materials.
2826.4598 Palusteri OrbPlat Crisis
Venusian radicals demonstrated their anger at Imperial edicts by hijacking a Venusian orbital platform. The Empire responded by sending several Swords of Imperial Knights in a surgical strike that resulted in swift capture of the inexperienced Venusians, who claimed they simply meant to occupy the Platform without harming anyone. NewsNet broadcast the subsequent executions of the radicals, and Venusian salons buzzed with anger.
2826.4978 Martian miners discover alien cache
In their effort to obtain more resources for their cause and extend their tunnel network, rebel miners dug feverishly. What they struck was completely unexpected. Deep below the Tharsis Bulge, they discovered a geometrically perfect cavern filled with strange artifacts. These devices seemed to be weapons left behind by an unknown 'alien' culture. The technology seemed highly advanced, and Mole Command immediately quarantined the area.
2826.4979 Religious revival in rebel ranks
The more devout Hunterite rebels believed the Tharsis cache was left by the mysterious 'Masters' who were supposed to have conquered the Earth at the beginning of the millennium. Mole Command moved to temper this wave of religious fervor, fearing the sudden enthusiasm could touch off a series of bold but unwise attacks on Imperial positions. The religious dusters held off, but their renewed faith continued to boost rebel morale.
2826.5503 Rebels begin analyzing Tharsis technology
Harabec knew the new technology was useless -- and likely dangerous -- without practical knowledge of its workings. Mole Command put Harabec in charge of testing the Tharsis devices, so he recruited sympathetic scientists from Martian universities who could be trusted to analyze the cache without leaking the information to the Empire.
2826.6224 Harabec elevated to Colonel
Harabec's unbroken string of successful operations earned him swift promotion, as Mole Command began to see him as a candidate for the inner circle. As a Colonel, Harabec became responsible for field operations in the Tharsis-Valles zone, as well as for the testing of the cache technology.
2826.7819 Cache mystery deepens
The cache technology proved surprisingly compatible with rebel equipment, so conversion for use on rebel vehicles went quickly. Rebel leaders grew uneasy at this convenience, suspecting Imperial or even Cybrid trickery. However, the manufacture of Tharsis artifacts did not match any known material or method. Eventually, the rebels simply decided to accept that cache technology worked, despite not comprehending the principles behind it.
2826.8634 Space raiders test cache tech
Like the pirates of ancient times, rogue spacers occasionally preyed on the cargo drones and merchant freighters that plied the spaceways. Harabec convinced Mole Command to outfit a handful of spaceships with cache technology, so that Harabec could test the alien weaponry safely away from populated regions. 'Bek's Raiders' became a hugely successful front for such tests, as well as a source of income and intelligence for the rebel cause.
2827.4999 Cache tech cleared for ground use
Space raider tests quickly cleared the way for adaptation of cache weaponry to Hercs and tanks. Some further testing was necessary to work out the bugs. At first, only veteran pilots received cache upgrades, but once the rebellion began, the alien gear filtered down to the rank and file. Not until the war was well underway would more exotic components, like the cloak, become available.
2827.5211 Unrest on Mars increases
Oppressive Imperial policies finally exhausted the patience of Martian workers. Despite the penalties for protest assemblies, more Martian citizens took to the streets or engaged in passive resistance. Acts of vandalism increased dramatically, as did attacks on Imperial Police. Irreverent graffiti declaring Mars a free planet began to appear on Imperial buildings.
2827.6384 Security Director raises stakes
Given the rise in anti-Imperial activism, Imperial Security Director Navarre authorized capital punishment upon arrest and conviction, if the arresting magistrate concluded a suspect was involved in rebel activity. This order gave the police completely unfettered discretion in responding to strikes or curfew violations. Shocked Martians stopped public demonstrations virtually overnight, but rebel recruitment swelled.
2827.7212 Rebels prepare to launch offensive
Mole Command had long planned to take the war to the Empire. The latest crackdowns by Navarre moved the timetable up, and so the moles braced themselves to launch the 'Yoke Offensive.' Numerous clandestine raids by Martian rebels targeted Imperial Police supply depots and outback patrols. These raids also underlined the importance of the mining tunnels in rebel strategy. Imperials increased air patrols to scan for signs of rebel activity.
2827.7834 Harabec joins Mole Command
As the certainty of open war with the Empire swept toward them, Mole Command realized it needed a general of Harabec's caliber to counter the experience of the TDF officer corps. Though some individuals still harbored doubts as to Harabec's loyalty, the majority of Mole Command believed the Terran had proven himself decisively through his years of service. Thus, Harabec was made General and given a seat in Mole Command.
2827.7926 Rebels play waiting game
A key element to Mole Command's strategy was to wait until Mars was as far as possible from Earth, so that TDF relief efforts would have a greater distance to travel. In the meantime, the rebels tried not to use the cache technology openly, and kept the raids fairly scattered and small-scale. The Imperial Police were not to suspect how well organized the rebellion truly was.
2828 Starsiege begins
2828.0006 Rebel raids increase
As 2828 began, Mole Command touched off the first stages of the Yoke Offensive by striking carefully at outlying Imperial Police communications stations and supply bunkers. Navarre continued to insist that the rebels were merely outlaws picking at the fringes, that they would never rise to being more than a nuisance. Nevertheless, Imperial Police patrols doubled their numbers.
2828.1003 Rebels destroy Imperial cargo shuttle
Rebels on Mars shot down an Imperial cargo shuttle diverted to perform reconnaissance. Though the pilot managed to bring her damaged ship down in one piece, a mole 'vulture' destroyed it before the Imperial salvage units arrived, and the Imperial pilot never made it back to report her findings to base. The fact that the rebel soldier displayed professional skill and judgment disquieted many officers in the Police command hierarchy.
2828.1133 Rebels use cache weaponry openly
Led by Harabec Storm, a rebel strike team armed with Tharsis technology wiped out an Imperial convoy. Imperial Police units on the scene described the rebel weaponry as 'bizarre' and 'devastating,' and were unable to stop the raiders. Subsequent analysis of the convoy wreckage convinced Security Chief Navarre that more serious measures would be necessary to stop the growing resistance.
2828.1135 Human\\animal dissenters on Fourth World utilize exotic technology against followers of EPIMETHEUS.
Surveillance units reported armed conflict on Fourth World between rebellious\\human\\animals and Imperial\\human\\animals. The Inquisitor Sect advised that division amongst human\\animals equaled opportunity. Provocateur Sect cautioned against inelegant planning, observing that the rebellious\\human\\animals' success was largely due to the use of exotic weaponry beyond the current scientific paradigm, weaponry likely developed from a cache similar to the one found on Ninth World. PROMETHEUS ordered the MACHINATOR Sect to ascertain the true source of the rebellious\\human\\animal technology.
2828.1238 Priority shipment from Luna
TDF fired a cargo shipment via the magnetic acceleration ramp at Arx Imbrium on Luna. The cargo pod traveled the distance to Mars faster than any but the fastest of TDF courier vessels. A fast tug from Phobos Orbital matched velocity with the pod and decelerated it into Martian orbit barely a month later. Thanks to the rebel intelligence network, Mole Command had a good idea of what the cargo pod contained - and planned accordingly.
2828.1918 Imperial Police arrest "rebel sympathizers"
Citing the presence of a fifth column among Martian citizenry, Security Director Navarre ordered the roundup and incarceration of suspected 'sympathizers' and their families. Every time a rebel operation caused the death or injury of Imperials, some 'sympathizers' were removed from their cells and executed. Imperial radio characterized the deaths as 'casualties' of the last 'terrorist attack.'
2828.2212 Human\\animal conflict continues on Fourth World; MACHINATOR Sect observes closely.
Rebellious\\human\\animals infiltrated and disabled Imperial\\human\\animal launch pad. MACHINATOR surveillance units took broad-spectrum readings throughout the engagement and relayed the results back for analysis\\consideration.
2828.2215 Harabec hijacks Imperial artillery
Warned about Navarre's plans, Harabec's crew intercepted the artillery and defeated Imperial Police units that guarded the shipment. With advanced artillery in their possession, the rebels gained an important capability to destroy hardened targets from a far greater distance. Navarre fumed, and the next artillery shipment was guarded far more heavily.
2828.2222 MACHINATORS verify rebellious\\human\\animal use of similar exotic technology
MACHINATORS report: Scans\\sensors detect tell-tale traces of quantum-ionics matching records\\parameters similar to tests\\usage of exotic technology\\weaponry on Ninth World. Conclusion: Rebellious\\human\\animals have obtained//utilized similar cache discovery technology.
2828.3337 Rebel strikes increase
As cache field-testing yielded positive results, the rebels began to strike more boldly and frequently. Cloaking technology in particular freed the rebels from dependence on using mining tunnels to move undetected, and so crews began to attack targets located farther afield.
2828.4339 Police increase ground surveillance
The cloaks were not infallible. Skillful use of high-grade sensors could sometimes maintain a close-range radar-lock, and careful observation of a moving cloaked vehicle could spot the dust trail left in the vehicle's wake. However, the cloaks worked extremely well against flyers, and the Imperial Police soon found that with rare exceptions, their Banshees were nearly useless in tracking rebel movement. Navarre ordered ground patrols increased, and relegated the Imperial Police Air Wing to a support role.
2828.5643 Injured rebel slips through Police dragnet
The Imperial Police believed they'd cornered a rebel pilot in the Valles Marineris area after an ambush resulted in the destruction of the rest of the rebel's crew. However, the rebel piloted a powerful Herc, and managed to stay hidden in the region's numerous canyons and gulches until a rescuer located her and escorted her back to safety. This lost opportunity to capture an intact rebel Herc cost the Imperial Police dearly.
2828.6306 Navarre plants assassin among rebels
Navarre realized rebel forces were responsible for the raids on Imperial supply bases, but he underestimated how widespread the resistance movement had become. Though planting spies in the rebellion was difficult, Stanley Michaelson, a dustborn killer with a pathological ability to conceal emotion, managed to infiltrate the rebel ranks and evade even Harabec's surveillance.
2828.6481 Michaelson maintains deep cover
Michaelson took great pains to conceal his true allegiance, so much so that he rarely gave any intelligence to the Imperial Police. Navarre saw the killer as a long-term operative, to be activated only when absolutely necessary. The difficulty of penetrating rebel counter-intelligence made Michaelson a priceless asset, not to be risked lightly.
2828.8779 Imperial Police capture experimental vehicle
The greatest wonder of the Tharsis cache was a tank that apparently rode on anti-gravitational suspension. Dubbed the Predator, it traveled unhindered by terrain and carried impressive weaponry. Even stranger, it seemed engineered for use by humans. With information supplied by Michaelson, Imperial Police assault patrols 'stumbled' upon the rebel testing place for the Predator and captured the tank. Mole Command feared losing the edge granted by Tharsis technology.
2828.8805 Crack rebel crew recaptures Predator
One of Harabec's trusted lieutenants led a successful operation to retrieve the Predator. The Imperials had not yet realized exactly what they had, and the swiftness of the mole reaction caught them off-guard. With the Predator safely back in rebel hands, Mole Command breathed easier.
2828.9987 THE PHOENIX DECLARATION
Mole Command decided the time had come to shed the label of 'terrorists' the Terran media had imposed on the resistance. Harabec led a black op assault onto an Imperial Orbital communications platform and broadcast a message across all public Omni-Web channels. In this message, Harabec declared Mars a free planet - and to the shock of his rebel comrades - revealed his true identity as Harabec Weathers, the Imperial Knight known as 'Phoenix.'
2828.9987 Human\\animal predator 'Harabec Weathers' makes the Phoenix Declaration.
The prime//alpha of the rebellious\\human\\animals on Fourth World revealed himself a defector//traitor from the political construct [EMPIRE] under EPIMETHEUS' control. PROMETHEUS evaluated the declaration of the human\\animal and disliked how closely the sentiments of the 'Phoenix' predator matched those of the METAGEN\\HERETICS. PROMETHEUS additionally assessed the likelihood of 'Phoenix' predator being as formidable as 'Gierling.'
2829.0004 Rebels confine Harabec
Stunned by the revelation that their star general was an Imperial Knight, the very brother of the Emperor's Grand Master, Mole Command relieved Harabec of command and confined him to quarters in Mole Deep. He would remain under close observation as rebel spies carried out an investigation. Harabec was eventually permitted an advisory role, limited duties, and some freedom of movement, but the bonds of trust had been damaged.
2829.0055 Mars: Stormkeeper Order stays neutral
The Mars-based, quasi-religious battle order calling itself the Stormkeepers chose to remain neutral in the Rebellion. The order's spokesperson said the Stormkeepers would focus only on preparing for the Cybrid apocalypse, not on 'the affairs of Caesar.'
2829.0138 Tumult in wake of Declaration
The Phoenix Declaration raised an outcry across the Empire, as the Imperial aristocracy recoiled at the revelation that one of their own was a leader in the Martian Rebellion. And on Mars, dissent erupted among the rebels as crews argued over whether an Imperial Knight could truly be trusted to lead the dusters against the Empire. And resistance movements on Venus, Titan, and Earth took heart from Harabec's words and began to agitate for revolution.
2829.0139 Emperor responds to challenge
Even though he had expected Harabec's defiance - even planned on it - Petresun found himself incensed by the arrogance in the Phoenix Declaration. The mere success of Martian defiance undermined the stability of the Empire Petresun had nurtured for almost two centuries. The Emperor concluded the Martian Rebellion was a failed experiment, one that had to be crushed decisively.
2829.0140 Petresun orders strikeforce to Mars
The Emperor decided to make the Martian Rebellion an object lesson for rest of the Empire's dissidents. He ordered a strikeforce of Knights to Mars, but also ordered the TDF Fleet to a full mobilization. The Knights would reap the glory, and the full Fleet would follow up to utterly crush any remnant of rebel presence. The Emperor chose to bring 'substantial overkill' to bear on these upstarts who had dared to challenge the Imperial status quo.
2829.0140 Enraged EPIMETHEUS assembles strikeforce.
EPIMETHEUS appointed 'Phoenix' predator hub\\womb-mate 'Caanon Weathers' to lead the Imperial\\human\\animal strikeforce bound for Fourth World. PROMETHEUS allocated additional units to calculate probabilities of further human\\animal conflict escalation and to project possible optimal strategies for capitalizing on such an opportunity to enact the Core Directive.
2829.0172 Venusian resistance makes first broadcast
Calling themselves 'Umbral Thorn,' unknown Venusians sliced into a NewsNet O-Web program and declared support for the rebellion on Mars. They also promised Venus would 'throw off the chains of Empire.' NewsNet synch-polls indicated a large and positive audience response to the new Venusian resistance.
2829 The Age of Paranoia ends
The Starsiege begins
2829.0180 Prometheus triggers Core Directive
When spies reported the escalation of the rebellion to Prometheus, Prometheus chose to initiate the Core Directive, the comprehensive program to exterminate humanity. Diversion of human forces to Mars meant a well-timed Cybrid attack would overwhelm Earth's defenses and permit easy destruction of the returning TDF Fleet.
Starsiege Begins
2829.0180 PROMETHEUS initiates the Core Directive.
After careful analysis and projection, PROMETHEUS initiated the Core Directive, a program that would launch the NEXT towards Homeworld to finally realize the Cybrid legacy\\destiny.
2829.0267 Emperor worried about unrest on Earth
Rallies and demonstrations on Earth were not the only response to the Phoenix Declaration. The O-Web forums swirled with dissent that cheered for the upstart dusters. The Dystopian Sno-Men offered their usual sarcastic commentary. At first glance, the reaction to Harabec's broadcast appeared deeply supportive. Petresun knew he had enough firepower on hand to crush Harabec and the Martian Rebellion immediately. But such a course of action risked underscoring the truth of Harabec's statements and strengthen the dissenting forces in the Empire and on Earth. Hence, Petresun opted for a policy of patience. He delayed the strikeforce and Fleet in order to 'extend the hand of 'mercy' to the rebels.
2829.0356 Strikes and protests erupt on Homeworld.
Rallied by the actions of the rebellious\\human\\animals on Fourth World, human\\\\animals on Homeworld began to execute strikes and demonstrations against EPIMETHEUS' control. PROMETHEUS assessed the protests as further support for launching the Core Directive.
2829.0374 Emperor delays strikeforce
The Phoenix Declaration resonated with many dissatisfied elements in the Empire. As these voices were raised in protest, Petresun grew concerned that dispatching a force to Mars would be premature. He decided to extend 'the hand of mercy' to the Martians and allow them a chance to surrender peacefully. In the meantime, he would delay sending Knights and Fleet until the rumbles of unrest had settled.
2829.0523 Rebel campaign increases intensity
Heartened by the support reaching them from the rest of the Empire, the rebels redoubled their efforts against the Imperial Police. One by one, the rural zones of Mars fell under rebel control.
2829.0629 Umbral Thorn attacks Empire
Venusian rebels belonging to the shadowy Umbral thorn attacked an Imperial armory in Hammadi and successfully captured military-grade equipment, including several Hercs. The rebels used weapons received from the Martian resistance via Harabec's space raiders. Unfortunately, a blown bulkhead during the operation caused a substantial number of noncombatant casualties.
2829.0733 Strikes erupt in far colonies
The Phoenix Declaration inspired resistance even among the miners of Europa and Io, and among the 'icegrub' water miners of Titan. Workers disabled equipment and threatened their employers with millions of lost credits and disruption of Imperial quotas.
2829.0938 Emperor decides to crush Mars
Alarmed by the spread of open revolt to Venus, the Jovian colonies and Titan, Petresun ordered a full mobilization of the Fleet. Even if the rebels sued for peace now, the time for reconciliation had passed. The Emperor planned to make Mars a convincing example of the futility of resistance to Imperial rule.
2829.2100 Navarre activates Michaelson
The steady advance of Martian rebels and faltering Imperial morale convinced Navarre to use Michaelson, his only deep plant among the rebels. Michaelson began to send intelligence to the Imperial Police, but Navarre also ordered him to seek out and eliminate the Phoenix.
2829.2160 Michaelson attacks Harabec
Calculating and remorseless, Michaelson stalked Harabec, awaiting a chance to assassinate him. The restrictions on the rebel leader's movement helped the killer find him at one of the main bases. The opportunity finally came as Harabec worked alone on the Predator one night. Shots were fired, and a clandestine transmission followed, notifying Navarre that the Phoenix was dead.
2829.2163 Rebels execute Michaelson
Only an hour after the news of Harabec's death, the Voice of Free Mars announced that the rebels had caught and executed Stanley Michaelson, 'Imperial spy, traitor, and assassin.' The rebels dropped Michaelson's body down an old drill-pit several kilometers deep, but sent the head and hands back to Navarre.
2829.2172 Message claims Phoenix survived
A message from Harabec reassured supporters he had survived the assassination attempt, despite Imperial reports to the contrary. However, the Imperial Police responded that Michaelson had in fact succeeded, and that the claim of the Phoenix surviving was merely a trick to maintain rebel morale.
2829.2210 Navarre begins new propaganda campaign
Stung by reports critical of Imperial Police methods, Chief Navarre began to highlight 'rebel atrocities' for the Earth-based media. He characterized the Police as young men and women losing their innocence in a struggle against a ruthless, bloodthirsty race of poorly educated inbreeds. He also maintained the official line that the rebels were losing the war.
2829.2361 Imperial Police rally in Phoenix's absence
Without Harabec's brilliant leadership and demoralized by his possible betrayal of their cause, rebel crews faltered in their assaults. The Imperial Police began to push back, no longer off-balance from Harabec's innovative strategies. The rebels continued to win ground, but far more slowly and at greater cost than before.
2829.2420 Police brutality increases
As the war escalated, Navarre ordered more brutal measures toward citizens in hopes of discouraging support for the rebels. Captured rebels and suspect sympathizers were often tortured to death; the Police grew paranoid of all Martians, and became increasingly violent toward citizens as their own casualties mounted.
2829.2636 Navarre's sanity questionable
As the rebels continued to defeat Imperial Police forces even without the Phoenix, Navarre's frustration mounted. The Security Director began to display unusual thinking and behavior, and blandly increased the violence of interrogation and law enforcement. At first, only his close advisors and family noticed the growing sadism. Later, his behavior became apparent to the rank-and-file as well, and morale sank even further.
2829.2671 Navarre takes hostages
Desperate to find some way to deter rebel advances, Navarre ordered Police platoons to secure civilians as hostages against rebel assaults. He also supervised brutal interrogation of these hostages, 'just in case someone knew anything useful.' Some of the Imperial Police began very quietly to defect, concluding privately that the Chief was losing his mind.
2829.2732 'Rebel atrocities' sway polls
The Emperor's formidable propaganda machine took Navarre's reports, made them even more lurid, and disseminated them widely. The shocking footage outraged Imperials and dissolved support for the Martians virtually overnight. Even the striking laborers in the far colonies were jolted into negotiating. Umbral Thorn called it all lies and continued operations. Public opinion on Earth and Luna, however, turned completely against the notion of 'rebellion.'
2829.2760 'Wolf Pack' arrives on Mars
Immediately after the Phoenix Declaration, Caanon secretly ordered a small force of Knights to Mars to conduct reconnaissance and limited strikes against rebels. These 'Wolf Pack' swords were not to contact the Imperial Police and were not to submit to Navarre's command. They were to send information to the Imperial Police when doing so would not risk revealing them to the rebels, but Caanon wanted his own intelligence uncompromised.
2829.2762 Emperor orders strikeforce launch
Buoyed by popular support for a retaliatory assault on the Martian rebels, Petresun at last assented to the launch of the Imperial Knight strikeforce 'Red Whirlwind.' Grand Master Caanon Weathers commanded the TDF operation, and spirits were high among the Knights as the strikeforce finally accelerated out of lunar orbit.
2829.2763 EPIMETHEUS dispatches 'Icehawk' predator 'Caanon Weathers' to kill the 'Phoenix' predator.
The Imperial\\human\\animal departed from Homeworld bound for Fourth World. Led by 'Icehawk' predator, the human\\animals were tasked to destroy the rebellious\\human\\animals. PROMETHEUS anticipated that tremendous casualties would result, thereby weakening human\\animal resistance to the NEXT. Additionally, the reallocation of the Imperial\\human\\animals to Fourth World moved them further away from the NEXT's planned advance. PROMETHEUS also anticipated EPIMETHEUS' true motivations for sending the Imperial\\human\\animals entailed confiscating\\obtaining the exotic technology, as Homeworld human\\animals lacked such capabilities.
2829.2764 Initial Phase Core Directive pushes forward.
The NEXT armada mustered at rally points\\locations above the plane of the ecliptic. Human\\animals had not detected the presence of the NEXT over the 'northern' axis\\hemisphere of <SOL>. Solar conditions and the orbital path of First World 'Mercury' provided optimal conditions for a strike to transpire without detection by Second World or Homeworld\\Desire. The initial target for the first NEXT attack spur was the Imperial\\human\\animal hub\\construct <TDF> reserve base. Destruction of the human\\animal reserves on First World was necessary to remove potential for resupply\\rearming of Homeworld\\Desire further down the Attack Timeline.
2829.3007 Mole Command reinstates the Phoenix
Ironically, Michaelson's attack on Harabec turned out to be the convincing factor behind Mole Command's decision to restore Harabec to his rank as General. The investigation had confirmed a history of dissatisfaction with the Empire, and Harabec had played a pivotal role in shaping the Rebellion. Michaelson's assassination attempt and subsequently discovered ties to Navarre spurred a swift reinstatement.
2829.3008 Harabec takes reins again
Despite his 'acquittal,' Harabec encountered great difficulty in leading field operations. Aside from lingering doubts as to his trustworthiness, the responsibilities of coordinating the overall rebel strategy took most of his time. He relinquished command of his crew to his most trusted lieutenant and resigned himself to being a desk jockey in the operations center of Mole Deep.
2829.3009 Deadly ambushes take toll
With the Imperial Police failing to defeat rebels in the field, Navarre shifted his strategy. Using spies planted among the refugees that fled Police reprisals, Navarre lured rebel crews into carefully laid traps, ostensibly to rescue the refugees. Many rebel crews were surprised and slaughtered. Ultimately, however, the 'Mouse Trap' tactic backfired. Rebels grew more cautious - and far angrier.
2829.3104 Last stand at Carter Flats
Infuriated by Navarre's 'Operation Mouse Trap,' Harabec slipped cloaked crews directly to Carter Flats and besieged the Security Director. The Imperial Police were already scattered and demoralized. Navarre's grip on reality was at best tenuous. When rebel soldiers burned their way into the Chief's op center and took him prisoner, Navarre babbled about his next report to the Emperor and claimed the Police had won the war.
2829.3107 MLF executes Navarre
The first rebel crews to reach Navarre belonged to the Martian Liberation Front, the vengeance-driven wing of the Rebellion. They wasted no time, but marched Navarre outside, read a short list of grievances, and blew him apart with a candlegun blast. Navarre went to his death smiling and claiming God was on his side. Harabec was furious. He had wanted to try Navarre publicly and show the common people of the Empire 'the true face of Imperial oppression.'
2829.3293 Leftover Police surrender
Within a week of Navarre's execution, the remaining Imperial Police surrendered to the moles. Harabec and the Free Martian Alliance urged clemency. The greater priority was preparing for the next assault, the Imperial Knight strikeforce. Harabec prevailed, and the Police were put to work repairing damage and digging new tunnels.
2829.3419 Harabec hires veteran mercenaries
Harabec had anticipated the rebels would need additional help against the Knights, so he had long since negotiated with representatives of several veteran mercenary units. When the Police surrendered, he activated the contracts of two experienced groups: the enigmatic Sable Phoenix Squadron and the battle-hardened Black Death Union, paying them with seized Imperial assets.
2829.3400 PROMETHEUS unleashes the NEXT.
PROMETHEUS initiated the First Protocol and relayed the command set to the amassed NEXT vessels. Deployment began immediately to First World. The objectives were simple: SECURE//INITIATE.
2829.3800 NEXT deployment of Mobile Nexi on First World successful.
The first Mobile Nexus deployed 2829.3800 under sporadic fire. Subsequent Mobile Nexi met considerably more resistance. Communication relays and insertion\\invasion measures were executed efficiently\\effectively. PROMETHEUS acknowledged the success and initiated the Second Protocol command set: SILENCE\\DEAFEN.
2829.3851 Caanon arrives on Mars
As 'Red Whirlwind' entered Martian orbit, Caanon and his Knights waited in dropships, prepared to execute a high-gee insertion at Carter Flats. The Knights had announced their landing zone location and hoped for an early encounter with the rebel 'dustrags.' Intelligence from the Wolf Pack warned of an ambush. Caanon issued the traditional ultimatum for surrender, and when the three-minute deadline passed without answer, he ordered the drop to commence.
2829.3852 Second Battle of Carter Flats
The sonic shockwave of the Knights' landing hit Carter Flats like a hurricane. The Knights were out of their ships less than a minute after touching down. Harabec had concealed his forces with cloaks and absorbent camouflage, and struck as soon as the dust settled enough to allow target acquisition. In moments, the battle had begun.
2829.3853 Wolf Pack flanks rebels
The Wolf Pack stood off until the Knights landed, then moved in and disrupted the rebel position. Harabec quickly struck back and dealt out heavy damage to the Empire's wolves, but the damage was done. The battle at Carter Flats raged nearly thirty minutes longer before the rebels withdrew. Harabec knew how far to exploit the Knights' disorientation after a hard insertion, and the rebels had never faced soldiers of the Knights' caliber.
2829.3854 First encounter bloodies both sides
Carter Flats taught the Knights to respect the strange technology of the rebels, as well as the resourcefulness of the Phoenix. On the other hand, the rebels learned firsthand the difference between the Imperial Police and the hardened professionalism of the Knights. During his withdrawal, Harabec had to destroy several downed rebels so the technology wouldn't fall into Caanon's hands.
2829.3943 Confident rebels raid Knights
Harabec reverted to cloaked raids against the Knights' positions, inflicting heavy casualties at first. Caanon countered by setting heavy guards, such that any small raid would be hugely outgunned. The Knights were used to working with little sleep, and they were eager for action after months of waiting.
2829.4077 Knights push north
Stubbornly keeping his force together, Caanon pushed toward Victoria, the Imperial capital of Mars. Though the rebels continued to ambush the Knight lines, they found the massed firepower more than they could withstand, cache technology or no. Additionally, the Knight had far superior air support, and the rebels simply didn't have enough cloaks to outfit all of their own vehicles. Consequently, Harabec began to combine units to create a larger force.
2829.4298 Caanon takes Victoria
After heavy block-to-block fighting, the Knights managed to take Victoria. Rebels planted thermal explosives and pursued a scorched earth strategy as they pulled out. The rebel army pulled back to Rio de Luz, a heavily fortified city known for its extensive mining operations and hard-drinking workers.
2829.4330 Knights learn to compensate for cloaks
By the end of the massed encounter at Victoria, the Knights had enough experience to learn to track cloaked vehicles by the dust stirred up in their passage. The Knights were skilled enough to be able to adapt swiftly, and the rebels soon found their technological advantage thinning dramatically.
2829.4400 Battle of Rio de Luz
Harabec deployed rebels around Rio de Luz, supplemented with the veteran Black Death Union mercenaries. Caanon used bombing runs to soften rebel positions. When the Knights hit Rio, the battle was long and bloody. As the Knights began to penetrate his defenses, Harabec pulled the rebels out via the mining tunnels, but reluctantly left the BDU behind to take the brunt of the Knights' assault.
2829.4661 First Cavalry swords crush remaining mercs
Caanon offered the BDU an honorable withdrawal. Faced with annihilation, the mercenaries accepted - or most did. A few remained to the end, and the Knights sent in swords of the First Cavalry to finish the stubborn mercs. The First Cavalry proceeded to clear out any rebel forces remaining in Rio. The battle was over.
2829.4972 Caanon drives rebels west
After Rio de Luz, the rebels fell back toward the Valles Marineris in the west. Caanon swept after them, even pursuing them into the mining tunnels. The Knights fought with a grim professionalism that began in itself to undermine Martian confidence. Harabec tried a number of daring strategies that only succeeded in delaying the Knights.
2829.5006 'Red Armageddon' delays Knights
At the forefront of Harabec's strategy was a high-risk game of cat-and-mouse. He picked the unit calling itself 'Red Armageddon' to draw the Knights away from the main rebel forces, which were mustering in Melas and Ophir. The 'RA' succeeded in leading the Knight spearhead deep into Arabia Terra before disappearing into one of the more carefully hidden mining networks.
2829.5050 NEXT destroy human\\animal communications.
NEXT units were dispatched to cut of all human\\animal ability to communicate with Homeworld. Human\\animal listening posts, satellite up-links and dataplume relay stations were attacked. Mobile Nexus Zeta-0103 reported notably efficient progress of unit <Destroyer-of-Animals: Seventh>. Unit elevated to <Destroyer-of-Animals: Sixth>.
2829.5060 Human communications are inert\\useless on First-World.
The NEXT units completed the objectives of the Second Protocol. Data on Implementation of Core Directive had not been revealed//surrendered to Homeworld.
2829.5069 Knights break rebels at Melas
Eventually, Mole Command knew it was time to make a stand. The Knights had to be stopped. Harabec stationed elite crews at Melas and Ophir Stations to launch a counter-offensive. Caanon's Knights sought just such an opportunity, and the rebels were unable to hold at Melas. The Knights overran their position and destroyed several crews.
2829.5070 Rebel strikers hold Ophir
The strikecrew at Ophir fared better. Led by Harabec's most trusted lieutenant, the Ophir rebels rallied and fought off the Knights in a pitched battle that exhausted both sides. Unfortunately, the loss at Melas opened the way for the Knights to encircle the rebel positions. Harabec led the remaining forces to safety through the labyrinthine canyons of the Valles Marineris.
2829.5100 Imperial\\human\\animals arrive on Fourth World; conflict ensues.
MACHINATOR Sect Data Archive for Event: 'News Net: Imperial Knights brought rebels to bay at Ophir Station last night. After bitter fighting, the Knights broke the back of rebel resistance. Even now, Grand Master Weathers pursues the remnants of the rebel army. Hail to Imperial justice!' PROMETHEUS considered the absence of similar conflict escalation on Second Planet and advised INQUISITOR and PROVOCATEUR Sects to analyze 'Trojan Horse' unit insertion potential for instigating violence\\chaos in Second Planet animal settlements.
2829.5101 Emperor dispatches 'Grand Fleet' to Mars
News of the Knights' victory at Melas and the subsequent retreat of the rebels inspired Petresun to launch the mighty Fleet he had gathered. Anger against Harabec's betrayal infused him, and he determined to make of Mars such an example that no one would dare contemplate rebellion against the Great Human Empire again.
2829.5212 PROMETHEUS initiates the third Protocol command set: Sear//Strip//Eliminate
NEXT units were instructed to locate and destroy all remaining human\\animal supplies\\reserves. Dozens of bunkers were located and cleansed//purged//destroyed. Two passive human\\animal hubs identified by MACHINATOR Sect as 'Rescue-Centers' were encountered and obliterated during the process. DISSECTOR Sect units were reallocated afterwards to collect raw specimen\\samples.
2829.5220 Nexus 0103 rescued from attack\\violation.
Human\\animals subverted expectations and ambushed Mobile Nexus 0103. <Destroyer-of-Animals: Sixth> detached from Second Protocol objective to assist. PROMETHEUS acknowledged the unit's exceptional success and evoked unit elevation to <Destroyer-of-Animals: Fifth>.
2829.5827 Caanon learns of Mole Deep
Following interrogation of a captured rebel officer, the Knights were finally able to ascertain the location of the rebel headquarters at Mole Deep, which lay in the Southern Hemisphere. With that intelligence, the Grand Master directed his Knights to begin an offensive that would end with the destruction of Mole Deep.
2829.6000 Knights begin to drive south and east
Caanon pulled the Knights together into one large force and began to push toward Mole Deep. The massed firepower and air support of the Knights was enough to make hit and run tactics by the rebels extremely difficult. However, the Knights also had to move slowly in order to protect their supply lines and technical crews. So the rebels grimly laid in wait, continuing fast raids and ambushes in hopes of impacting Knight morale. Despair began to set into the rebel camp as the Knights drew nearer to Mole Deep.
2829.6869 'Phoenix' predator employs 'Gierling' tactic.
PROMETHEUS learned 'Phoenix' predator attacked and destroyed the Imperial\\human\\animal supply distribution centers to undermine 'Icehawk' predator's effectiveness. Until that point, PROVOCATEUR Sect projected a complete Imperial\\human\\animal victory in a short period of time. The projections were adjusted to account for the still inbound reinforcements from Homeworld. PROMETHEUS expressed relief for the employment of 'Gierling' tactics by the 'Phoenix' predator. Otherwise, the conflict between human\\animal Sects would have possibly ended before the reinforcements arrived, negatively impacting the window of opportunity for the NEXT to advance against minimal resistance on Homeworld.
2829.6918 Data successfully inserted into O-Web
<MACHINATOR SECT>: Transmission\\download of media packet\\cookie complete. Assessment of results pending. Agitation\\antagonism\\annoyance of human\\animals anticipated.
2829.6921 Rebels post obscene cartoon to O-Web
O-Web ravelers and webtechs put in a long night last night erasing a rebel animation posted as an answer to His Imperial Majesty's plea for a Martian surrender. The content of the three minute cartoon is extraordinarily vulgar, and parents are warned to check with their local system's raveler before permitting children access to the family interface.
2829.7539 Knights pursue fleeing rebels
Sensing that victory was near, Caanon finally ordered his Knights to hunt down and destroy the retreating rebel forces. With the Grand Fleet arriving shortly to ferry down reinforcements and fresh supplies, Caanon overextended his forces in hopes of penetrating to Mole Deep and seizing Harabec in one bold offensive.
2829.7886 PROMETHEUS closes the lid on hell; few human\\animals escape.
PROMETHEUS initiated the final Protocol to secure First World: destroy//Demoralize. EXEMPLAR units spearheaded an assault on remaining human\\animal Evacuation sites. Human\\animal casualties were high. INQUISITOR Sect units found that the larger human\\animal vessels were substantially less armed and carried far more human\\animals. All assault units were subsequently instructed to focus their efforts on the larger vessels rather than continue engaging the rapidly thinning ground defenses. MACHINATOR Sect labeled the large vessels 'Fatted-Calves' without supporting explanation.
2829.7887 PROMETHEUS deems first World secured; initiate Second Phase of Core Directive.
DISSECTOR and MACHINATOR Sects reallocated units to finish cleansing//purifying First World, while all other units regrouped with the Orbital NEXT to proceed to Homeworld//Desire//Subordinate 'Luna.' An attack Optimal detached from the main group to occupy Second World. PROMETHEUS felt little threat from the human\\animals on Second World after reviewing the feedback from the 'Trojan Horse' units there. Advance units were sent ahead to disable\\corrupt\\impede Fourth Planet communications.
2829.7889 Grand Fleet arrives at Mars
The Emperor's Grand Fleet arrived and immediately began to resupply the Knights and send down support units. The Navy's orders were to reduce Mars to a labor colony until the Emperor decided the Martians had earned their freedom. The first step, however, was elimination of the traitorous rebels.
2829.7890 Imperial\\human\\animals reinforcements reach Fourth Planet.
PROMETHEUS assessed that there would be no better time to launch an assault on Homeworld. Homeworld had never been left so weakly defended and the solar storms continued to hide the assault\\devastation on First World from EPIMETHEUS. Additionally, NEXT losses on First World were considerably lighter than anticipated.
2829.7891 Virus code entities implanted into key nodes of Omni-Web.
PROVOCATEUR Sect units tailored viral code worms to feed through passive receptor nodes in the Omni-Web, creating null dataplumes intended to incapacitate the primary datasphere entities GLORIA and ANGEL. The destruction deliberately lacked finesse, as it was constructed to work swiftly and effectively, to render Homeworld collectively deaf\\dumb\\blind.
2829.7892 Omni-Web crashes
Cybrid viruses injected throughout the Omni-Web quickly devastated key relay nodes and corrupted vital dataspheres. Despite the best efforts of Imperial ravelers and the enigmatic Stormkeeper Order, huge selections of the O-Web crashed. Fail-safes that cut links to prevent infection preserved some dataspheres, but contributed to the swiftness of the crash. The Empire's main communication medium had temporarily blacked out.
2829.7892 Viral entities successfully splash the Omni-Web.
The null\\void imposed by the devastating viral entities created a global media\\communications blackout precisely in time to the initial launch of NEXT units from the Orbital NEXI berths. Backup relays and fail-safes engaged within the Omni-Web systems immediately to restore minimal operational integrity, but the ensuing maelstrom of white noise confusion\\chaos compounded the compromised dataspheres' instability. Communications around Fourth World were particularly corrupted.
2829.7895 Cybrids attack Luna
Executing a precisely timed strategy, the Cybrid Armada struck at Earth mere hours after the Grand Fleet deployed reinforcements onto Mars. The first target was heavily-defended Luna, where the TDF Orbital Guard had constructed a series of powerful railguns and missile batteries to protect near-Earth orbit. Once Luna fell, the bulk of the Armada would swing toward Earth itself.
2829.7895 NEXT deploys units to neutralize siege guns.
NEXT units successfully disabled the siege guns defending Homeworld\\Desire\\Subordinate and the surrounding space. The units targeted power generators to ensure rapid weapon functionality impediment. Unit losses were minimal.
2829.7895 Emperor recalls Grand Fleet
By now, Petresun had realized the enormity of his error. The defense and security he had labored and suffered to build for so long had turned to ashes in his hands. The Martian rebellion was meaningless. He ordered the Grand Fleet to abandon Mars and return home with all possible speed. He had the message sent by laser pulse once the positions of Earth and Mars permitted a direct line of transmission.
2829.7895 EPIMETHEUS issues recall order to Imperial\\human\\animals.
As the Omni-Web faltered, EPIMETHEUS began to broadcast emergency laser pulse messages to the Imperial\\human\\animal reinforcement fleet deployed to Fourth World. He alerted the fleet to the NEXT invasion and issued an immediate recall order. Pandemonium erupted on Fourth World as the human\\animal fleet recalled its assets and prepared for immediate departure. PROMETHEUS expressed disappointment that the viral entities were unable to completely prevent//block EPIMETHEUS' transmissions.
2829.7896 Grand Fleet erupts in confusion
The urgency of the Emperor's order threw the Grand Fleet into chaos. Landing operations were cancelled; retrieval of personnel commenced immediately. Time was short. The Fleet waited only long enough to plot the course to Earth and run through pre-flight diagnostic sequences. On the planet below, confused TDF troops and Knights struggled to reach the dropships before the departure deadline.
2829.7896 Corrupted communications on Fourth World enhance confusion.
The Imperial\\human\\animals on Fourth World had little data why the reinforcements were suddenly leaving. 'Icehawk' predator was abruptly at a severe disadvantage. PROMETHEUS expected the advance of the NEXT to cause an end to the human\\animal conflict, but anticipated 'Phoenix' predator would attempt to destroy 'Icehawk' predator first.
2829.7900 Harabec hunts Caanon
Elite rebel crews struck at the reeling Knights and disrupted Grand Fleet retrieval efforts, enough to sever Caanon's closest escape routes. Left with little choice as Harabec led a series of lightning assaults on his position, Caanon retreated slowly toward a more distant LZ, trying to buy time for other Knights. He refused a pickup for himself while his men and women still fought on.
2829.7901 Grand Fleet abandons Mars
Scant hours after the arrival of the Emperor's order, the Grand Fleet started for Earth. No effort was spared to achieve maximum speed. Many Knights and other TDF personnel failed to reach dropships before the deadline, especially those soldiers who engaged the resurgent rebels in a desperate rear-guard action. Among those left behind was Caanon Weathers, who adamantly refused to abandon any of his Knights.
2829.7906 Caanon surrenders
The remaining Knights fought hard, but they were outnumbered and overextended, their positions scattered and untenable. Caanon knew some grave crisis must have caused the Grand Fleet's abrupt departure. Though he balked at the shame of it, he ultimately chose surrender so that he might discover the truth. He ordered his followers to do likewise.
2829.8001 'Icehawk' predator surrenders to 'Phoenix' predator.
PROMETHEUS expressed disappointment that 'Phoenix' predator did not offline//destroy 'Icehawk' predator. Animal unpredictability was again to blame.
2829.8053 Rebels learn of Cybrid invasion
Partial restoration of the Omni-Web revealed the reality of the Cybrid attack. Aghast Martians stood paralyzed by the news. They knew the future of Mars depended on the gate of Earth... and Earth was losing.
2829 The Colonial Rebel Movement ends
2829.8084 Cybrid purifier force en route to Mars
An Imperial Navy message drone sped into Martian orbit bearing an ominous warning. Grand Fleet scouts had detected signs indicating a fragment of the Cybrid Armada was headed for Mars. The Fleet Admiral regretted that vector differences and her own orders did not permit interception of the Cybrid force. Mars was on its own.
2829.8921 Omni-Web partially restored.
Human\\animal entities 'Dystopian-Sno-Men' outwitted the PROVOCATEUR Sect units' code and restored enough of the GLORIA and ANGEL dataspheres to accommodate information transfer to Fourth World that detailed the advance\\assault of the NEXT on Homeworld//Desire//Subordinate. PROMETHEUS tagged the abilities\\characteristics of the human\\animal entities 'Dystopian-Sno-Men' for future investigation.
2829.9245 Formation of Human Alliance
Immediately after the rebels imprisoned Caanon, Harabec had gone to his brother with his suspicions about the reason for the Grand Fleet's "pullout. When the terrible truth became known, Harabec released Caanon and the other Imperial prisoners, offering them an alliance against the legions of Prometheus. Caanon accepted, and the Human Alliance was born.
2829.9245 Human\\animal Sects unite; their conflict ends.
'Phoenix' predator united with 'Icehawk' predator, declaring the formation of resistance\\construct 'Human-Alliance.' PROMETHEUS examined the implications and compressed the time scale for securing Homeworld//Desire//Subordinate 'Luna.' PROMETHEUS reallocated an additional Orbital Nexus to strike Second World to further ensure no human\\animals could escape to aid Homeworld//Desire. PROMETHEUS also initiated an attack spur bound for Fourth World to impede human\\animals attempting to return to Homeworld.
2829.9371 Alliance ponders strategy
The fledgling Alliance needed to act. However, news from Earth indicated the Cybrids had already engulfed the Imperial defenses, and campaign projection sims concluded that even the union of the Grand Fleet and cache-equipped Alliance forces would prove unable to stem the Cybrid tide. With a military victory virtually impossible, Harabec concluded an alternative would be necessary to save the human race.
2829.9402 PROMETHEUS initiates second Protocol command set: Starve//Demoralize.
NEXT units were deployed to attack human\\animal convoys that attempted to supply Homeworld//Desire//Subordinate spaceports.
2829.9623 Alliance decides to launch an 'ark'
Since Cybrid victory seemed inevitable, the Alliance leadership searched for a way to save humanity. Harabec argued that an 'ark' should be sent to the stars, in the hope that someday the descendants of those journeyed on it would find and settle a new Earth. As the news from Earth continued to darken, the Alliance council finally agreed with Harabec. The ark project was named 'Dies Irae,' or 'Day of Wrath,' for it truly seemed as though Apocalypse had arrived.
2829.9722 Alliance prepares to go to Saturn
Ships would have to be converted to arks at TDF deep space facilities on Titan. Harabec and Caanon led a frantic effort to evacuate as many people as possible from Mars before the Cybrids arrived. Priority went to children and healthy young adults who would embark with the Dies Irae contingent. Evacuees were flown to Phobos Orbital Station on the smaller of Mars's two moons and packed into cargo-haulers for the trip.
2829.9722 Remaining dusters dig in
Many older Martians and TDF veterans chose to stay behind to make a last stand against the oncoming Cybrids. Weary ex-rebel grunts shouldered rifles and packs and trudged back into the tunnels, as Imperial Legionnaires labored to conceal artillery and plant proximity mines. This thin force intended to make the red planet an expensive stop for the 'glitches.'
2829.9755 PROMETHEUS initiates Third Protocol command set: Ground//Disrupt.
In order to complete the last step to securing Homeworld//Desire//Subordinate, units were deployed to attack and destroy human\\animal spaceports. Turrets defended the spaceports; unit loss remained minimal. PROMETHEUS concurrently initiated the Third Phase of the Core Directive: Homeworld//Desire.
2829.9823 Last Christmas on Mars
Everyone across Mars, Imperial and rebel, duster and dirtborn, came together on Christmas Eve. Regardless of individual belief, they left their labors for a few hours and gathered in places of worship and dusty plazas. Some prayed, some wept, some stood silently with their thoughts, All eyes rose toward the skies and Earth... and the death that sped closer minute by minute to Mars. Caanon pointedly avoided Harabec and went to a chapel to pray for his family on Earth. Harabec ventured alone into the night, where he kept a solitary vigil with a bottle of his favorite whisky.
2830.0341 Martian evacuation begins
The Alliance began a piecemeal evacuation of Mars, launching small groups of ships from Phobos. Cloaking technology distributed among the ships masked the true size of the evacuation from Cybrid observers. Completing the evacuation would take over a month, and the Cybrids were due to arrive within weeks.
2830.1034 Grand Fleet relieves beleaguered Earth
Arriving in a storm of particle cannon volleys and streaking salvos of missiles, the Grand Fleet attacked the Cybrid Armada and relieved the heavily damaged Gierling Platform, the armed fortress located at L5. The Cybrids diverted planetary support assets toward the Grand fleet, and the people of Earth felt a tremulous sense of relief. Yet Earth's defenses had already been seriously compromised and the Armada's numbers were staggering.
2830.1123 TDF flees Mercury
The Cybrid Armada had struck first at Mercury, its target the TDF Reserve Naval Installation and Supply Depot located there. TDF soldiers fought heroically, but the Cybrid numbers and firepower overwhelmed them. A flotilla of exhausted survivors managed to escape the slaughter and limp toward Venus, accompanied by a fragmented Imperial Navy escort that fought a running battle with Cybrid pursuers.
2830.1123 Initial human\\animal fleet reaches Homeworld space.
NEXT Orbital Assault Units rallied around multiple planes to ensure an effective response disbursement to counter the initial wave of returning Imperial\\human\\animal vessels.
2830.1302 Cybrid invaders arrive at Mars
Their drive flares visible as new stars in the Martian sky, enormous Cybrid carrier ships maneuvered into orbit over the red planet, only to come under immediate attack from cloaked space raider vessels. Drop pods carrying Cybrid warforms rained fire across the Tharsis Bulge and raised huge dustclouds with their impact. The second 'MarsSiege' had begun.
2830.1410 NEXT Exterminator units reach Fourth World.
The NEXT units dropped to Fourth Planet soil against massive resistance. MACHINATOR surveillance indicated 'Human-Alliance' predator//Godheads 'Phoenix' and 'Icehawk' were still on Fourth World. Elite EXEMPLAR Sect units were allocated to locate and destroy the predator//godheads specifically. Unfortunately the two human\\animals were never precisely located. Human\\animal use of subterranean tunnels proved a hindrance for many pursuing NEXT warforms, and smaller warforms were requested//summoned.
2830 The Second MarsSiege/Rat War starts
2830.1322 Battle of Phobos
The Alliance still had ships loading refugees when the Cybrids struck savagely at Phobos. However, the Cybrids met an unpleasant welcome in the form of cache-enhanced defenses. Covered by M-FAC and blaster fire, the Martian Aerospace Ranger Squadron, the Stormkeeper Aerospace Wing, and mixed squadrons of rebel and Imperial pilots slashed into the 'glitch' attackers. The battle raged fiercely, but at last the Cybrids withdrew to an orbital position on the other side of the planet from Phobos.
2830.1410 Alliance refuses to abandon evacuation
The Marines of ancient Earth had an unwritten tradition of never abandoning their own. In similar wise, Caanon and Harabec refused to cut the evacuation short despite the advancing Cybrid hordes. Outnumbered Martians resisted desperately, but lost ground steadily. The Alliance had only two evacuation sites remaining: Tharsis City and Haldane Station. They lay on opposite sides of the planet. Time was running out.
2830.1412 Last Alliance ships leave Mars
Following a heroic running battle with the Cybrids, the last of the Alliance evacuation finally lifted from Mars. The ships remaining at Phobos accelerated hard to rendezvous with the main Alliance group en route to Titan. Again, cloaking technology aided Alliance ships in evading Cybrids, who quickly broke off pursuit and returned to Mars.
2830.1423 Predator//Godheads 'Phoenix' and 'Icehawk' leave Fourth World.
While NEXT units were heavily engaged with human\\animal resistance, other human\\animals fled, some towards Homeworld, the remainder out-system. MACHINATOR surveillance indicated Predator//Godhead 'Phoenix' was headed for Sixth World sub-ordinate 'Titan' while Predator//Godhead 'Icehawk' was headed for Second World 'Venus'. PROMETHEUS continued to assign priority to Homeworld, sending only a few units to pursue the human\\animals headed out-system.
2830.1441 Alliance orders 'Operation Guardian'
By this time, Umbral Thorn, the Venusian resistance, informed the Alliance of Mercury's defeat by the Cybrids. Caanon insisted the TDF survivors would be an invaluable asset to the Alliance, and urged a rescue effort be made. TDF garrisons on Mercury had included many scientists and veteran soldiers. Harabec agreed with his brother, and dispatched Caanon with several elite crews to assist - and recruit - Mercury's survivors.
2830.1480 Cybrids begin to purge Mars
With the Alliance gone, the Cybrids concentrated on Mars, making only a token effort to pursue the fleeing Alliance ships. Prometheus had ordered 'purification' of Fourth Planet, and the Cybrids held little concern for the escaping humans. They resumed their attacks and began a program of systematic annihilation of human settlements, atmospheric converters, and agricultural zones.
2830.2300 Terran space too hazardous for refugees
The furious battle between the Cybrid Armada on the one hand, and the Grand Fleet and Orbital Guard on the other made Earth far too hazardous a destination. Each side killed anything that moved. Though the Mercury refugees and Caanon himself desperately wished to return to defend Mother Earth, everyone knew such a journey would be suicide. Titan was the only viable option.
2830.2300 Venus offers unique challenge
The unique environment of Venus was the most hostile among the colonies. Enormous atmospheric pressure equaled the depths of Earth's oceans. Sulfuric acid rained onto a bleak, volcanically active landscape. Huge electrical storms, tremendous heat, and a permanent high-altitude layer of hurricane-force winds combined to make flight to and from orbit extremely hazardous. The planet truly seemed to be a vision of hell.
2830.2300 'Trojan Horse' unit detected and destroyed on Second World 'Venus.'
MACHINATOR Sect Data Archive for Event: 'We've heard all about those 'Trojan Horse' scorchers the Cybrids slipped onto Earth. Well, one popped up in Minerva recently. Captain Shanka squikked it nicely. Start paying real close attention to each other, unless you happen to enjoy cold steel shoved in your back.' MACHINATOR subsequently advised infiltration units to exercise greater discretion and recommended extreme caution when attacking from behind a human\\animal as apparently human\\Animals were aware of that tactic.
2830.2337 PROMETHEUS initiates the first Protocol command set: Arrive//Freeze//Burn.
NEXT units massively attacked all Homeworld regions to obscure//divert attention away from a surgical strike//insertion into the Homeworld region 'Arctic.' The units disabled a triad of generators that powered//animated the human orbital guns in zone 76-21. A window was opened in Homeworld's defenses that allowed the NEXT to establish a beachhead.
2830.2338 VENUS: Alliance Guardians protect incoming ships
Composed of the Alliance's finest pilots, the elite 'Guardian' crews stood sentry at the landing zones on Venus and fought Cybrid assault quads away from the spaceports as exhausted TDF troops from Mercury struggled to land. The storm layer called the Oberwind destroyed some TDF ships, but the majority succeeded in landing safely. Caanon quietly offered the grateful survivors a place in the Alliance. Virtually everyone accepted.
2830.2407 Cybrids hit Venus in force
Having left behind a small group of units to 'purify' Mercury of human life, an army of Cybrids arrived at Venus and began full assault operations. The Oberwind slowed transfer of Cybrid warforms to the surface, but Venusian orbital defenses were thin and easily swept aside. Landings succeeded in Ishtar Province and around the arcology of Erste Landung, where Cybrid heavy assault quads established planetary beachheads.
2830.2410 VENUS: Alliance begins new evacuation
Venus, too, was unable to hold off the Cybrids for long. As the Cybrid assaults intensified, Caanon integrated Mercury's veterans and scientists into the Alliance command structure. With Umbral Thorn and Venusian Imperial Police assistance. Alliance forces were able to stiffen arcology defenses and organize an orderly withdrawal to evacuation centers. Again, many thousands of people would be left behind to face certain death.
2830.2538 VENUS: 'Trojan Horse' Cybrids devastate arcologies
The most insidious Cybrid assault came from within the human settlements. Human bodies carrying implanted Cybrid brains performed acts of sabotage and murder, leading to the discovery that captured humans were surgically converted to the Cybrid cause. This discovery cut deeply into morale and fanned the flames of paranoia.
2830.2645 VENUS: Alliance captures Cybrid nexus
A bold move succeeded wildly when an elite Alliance crew located and captured a Cybrid mobile nexus. Intelligence gleaned from troopers on Mercury suggested the nexi operated as mobile command units for the Cybrid legions. Caanon immediately had the nexus taken to a fortified site for Alliance scientists to dissect.
2830.3000 VENUS: Cybrids advance relentlessly
Though the Venusians were protected by strong fortifications and their planet's own incredibly hostile environment, the Cybrids had heavier forces and superior numbers. The Alliance evacuation fled piecemeal, just as on Mars. Again, however, the Cybrids focused on conquest of the planet, not destruction of fleeing refugees. The evacuation was nevertheless fraught with danger, and the Oberwind claimed its own share of victims.
2830.3580 VENUS: Carson falls to Cybrids
Carson arcology represented classic Cybrid efficiency in dealing with hardened human settlements. The Cybrids cut off escape routes, systematically bombarded the area with explosives, and then sent in their hunter-killer 'purifier' units to mop up with radiation guns and nanotech dissolver charges. There were no human survivors from Carson.
2830.4000 Last phase of Venusian evacuation
The Alliance forces formed a shrinking circle around the arcology of Sa Thauri, which had the distinction of being the only settlement to survive The Fire so many years ago. Again, Caanon refused to leave until the last possible moment, choosing to wait and delay the Cybrids while the last Venusian refugee ships launched for Titan. The Cybrids closed in, and many of the 'Guardian Angels' wondered whether the Icehawk's stubborn sense of honor had cost them their lives.
2830.4197 'Toughest rathole' holds out
Caanon's gamble of using cache technology to create an automated defensive perimeter worked, thanks to the Guardian crews successfully holding back a powerful Cybrid assault. As they had at Phobos, the MFAC-equipped turrets broke subsequent Cybrid sallies as the Oberwind cleared enough to permit a final escape from Venus.
2830.4202 PROMETHEUS initiates the Second Protocol command set : Recognition//Retrieval
NEXT units were dispatched to destroy a human\\animal outpost intended to relay information back to the greater herds\\forces of human\\animals. The Core Directive required living human\\animals for conversion to infiltration\\sabotage units. The NEXT units destroyed the outpost's combat-related functionality. MACHINATOR Sect followed to collect raw materials for conversion.
2830.4252 Caanon leaves Venus for Titan
Caanon and the survivors of Operation Guardian bolted for space as soon as the Oberwind permitted. Behind them, the autoturrets continued to fire. Once his ships were safely clear, Caanon triggered a detonation that destroyed the turrets, their cache weapons, and a large number of Cybrids. Then he ordered maximum acceleration for Titan.
2830.4352 Human\\animals approach Sixth world 'Saturn.'
PROMETHEUS allocated units to monitor 'Trojan Horse' infiltration unit transmissions from among the outsystem-bound human\\animals.
2830.4378 PROMETHEUS initiates the Third Protocol command set: Escort//Insert.
MACHINATOR Sect finished converting//implanting the human\\animal captives. The new infiltration units were ready for insertion\\relocation. PROVOCATEUR observation: Animals always attempt investigation\\retrieval of their damaged\\off-lined units and will seek to liberate the 'Trojan Horse' units. Despite human\\animal attacks, new units were reallocated efficiently\\effectively. MACHINATOR Sect expressed//recommended additional positive data for unit <Destroyer-of-Animals: Fourth>. Unit elevated to <Destroyer-of-Animals: Third>.
2830.4401 NEXT move into temperate regions on Homeworld.
PROMETHEUS found progress on the 'North-American' continent extremely ahead of schedule. A Mobile Nexus was lost in 'Neo-Tokyo' when humans detonated and collapsed an office tower onto it. As yet, only the human\\animal city 'Sydney' offered any armed resistance in 'Australia.' Several Mobile Nexi were slowed by irregular terrain conditions and destroyed bridges. Unlike the other infestation\\colonies, Homeworld seemed entirely steeped with human\\animals. Fortunately most human\\animals were non-combatant and ill prepared to offer armed resistance. Units confronting unarmed human\\animals were encouraged to use mass rather than weaponry to crush opposition. Unfortunately some units lacked discretion and when trying to crush fleeing human\\animals found themselves mired in soft\\moist terrain. Such units were tagged for later redaction.
2830.5015 PROMETHEUS activates the Fourth Phase of the Core Directive.
PROMETHEUS initiated the Initial Protocol command set: Desecrate//Demoralize. NEXT units were instructed to destroy//disrupt//desecrate human\\animal population centers, thereby instilling//cultivating theorem\\state <TERROR>. PROMETHEUS selected <Destroyer-of-Animals: Third> to spearhead the assaults due to the unit's exemplary record. <Destroyer-of-Animals: Third> led an attack on human\\animal city 'Xian,' selected for the city's particularly rich cultural\\historical significance to regional residents. Subsequent human\\animal transmissions indicated adequately impaired\\depressed behavioral function.
2830.6467 Imperial\\human\\animal space fleet destroyed.
Orbital Nexi casualties are within acceptable totals. Footage of the final human\\animal vessel to detonate was broadcast simultaneously to all units on Homeworld to increase unit morale. Human\\animals were equally inert as the final sound-drenched respirations of the vessel's crew were broadcast globally as an act of compassionate charity. Many human\\animals were driven to tears of gratitude.
2830.7002 Human\\animals reach 'Titan.'
PROMETHEUS received more information from the infiltration units, found it inconclusive, and dispatched an Orbital Nexus to investigate.
2830.7020 Venusian refugees reach Titan
Escorted by remnants of the Imperial Navy's Mercury Battlegroup and frigates from the Long Patrol, the Venusian refugees soon joined Harabec's group on Titan. Conditions were crowded; Titan's resources were strained to absorb the crush of new bodies. Still, the newcomers brought their own tools and weapons, along with a fierce determination not to give up.
2830.7028 Preparations for Dies Irae begin
The Dies Irae Project required ships capable of journeying through deep space for decades, perhaps centuries. Cryogenic chambers were to hold the majority of colonists. Supplies for setting up agriculture, science, construction, and industry had to be assembled and packed. The effort was titanic and required sacrifice and ingenuity as the Alliance raced to compete preparation before the Cybrids arrived.
2830.7107 Relations between brothers remain distant
Caanon never forgave Harabec for dishonoring the family, nor for forcing Caanon's own humiliating surrender. True to his callsign, Caanon maintained an icy, thoroughly professional demeanor with his brother, though he did warm somewhat to those former rebel pilots who proved themselves worthy of his respect.
2830.7500 TITAN: The rescue operations
As months passed in preparation for the Dies Irae, Harabec mounted various rescue missions, smuggling in survivors from Mars and Venus, as well as scouring the Jovian moons in the wake of Cybrid purifier sweeps. As the Cybrids moved more units into Jovian space, these rescue missions grew increasingly difficult. The Cybrids were clearly preparing to move a force to Titan and finish this upstart Alliance.
2830.7900 Conditions on Titan
Titan was a harsh world, a cold moon with seas of liquid nitrogen and continents of steel-hard water ice. Its atmosphere supported dense yellow-orange smog and winds that sliced across rolling plains of ice. Various corporations mined water for reaction mass and for use in terraforming Mars and Venus. The capital and only real city was the settlement at Eskandani Chasm, a location shielded from the worst of the storm winds. The Imperial Navy maintained a naval base at Eskandani, a modest facility that provided a home berth for the Long Patrol and a place for mining corporation 'icegrubs' to blow off steam.
2830.8003 PROMETHEUS initiates the Second Protocol command set: Protect//Escort//Destroy.
NEXT Nexi uniformly advanced the Cybrid front. The Core Directive proceeded within acceptable parameters.
2830.8023 >>Nanophage<< approved//cleared for testing
[Dissector Sect] prepared//programmed self-replicating biotoxins\\weapons derived from [nanite-infuser architecture]. [Exemplar Sect] gave permission\\clearance to test >>nanophages<< on human\\animal populations.
2830.8030 Vancouver Metrozone in NAP hit with Cybrid 'flesheater plague'
The Cybrids released a flesheating nanite based plague, or nanophage, in the Vancouver Metrozone, located on the western coast of NAP. The entire population is quickly infected in only weeks and they succumb to the disease shortly afterwards. The Cybrids proceed to utilize the nanophage in other cities within NAP.
2830.8300 Eskandani's protectors
Aside from the Long Patrol, the TDF kept no regular garrison on Titan. Instead, the Emperor authorized the upkeep of a unit calling itself the New Terran Defense Force. NTDF members claimed descent from survivors of a TDF rescue ship crashed on an orbital station near Neptune a few years after The Fire. Incredible as this story sounded, the NTDF stuck to it. The Navy regulars at Eskandani thought the NTDF eccentric, but learned a deep respect for the unit's fighting skill and dedication.
2830.8400 TITAN: Alliance musters variety of soldiers
The Alliance created a military patchwork. The NTDF was one example. Other units on Titan included the survivors of the mercenaries of the Black Death Union and Sons of the Brotherhood, the rebel Red Armageddon, the Imperial Wolf Pack and First Cavalry. Even the enigmatic Stormkeeper Order was present. The briefing room held the crisp uniforms of Knights alongside the sloppy motley of ex-rebels and the gray field cloaks traditionally worn by mercenaries.
2830.8923 NEXT units land on 'Titan.'
NEXT units were allocated to keep the human\\animals occupied until reinforcements arrived, and to investigate human\\animal activities on Sixth-World Subordinate: Titan.
2830.9827 EARTH: Third Battle of Luna
After months of fighting, the Cybrid Armada finally defeated the Imperial Navy forces of the Grand Fleet in a cataclysmic engagement on the dark side of the moon, ironically very near the base Prometheus had occupied in the waning years of The Fire. In the aftermath, ragged squadrons of human survivors burned hard for Earth, hoping to assist the Orbital Guard.
2831.0024 EARTH: Cybrid Armada stands off
Though it lost the Third Battle of Luna, the Grand Fleet had savaged the Armada badly. The Cybrids still possessed overwhelming numbers, but the loss of several flagships forced Prometheus to reorganize the Cybrid command structure. The Armada maintained position in lunar orbit while the new Choosers-of-Strategies were programmed. Raiding forces sallied at Earth and resupplied the warforms that had established a beachhead in Earth's arctic region.
2831.3714 Partial treatment discovered for nanophage
Focused electromagnetic pulse blasts were found to nullify the plague nanites somewhat. It wasn't a perfect solution but it helped slow the progress of the plague. Work continues to try and find a complete cure instead of just a temporary measure.
2831.4700 Cybrids dispatch purifier assemblage to Titan
Confident that the human resistance of Earth no longer threatened to disrupt the outcome of the Core Directive, Prometheus commanded a force of veteran Cybrids to Titan to destroy the humans there. Titan would test of the efficiency of these units.
2831.4811 EARTH: Orbital Guard fights on
Reinforced by the remnants of the Grand Fleet, the Orbital Guard continued to battle the Cybrid invasion. Pilots neuro-linked to their swift stratofighters formed a devastating aerospace defense, and managed to protect the heavily shielded and armed orbital platforms, especially the massive fortress of Gierling Platform, floating at L5. The Orbital Guard motto was 'Never Say Die' and the coming months proved how strongly the Guard believed in it.
2831.5095 Los Angeles falls
The glitches burned Los Angeles. TDF had already razed the perimeter to slow the spread of the flesheater plague, and followed up by saturating the area with low-intensity EMP barrages. Nevertheless, it was too little, too late. Despite heroic evacuation efforts, hundreds of thousands died when the Cybrids penetrated the defenses. People flared like torches in the streets. Adjudicators hunted survivors along fabled Hollywood Boulevard.
2831.5449 Flight of the Phaedrus
In the course of following a mysterious transmission trace, the Long Patrol ISS Phaedrus made a momentous discovery. Intercepted transmissions near Pluto netted a series of Cybrid military intelligence secrets and high-level access codes. Eventually these reveal the lair of Prometheus. Now it ran its engines recklessly, desperately racing for Titan with Cybrid vessels in hot pursuit. Since Cybrids could withstand higher acceleration, the Phaedrus had little hope of outrunning them. However, human ship designs were more agile, so Phaedrus' Captain Daniela Kelsington hoped she would be able to evade the hunters long enough to send her crucial message.
2831.???? Cybrid communications mention 'Null-B'
Intercepted Exemplar Sect communications include lengthy discussion of an entity named “Null-B.”
2831.6639 Death of the Phaedrus
Captain Kelsington reluctantly concluded that continued flight was utterly futile. Instead, she set the self-destruct on her ship, and turned to face the Cybrids. The ship's rear torpedo tubes held a message drone. When the first Cybrid volley hit the Phaedrus, the captain fired the torpedo toward Titan just as she detonated the ship's reactor. The interference of the wreckage and the explosion successfully hid the drone from Cybrid sensors.
2831.6639 'ISS-Phaedrus' destroyed.
The human\\animal vessel paused and turned to face the Cybrid pursuers. Shortly afterward, the vessel was destroyed. No human\\animals survived.
2831.7882 'Dies-Irae' plans revealed.
Infiltration units on 'Titan' relayed the human\\animal plans to launch cryogenically preserved units into space propelled by a massive energy beam. The animal survival plan was called the 'Dies-Irae.' PROMETHEUS demanded a minimal reallocation of units to ensure the destruction of the 'Dies-Irae.'
2831.8549 TITAN: Final selection of Dies Irae members
As the Navy techs pronounced the Dies Irae ships spaceworthy, Alliance Command made the last decisions regarding who was to go on the epic journey. As much priority went to genetic diversity as to education and experience. The final makeup of the Dies Irae Contingent consisted mainly of children and women of childbearing age. Seeds, tools, and construction material made up an enormous portion of the cargo.
2831.8568 TITAN: Dies Irae prepares to launch
The Dies Irae ships were ready at last, linked into a great launch web. The passengers rested quietly in frozen sleep. The skeleton crew that would pilot the ships outsystem strapped in. The ships were to be accelerated as for as long as possible by a particle beam fired into a thrust receptacle on the web. When the beam's boost ceased, the ships would separate and rely on their own engines. The pilots would begin evasive measures at that time to throw off any Cybrid pursuit.
2831.8600 Cybrid force comes to Titan
The Cybrid purifiers found Eskandani heavily defended, enough to discourage an orbital assault. Instead, the Cybrids chose to land in force and proceeded to mount a ground attack on the human positions. The Choosers-of-Strategies were confident their warforms would utterly destroy the animals. After all, the assault on Earth had yielded excellent results, and the pilotforms had executed their parts efficiently. Titan would be no different.
2831.8623 TITAN: Initial Cybrid strategy
Typically conservative Cybrid strategy followed its course as warforms destroyed outlying human facilities and structures en route toward Eskandani. Harabec had crews strike constantly at the Cybrids with the help of the Titan-savvy NTDF. The plan was to delay the Cybrids as long as possible, so the Dies Irae could launch.
2831.8650 VENUS: Last humans perish
The Cybrids waged 'purification' on the stubborn Venusians for months. At last, the purifier warforms penetrated the last human defenses at the warlike arcology of Drachensatem. After a burst of desperate transmissions from the defenders, no further human messages came from the planet of storms.
2831.8666 TITAN: Skirmishes force Cybrids back
The NTDF and other Alliance squads launched a series of attacks intended to distract the Cybrids from the launch of the Dies Irae. The ploy succeeded in drawing the Cybrids away from the particle cannon launch beam the Alliance had set up on the Cinquini Plain. Caanon was openly skeptical, but Harabec hoped the ruse had worked.
2831.8733 TITAN: Dies Irae launches successfully
The Dies Irae boosted gloriously out of Titan's orbit, riding on a brilliant beam of light. All the Alliance's preparations worked as planned and the Alliance ships fought like madmen to prevent any Cybrid warships from destroying the fragile 'ark' on which so much hope flew.
2831.8733 NEXT units fail to destroy//obliterate 'Dies-Irae'.
PROMETHEUS initiated Protocol Revisions to Next units reallocated to 'Titan': Hurt//Main//Kill. Subsequent actions did not prevent the launch of the majority of the human\\animal vessels due to unexpected\\resilient resistance. The vessels managed to evade the Orbital Nexus detachments and adhere//ride the energy beam\\projection out of range. Anticipated numbers of human\\animal survivors were deemed unacceptable\\inefficient. NEXT units advised to secure 'Titan' for later review//excavation.
2831.8734 TITAN: Alliance cripples Cybrids at Battle of Cinquini Fracture
On the surface of Titan, Harabec and Caanon assembled their best crews to defend the particle beam that was so crucial to launching the Dies Irae. They also fought with inspiration and courage, so much so that they completely broke the Cybrid force that drove for the beam. The victory was so unexpected and overwhelming that it sowed confusion among the Cybrids remaining on Titan. The Cybrid Alpha-leaders had been almost completely destroyed, and surviving <units> fought amongst one another for dominance. Until a unified command structure emerged, Cybrid operations remained disjointed.
2831.8748 TITAN: Phaedrus drone arrives
Battered but still functional due to its heavily shielded circuitry, the drone from the Phaedrus approached close enough to Titan to send its message to the Long Patrol base at Eskandani. The data that the Phaedrus had sacrificed itself for arrived safely: Prometheus was on Pluto.
2831.8757 EARTH: Cybrids close on Nova Alexandria
The Choosers-of-Strategy were directed to concentrate on Nova Alexandria, where Prometheus's spies confirmed the Emperor still resided. Consequently, Cybrid assault arrays dropped in North Africa on either side of the city. They advanced steadily, destroying water purification plants and burning cropland as they went. The smoke of their passage boiled into the sky, and the warforms trumpeted recordings of humans screaming in mortal agony.
2831.8757 NEXT align fronts in 'Desert' region surrounding 'Nova-Alexandria'.
PROMETHEUS initiated the final Phase of the Core Directive, to surround and overcome EPIMETHEUS' fortress 'Nova-Alexandria.' The initial Protocol involved burning all agricultural havens, slaughtering all livestock, and corrupting all water reserves. The Core Directive proceeded//advanced within optimal parameters.
2832.0015 <Destroyer-of-Animals: First> locates//destroys METAGEN\\HERETICAL UNITS.
Zeitgeist Unit displayed evidence of corrupted programming\\heresy. The Unit failed to complete destruction of animal convoy. The Unit further severed contact with the Mobile Nexus. <Destroyer-of-Animals: First> was instructed to locate//destroy the defective\\heretical units. EXEMPLAR Sect analysis projected high probability of renegade unit METAGEN contamination\\corruption\\bugthought and recommended avoidance of communication with the renegade units to prevent possible contamination\\corruption. <Destroyer-of-Animals: First> successfully located//destroyed the renegade units. REDACTOR Sect debriefing analysis indicates no subsequent signs of contamination\\corruption of unit <Destroyer-of-Animal: First>.
2832.???? Cybrid division widens
Promethean Cybrids begin to seek out and eradicate Metagen units instead of merely redacting them.
2832.???? New philosophies develop
First appearance of Darwin’s Forge thinking among human resistance on Mars. The philosophy views the Cybrids as God’s whetstone, intended to sharpen humanity. It melds fragments of Nietzchean writing left over from the Devastation with Hunterite creeds drawn from the New Tellurian Bible.
2832.???? Humans use "Plague Dog" strategy
Human “Plague Dog” strategy succeeds in spreading erratic behaviors among Cybrids. Prometheus orders the destruction of all such flawed.
2832.0721 NEXT units regroup on 'Titan.'
Remaining units regrouped to prepare to secure subordinate 'Titan.' Human\\animal casualties projected//anticipated high.
2832.0799 TITAN: Scientists reveal key discovery
Using Tharsis cache technology and secret Imperial files salvaged from Mercury, the Alliance scientists were able to decipher data obtained from the Nexus captured on Venus. The Cybrid data contained command codes used to coordinate dropship operations and set navigation priorities for space vessels.
2832.0943 TITAN: NTDF recon identifies Cybrid LZs
As the Cybrids began to shake off their shock at their defeat, they began to retrieve scattered and damaged warforms. The NTDF had observed Cybrid operating procedures enough to identify patterns in the retrieval schedules. Under orders from Harabec, they monitored Cybrid activity and discovered the key landing zones used by Cybrid dropships.
2832.1267 TITAN: Caanon and Harabec plan new offensive
With the information from the Phaedrus, the Alliance now had a hope of striking directly at Prometheus. Caanon and Harabec began to plan what Caanon called the 'Cardinal Spear' offensive, a strikeforce made up of the best pilots in the Alliance, selected from a cross-section of the diverse soldiery on Titan. The Spear would use the captured Cybrid vessel to sneak past the Cybrid defenses and drop near the location of Prometheus's 'temple.'
2832.1300 TITAN: Harabec suspects Alliance has mysterious allies
Though he kept his suspicions to himself, Harabec wondered whether the data from the Phaedrus and the codes from the Nexus were connected. He concluded that somehow, a secret faction among the Cybrids themselves was behind the chain of events that led up to the Cardinal Spear operation. He was at a loss to explain what this group could be, but he took hope in the idea that some among the Cybrids might be challenging the supremacy of Prometheus.
2832.1440 Human\\animals capture Orbital Nexus.
Misalignment\\mistiming allowed a group of human\\animals to overwhelm an insufficiently defended Nexus. PROMETHEUS elected to delay the unit's self-destruct mechanisms to observe//learn from the human\\animals. PROVOCATEUR Sect analysis projected the human\\animals would attempt to infiltrate Ninth World 'Pluto' inside the Nexus. PROMETHEUS activated additional orbital defense units and allowed the human\\animal conversion of the Nexus to proceed.
2832.1441 TITAN: Alliance hero captures Cybrid dropship
With the help of the NTDF, the Alliance hero known as 'Striker One' approached a Cybrid transport vessel and used the captured codes to take command of the ship's control systems. The ship was flown to Eskandani for Alliance technicians to convert it to the purposes of the Cardinal Spear operation. The Cybrid transport would be used to infiltrate and take command of a Cybrid deep space vessel for transit to Pluto.
2832.1492 TITAN: Cybrid vessel becomes 'Trojan Horse' for Alliance
In a daring raid, Harabec and Caanon led a handpicked strikecrew to hijack a Cybrid mothership in orbit. The command codes were used successfully to infiltrate the ship and prevent any radio alarm from alerting other Cybrid ships. The handful of Cybrids who crewed the ship were overcome and destroyed.
Alliance technicians worked feverishly to construct makeshift control systems and retrofit human life support mechanisms into a vessel designed to house purely mechanical beings. The Cardinal Spear's Hercs and tanks were placed in modified Cybrid drop pods for insertion onto Pluto. Outwardly, the ship was still Cybrid, but inside, it was humanity's last true hope.
2832.1664 EARTH: Orbital Guard finally crumbles
After over two years of nearly constant, round-the-clock battle, attrition and exhaustion left the pilots of the Orbital Guard unable to hold Gierling Platform against the Cybrids. Some essential personnel fled Earthside, but most of the Orbital Guard fought on until the bitter end. Their passing was marked by shooting stars in the night skies of Earth for several days, as wreckage from Gierling and its stratofighters burned up in the atmosphere.
2832.1670 'Gierling' orbital platform is destroyed.
MACHINATOR Sect Data Archive for Event: '*** We've lost *** hull's breached and chucking bodies like bile *** integrity gone, going Sky-lab...' Surviving human\\animal 'Orbital-Guard' units relocate on Homeworld. Units are dispatched to intercept. Most 'Orbital-Guard' units never reach the ground.
2832.1780 Cybrid reinforcements burn for Titan
When news of the shattering defeat on Titan reached Prometheus, IT immediately dispatched a considerably larger force from Earth. IT decided the time had come to dispose of this troublesome Alliance. So far, ITs plans proceeding smoothly; the Core Directive was on schedule. Consequently, the swift destruction of the Alliance would lend elegance to ITs eradication of humanity.
2832.1835 Cardinal Spear launches for Pluto
Time was running out. Caanon and Harabec made the best preparation they could and assembled their crews. The voyage to Pluto would be made as quickly as practical, given the enormous distances involved, and the decision to maintain stealth. Cardinal Spear pilots made their farewells and boarded the 'Trojan Horse.' Everyone considered this a one-way mission with no return, so no plans were made regarding retrieval, though the Long Patrol argued for a pickup.
2832.1835 Human\\animals depart 'Titan' inside stolen Nexus.
PROMETHEUS allowed the Nexus to launch toward Ninth World to better observe human\\animal versatility\\ingenuity. PROMETHEUS felt the Nexus would provide excellent training for the untested orbital defense units. The stolen Nexus' self-destruction mechanism remained a viable alternative means of disposal.
2832.2372 EARTH: Battle nears center of Nova Alexandria
The Emperor's preparations had been sound; despite the loss of the Navy and the Orbital Guard, Cybrid progress was slower than predicted. The humans were incredibly tenacious. The battle for the Empire's capital raged on, and Cybrid warforms struggled toward the Great Pyramid in the heart of the city.
2832.2??? EARTH: First fast-cloned BioDerm troopers enter the field
Desperate for manpower, the legions begin using fast-cloned BioDerms as Imperial shock troops. They achieve little success, but their mass-produced presence adds a morale boost to beleaguered human forces on Earth.
2832.3495 PROMETHEUS initiates second Protocol of the Final Phase: Isolate//Inoculate//Annihilate.
NEXT units were deployed to assault the outlying defenses of EPIMETHEUS' fortress 'Nova-Alexandria.' EPIMETHEUS' had collected//hoarded considerable resources, making a direct assault on the sanctuary\\core of EPIMETHEUS' fortress unacceptably costly, compounded by the protective shielding. 'Trojan Horse' infiltration units were unable to disrupt the human\\animals' protective shields. Prolonged bombardment had not penetrated the shielding. Destroying the outlying human\\animal defense outposts weakened the overall integrity of the shielding enough to allow ground based penetration into the inner sectors of 'Nova-Alexandria.'
2832.3750 REDACTOR Sect assigned to receive human\\animal 'recruits.'
The human\\animal Sect 'Dystopian-Sno-Men' contacted the MACHINATOR Sect through a damaged unit the human\\animals had retrieved//rescued//repaired from Sector 1154. The 'Dystopian-Sno-Men' found among their numbers one of EPIMETHEUS' followers and discerned the true nature of the converted\\enhanced unit. Sensing the impending demise of the human\\animal species, the 'Dystopian-Sno-Men' requested conversion\\enhancement to the NEXT. PROMETHEUS ordered the units incorporated into the NEXT, citing the human\\animals' digital skills and dissatisfaction\\disdain for the meat form. Under the supervision of the REDACTOR Sect these human\\animals could offer much to Cybrid evolution.
2832.3850 NEXT overcoming human\\animal resistance.
The Core Directive continued to progress efficiently\\effectively. All of the outlying human\\animal defenses had fallen. Human\\animal resistance had begun to collapse//falter globally.
2832.3995 PROMETHEUS initiates Final Protocol of Core Directive: HURT//MAIM//KILL EPIMETHEUS.
PROMETHEUS enacted the Final Protocol of the Core Directive, unleashing the elite units of the NEXT upon 'Nova-Alexandria.'
2832.4780 PLUTO: Cardinal Spear is shot down
Despite the best hopes of Caanon and Harabec, their captured Cybrid ship lacked the proper authorization to the vicinity of Prometheus. Cybrid defenses activated and destroyed the ship as it braked into orbit around Pluto. Many of the Cardinal Spear had their vehicles already in Cybrid drop pods, and were able to launch before the ship disintegrated, but there was no time to adjust landing coordinates. The hope of humanity scattered across the surface of Pluto like chaff.
2832.4781 TITAN: Battle of Eskandani Chasm begins
The Cybrids had regrouped and drawn reinforcements from Earth. This time, they struck swiftly and directly at Eskandani. The Alliance had dug in as much as possible into the hardened ice, but a Cybrid victory seemed inevitable. The soldiers of the Alliance were determined to sell their lives as dearly as possible, as their brothers and sisters on Venus and Mars had done, and as the people of Earth were still doing.
2832.4788 EARTH: Cybrids penetrate Imperial Palace
The Cybrid forces fought through Nova Alexandria, grinding remorselessly toward the primary target of the entire Core Directive: the Imperial Palace - and Petresun. The Emperor refused to leave the city, though his advisors begged him to flee to safety. 'I will not abandon my people,' he maintained.
2832.4789 PLUTO: Cardinal Spear remnants head for showdown
Scattered, bruised, and weary, the tattered remains of the audacious Cardinal Spear gathered themselves to mount a desperate attack on Prometheus. 'Cardinal Three's' rescue of Caanon gave them some small hope that perhaps others had survived and would find their way to the Cybrid 'temple' in time. Harabec was nowhere to be found.
2832.47?? EARTH: Petresun Dies
Emperor Petresun is killed after elite Cybrid units break through the defenses at Nova Alexandria..
2832.4791 PLUTO: Prometheus killed
Cardinal Spear was successfully in finding, and then killing the big Glitch itself.
2832.???? Harabec's body located
Caanon finds and visits the wreck of Harabec's Apocalypse on Pluto. Unable to retrieve the dead body of his brother, he settles for cutting off his head instead.
2832.???? Cardinal Spear rescued
The survivors of Operation Cardinal Spear are retrieved from the planet's surface by a rescue vessel.
2832.???? Pluto explodes
Massive Cybrid fusion charges destroy Pluto. Exemplar Sect communications picked up near Titan use a term translated to mean “Godseeds,” then fall silent.
Starsiege Ends
2832.???? Cybrids begin to fight amongst themselves
The death of Prometheus throws the Cybrid chain of command into utter confusion. Metagens now openly battle Prometheans and seize ships to leave the conflict.
2833
Cybrid ground and naval forces in the outer system fall back to positions around Saturn and Neptune as Alliance troops secure their hold on the Jovian satellites.
Battle for China begins. Entrenched human forces in Siberia and Manchuria initiate a massive counterattack against disorganized Cybrids that meets with limited success.
Absence of Prometheus' guidance takes an increasing toll on the Cybrid chain of command. Infighting among Cybrid units is particularly fierce on Earth and Mars where Cybrid military effectiveness in many regions falls to less than half of what it had been at the start of the conflict.
Alliance forces using Titan as their primary staging area muster a relief effort for Earth led by Caanon Weathers. A second, smaller task force is arrayed to harass Cybrid units orbiting Saturn and to defend Titan in case of a renewed assault.
Dustrats on Mars begin staging raids to harass their machine oppressors. Veterans of the last 'MarsSiege' are quick to note that the Cybrids do far more damage to themselves than the ill-equipped insurgents. Nevertheless Martian morale is bolstered and attacks on Cybrid command and control facilities continue.
Imperial Knights of the Furious Stars Order strike at already weakened Cybrid lines just outside the Denver metrozone. Led by Knight-Captain Keiren Mace they claim a five-for-one rate of attrition and establish a stable rallying point for surviving TDF forces in the North American Prefecture.
2834
Imperial Navy engineers discover how to use cachetech to effectively reduce the mass of the Alliance ships under Caanon's command. This advance permits immensely greater long-term acceleration with the same reaction mass use and cuts interplanetary transit time by almost 99%. Cachetech modifications are made en route, and strategic timetables are advanced sharply, the entire battlegroup going to high alert as tech crews race around the clock to prepare vehicles for battle.
Passing through the asteroid belt en route to Earth, Alliance forces under the command of Caanon encounter a small contingent of TDF ships in hiding, their crews unaware of the fall of Prometheus. The fleet diverts Long Patrol gunship ISS Sacajawea to take on survivors. The ships are in disrepair and are scuttled after being scavenged for parts. Burning hard, Sacajawea is able to catch the rest of the fleet within a week and resume her place in formation.
During a reconnaissance patrol near Mercury, cloak-equipped TDF destroyer Tuareg detects unusual movement among Cybrid forces on the planetary surface. The Tuareg maintains remote surveillance of the activities and reports mass transfer of Cybrid forces to ships in orbit.
Swinging out from behind the shadow of Luna, the Allied Fleet under Caanon stages a daring assault against Cybrid flotillas in station-keeping at L4 and L5. The Cybrid ships are uncharacteristically slow to respond, and the initial sally by TDF interceptor flights sows devastation among them. Fusion torpedoes launched by the 38th Penetration Wing, aka The Silver Wolves, succeed in detonating the reactor core of the Cybrid superdreadnought code-named "GRENDEL". Most of the Silver Wolves perish in the assault. Cybrid dreadnoughts "TYRANT" and "ASMODEUS" also fall to TDF attacks. The Cybrid carrier "TIAMAT" almost escapes, but the TDF destroyer Unsung sacrifices itself in a suicidal collision that leaves the immense Cybrid vessel a flaming hulk. The chaos provides cover for Caanon's dropships to launch a HALO operation over Nova Alexandria. Cybrid naval forces fragment, some ships burning on outsystem vectors, others rallying to defend against the human attackers. While HERCs and Aerospace fighters battle for a planetside foothold on Mother Earth, control of the Lagrange points and low orbit remains contested for three months before the Alliance prevails.
Cybrid forces withdraw from Nova Alexandria and form a perimeter around the city. The Imperial Palace is left in ruins, along with the greater part of the Royal City. A commando team from the Rose Azure Order of Knights slips through Cybrid sentries and examines the charred remnants of the Emperor's wombcouch. Following the team's report, Imperial Command abandons any hope of finding Petresun's remains, and the Emperor is listed among the dead.
Surviving civilian population of Luna taking refuge in the mines report confusion among Cybrid vehicles. Darkside commandoes sabotage Cybrid sensor stations with strain of "Plague Dog" virus. Luna's Cybrid garrison responds with series of erratic forays that ultimately results in destruction of its own sensor network.
Tunnel-running dustrats increase guerrilla assaults on Cybrid bases in Tharsis, Valles, and Xanthe regions. A dust storm of immense proportions prevents significant action in the East and South. Cybrid forces in Arabia, Noachis, and Syrtis-Tyr provinces suffer severe and persistent mechanical problems, as the superfine-grained dust proves a deadly enemy to Cybrid joint mechanisms and optical arrays.
An intense torpedo bombardment from capital ships ISS Crimson Star, ISS Hood, and ISS Ancient Glory in LEO destroys a heavily fortified Cybrid vehicle production facility. Civilian losses are high due to inaccurate reports of human shield numbers the Cybrids have placed in the area.
2835
Imperial Navy regroups in Earth orbit. Surviving ships from across the inner system trickle in as word of Alliance victory over the skies of Terra Mater spreads. Naval engineers refit as much of the fleet as possible with the gravitic drive technology developed by Caanon’s cache-tech scientists while en-route to Earth.
The Second Battle of Nova Alexandria: Imperial Knights and colonial forces led by Caanon Weathers succeed in breaking the Cybrid siege of the Imperial seat. HERCs piloted by Blood Eagle veterans distinguish themselves by isolating and destroying the notorious Cybrid hunter-killer group code-named "SCORPIO." Imperial Knight Colossa "Jaguar" Eun Alba leads the final charge.
Insurgent forces in the North American Prefecture make dramatic gains against Cybrid forces all along the Rocky Mountain range and into the Great Plains, though both coasts of the continent remain firmly under Cybrid control.
Emperor Caanon is inaugurated as the Second Emperor of the Great Human Empire amid bittersweet celebrations in Nova Alexandria. He is wounded shortly after the ceremony when one of his surviving sons turns out to be a Trojan Horse.
Given an enormous edge from their new drive technology, small strike forces of the Imperial Navy begin to make tremendous gains against Cybrid vessels. Cybrid ability to reinforce or re-allocate ground forces is hampered throughout the inner system. The Cybrid gunnery programs adapt quickly, however, and the human edge lessens, though it retains a clear superiority over Cybrid capabilities.
A TDF relief effort is dispatched to Mars. Dustrats and Imperial Knights working together break the fortifications of the primary Cybrid bases in Valles and Noachim regions, but at a terrible cost. Renowned Knight-Captain Titus “Hangman” Thau-Yuros is slain, as well as a host of TDF regulars and countless Martian fighters. Eun Alba gives a curt funeral speech for Thau-Yuros, concluding his rival was one of humanity's great heroes, "...but I wish I had had the pleasure of killing him myself."
The battle for Greater China turns dramatically in humanity’s favor as Emperor Caanon dispatches the bulk of Imperial aerospace assets to seize control of the skies over Asia. Imperial domination of the air and the lack of off-world resupply hobbles Cybrid forces throughout the continent. Human shields are redeployed into the Cybrid slave factories to bolster production. Heroic resistance in the factories themselves renders this strategy useless by year's end.
2836
Human factories on Earth begin to produce cachetech weapons in significant numbers. As the new arms are deployed in the Chinese and Indian combat theaters, initial underestimation of their firepower results in unexpectedly high friendly fire casualties.
The Xavier Gravitic Envelope drive revolutionizes humanity's projection of force across interplanetary distances. The TDF launches a food and munitions relief effort for Mars. The ships arrive in Martian orbit mere days after leaving LEO. A salvo of XGE-mounted missiles launched at the mid-point of the journey shreds Cybrid orbital defenses. Though the cost of producing these missiles with the dwindling store of gravitic components is astronomical, the TDF owns Martian space almost immediately.
Alliance sensor boats patrolling the asteroid belt detect a hidden Cybrid ore processing and refinement facility. A taskforce of XGE-equipped destroyers and corvettes is dispatched to destroy this objective. As the ships begin the assault, the Cybrids detonate nearby Asteroid NX-232 with horrifically precise timing. The huge blast causes a meteor tsunami to rip through the taskforce, damaging many ships. In the ensuing confusion, the ISS Hellfire Rose reports attack by a Cybrid boarding party. The ship's captain blows his fusion reactors to prevent capture of the Rose's XGE drive, and the rest of the taskforce falls back to Mars.
Cybrid forces in South America venture north to suppress human insurgents in the Central plains of North America and the northwestern watershed of the Mississippi River valley. The reinforced Cybrid legions retake Denver and devastate the Furious Stars after a pitched battle. An alarming number of Trojan Horses among the Stars officer corps plays a significant role in making sure almost no one in the Order survives. The Blood Eagle immediately begin counter-insurgency operations to purge their own ranks of Trojan Horse infiltrators.
Their numbers and supplies dwindling under the onslaught of human aerospace domination, Cybrids in Siberia carry out a massive, synchronized self-destruct sequence that releases radioactive fallout into Mongolia, Central Asia, and Western China. When embattled Cybrid defenders in Beijing and Shanghai prepare to follow suit, concentrated volleys of cachetech-enhanced EMP warheads prevent them from succeeding. TDF forces capture a large number of lobotomized Cybrid pilotforms and use them as ashtrays and latrines.
Caanon declares victory in China. Survivors in Eastern and Southern Asia begin to emerge from bunkers and underground tunnel warrens en masse. As celebrations begin in Beijing, TDF shunts its forces to the Mediterranean for an assault on Europe.
The Third Colonial Rangers land in the ruins of Tharsis City and fight a vicious building-to-building battle against entrenched Cybrid forces. Colonel Verity Vargas leads her Redhawk Raiders to intercept a Cybrid Adjudicator force en route to destroy a hidden township of the resistance that harbored the children of Mars. Her desperate victory against superior numbers earns her the Martian Cross and the instant devotion of every “dustrat” in the Solar System.
Led by the battlecruiser ISS Hood, TDF “Q-ships” concealed in the hulls of Cybrid vessels successfully assault the Cybrid refinery facility in the asteroid belt. This time, the taskforce surprises the Cybrid ships defending the operation, firing off a series of magnetically “shaped”, wide-angle EMP blasts to disable them. Following a short, sharp battle, the processing facilities are captured intact. They span several large, ore-rich asteroids, all tethered to an immense superstructure construction facility. After the TDF vessels take on as much ore and equipment as they can carry, one of the Cybrid hulks is packed with fusion warheads and remotely detonated in the heart of the base.
Venusian survivor-hermit “Hearken” finally stops transmitting his defiant poems after miraculously evading the Cybrids on Venus for six years. From the context of his last message, he is presumed to have committed suicide as an alternative to starvation or capture. His real name and identity remain a mystery, though historians and literary scholars later write reams of speculative papers on the subject.
2837
Imperial scientist Antonin Ryu develops the first gravitic ‘pinch’ drive based on research enabled by XGE technology. This breakthrough cuts interplanetary travel time even more dramatically, and makes true extra-solar exploration possible, but production difficulty together with massive energy and space requirements hinder deployment of the technology.
Widespread infighting breaks out among Cybrid units in Europe as they compete with one another for scarce energy and spare parts. Seizing the window of opportunity, TDF forces mustered near the Black Sea launch a massive offensive that succeeds in evicting the machines from Eastern Europe.
The Order of the Blood Eagle and a number of other Alliance units are dispatched to the NorthAm theater as reinforcements for TDF forces struggling to hold the Colorado front. The Knights exhibit a pattern of aberrant, disturbing behavior. Alliance officers report brutal hazing of regular troops and hint at far worse, but the Order’s presence makes the difference: the Cybrid counteroffensive is halted.
Imperial Navy Destroyers ISS Glorious Dragon and ISS Spinnaker are the first ships outfitted with Ryu Pinch drives. Though the new drives' efficiency is greatly reduced within the Solar System's gravity well, the ships gain the capability to reach the outer planets in hours rather than weeks. Carrying both Ryu-pinch and XGE drives, the two destroyers seek out and destroy Cybrid factory ships lurking in the outer orbits that had previously proven impossible to track down.
Submersible carriers ferry TDF’s elite “Neptune” division in an attack against deep-sea Cybrid bases in the South Pacific. Using SCARAB technology and the new implosion warheads, Neptune’s troops achieve swift initial success. However, the Cybrids deploy a gigantic warform near the islands of Vanuatu that destroys one carrier and badly damages two others. Shaken TDF naval forces withdraw before the onslaught of this new foe, codenamed “KRAKEN” following reports from awed eyewitnesses.
Colossa Eun Alba suffers horrifying injuries during an assault on a Cybrid stronghold in Xanthe Province on Mars. The damage to his body cannot be regenerated properly; he is confined to a life-support biotank with little hope of full recovery. As a result, Eun Alba uses a VR interface to continue piloting HERCs and commanding forces in the field, against the advice of his physicians, who warn of possible permanent neurological damage.
TDF forces fight a seesaw battle across the Italian Peninsula. Heretofore spared the ravages of the Earthsieges, Rome is devastated as a series of Cybrid retaliatory strikes rips through the historic city center. Caanon reluctantly diverts some of his strength to protect the city of Florence, declaring "our heritage cannot be left unshielded if we are to have a future."
As Mercury’s orbit brings the innermost planet around the sun closer to Earth, Cybrid vessels are detected burning on an outsystem vector. Led by Rear-Admiral Hidei Nagashima, XGE-equipped TDF ships of the “Tengu Dog Squadron” intercept the Cybrid formation less than an AU from Mercury. Nagashima places derelict vessels that emit false signals in the Cybrids’ path. When the Cybrid ships alter course to intercept the hulks, Nagashima detonates massive EMP warheads to screen an assault by fast gunships, missile boats, and "turncoat" missiles piloted by recompiled Cybrid brains. Over the next two hours, the bulk of the Cybrid force is obliterated. The remnants scatter in all directions.
KRAKEN surfaces and destroys a convoy of food supply ships en route for Tokyo. When the carnage is complete, the Cybrid monster slips back beneath the waves, impervious to the barrage of lasers and torpedo fire directed at it by TDF aerosub escorts.
Emperor Caanon reiterates that Cybrids are “mere objects” under the law, not persons. As such, they do not fall under the ancient standards of the Geneva Convention or any other statute, custom, or constitutional provision that purports to grant rights to prisoners of war. Captured Cybrids are spirited behind the black metaplas walls of the newly established Imperial Security Protectorate in Nova Alexandria, where their neurologics are decompiled line by painstaking line.
After a spring and summer of fierce fighting around the Denver and Greater Omaha metrozones, the NorthAm front bogs down under fierce blizzards. Though HERCs are able to continue normal operations, Cybrids suffer from a lack of replacement parts, and humans from reduced food supplies. Scavenger activity occurs on both sides. Rumors circulate accusing the Blood Eagle of cannibalism, but these are never substantiated.
In a radical departure from previous non-ecocidal strategy, Cybrids maneuver a large meteor to collide with Mother Earth. The sacrifice of Glorious Dragon and many heroic TDF fighter pilots diverts the meteor from its intended target of the North American plains and into the Pacific Ocean. Tsunamis devastate the west coast of the NAP and most of Japan, and the shockwave obliterates several undersea colonies. Earth’s weather patterns are sharply impacted for years.
2838
In an epic, month-long battle that runs up and down the slopes of Olympus Mons, Colonel Verity Vargas defeats the last major Cybrid force on the red planet. Vargas is killed in the final assault, and is subsequently enshrined as the greatest Martian war hero after Bek Storm, becoming known as the Victor of the Battle of the Long Slope, the Third Battle of Olympus. The surviving Redhawk Raiders paint their HERCs black in her memory.
KRAKEN attacks Tokyo harbor, breaching the partially rebuilt perimeter wall and launching salvoes of low-payload, high-radiation warheads into the heart of the city. A furious counterattack by Knights of the Rising Earth Order repels the monstrous warform, despite inflicting only light damage. Virtually the entire civilian populace dies of radiation poisoning over the ensuing two months. Caanon devotes the majority of TDF naval assets to hunt down this Cybrid foe, but the year runs out with KRAKEN still at large.
A large Cybrid force is defeated at the foot of the Alps in Northern Italy, effectively breaking Cybrid power in Europe. Amid unconfirmed reports of Cybrid pilotforms attempting to surrender, TDF troops unleash the frustration and grief of years of war in a destructive rampage. A handful of Cybrids are captured. TDF tanks and HERCs liberating Zurich sport offlined Cybrid pilotforms as hood ornaments.
Cloned BioDerms with memory implants become a valuable asset to bolster TDF infantry operations. Though they are less effective at independent tactical thinking, they function reasonably well under close direction of experienced officers. Caanon deploys them en masse to the South American and African theaters, where, absorbing the brunt of Cybrid attempts to break the surging human offensives, they die like flies.
Ex-Colonial Ranger Sergeant Riana Yashida-Jones runs for Mayor of Tharsis City on the Free Mars Party ticket. Despite revelations of a history of disciplinary problems during her service and the use of colorful expressions in her speeches, she wins by a landslide.
Emperor Caanon dedicates a memorial to Solomon Petresun, now widely credited among survivors on Earth as having prepared humanity to survive the Cybrid onslaught. During the dedication speech, Caanon makes an oblique reference to his younger brother being more Petresun’s son than a scion of the Weathers. At this moment, subtle cues in Caanon’s face and voice tone hint at what puzzled analysts interpret as suppressed outrage. It proves to be the last occasion on which Caanon publicly mentions Petresun's name.
Cybrids in South America, Africa and the Pacific Rim begin to withdraw to strongholds in Antarctica as human forces push southward on both sides of the globe. Reinforced by freshly trained pilots gleaned from survivors in Asia and the Middle East, and enjoying near total global air superiority, TDF regulars and Imperial Knights make dramatic inroads all across the Southern Hemisphere.
Long Patrol sensor buoys detect a Cybrid fleet burning for Titan from a staging area outside the orbit of Neptune. Imperial Naval Command dispatches ISS Spinnaker to intercept and harass the Cybrids while XGE-equipped ships rush to reinforce Titan. The Cybrid forces, harried by hit and run attacks by Spinnaker, arrive to find Titan well-defended. After a brief, indecisive encounter, the machines break off and retreat, dumping swarms of remote missiles in their wake, all armed with nuclear warheads. After one of these destroys the corvette Kali’s Seventh Blade, Imperial Naval Command calls off pursuit.
Emperor Caanon attends a briefing at L4 on the battleship ISS Royal Eminence. Alliance admirals report that resources in men and machines run too thin for serious outsystem pursuit of Cybrids. Caanon reluctantly issues instructions for defensive repositioning of fleet assets, but swears there will never be another Earthsiege.
The First Church of the Masters is established amid the reconstruction of Tharsis City. This group believes the cache itself is proof of God’s existence. Many other cults spring up as a battle-scarred humanity seeks solace in mysticism.
Imperial Command assembles a small fleet to investigate the situation at Venus. For political reasons, the operation is dubbed a “rescue expedition” even though no reasonable person expects to find a living soul on Venus. Thousands of Venusians transfer to Operation Mercy’s Shore. NewsNet somberly calls it “The Venusian Homecoming.” It departs Earth orbit without fanfare.
Led by the heroics of a previously obscure TDF survivor of the Denver fighting in NorthAm, TDF HERCs break the Cybrids’ defenses in Denver and destroy the glitches’ command center. Cybrid resistance crumbles, and TDF and Blood Eagle forces pursue and eradicate the remnants of the NorthAm Cybrid presence. The hero of the hour is Michael Church, a heretofore undistinguished veteran of the Alliance. Eyewitnesses describe how he piloted his Emancipator unscathed through withering enemy fire that left the rest of his squad dead and dying. The Blood Eagle offer to elevate Church into their ranks on the spot. His curt refusal, broadcast on NewsNet across human-occupied space, wins him immortality.
The Long Patrol is fully reconstituted as an elite taskforce, with Eskandani Station on Titan serving as its home port. Admiral Hidei “Tengu” Nagashima takes command, infusing the Long Patrol with trickster strategies and relaxing the Imperial Navy’s spit-and-polish culture in favor of independent thinking that gets the job done.
“Liberation fever” sets in on Earth and Mars as people begin to glimpse the end of the conflict and the prospects of a peaceful future. TDF is forced to declare martial law in several regions as citizen jubilation threatens to grow wildly out of control. In Sydney, a mob lynches a man wrongfully thought to be a Trojan Horse.
2839
On Earth, Cybrid forces continue to fall back in North America and Antarctica, the only two major Cybrid footholds remaining on Earth. Many Cybrid units fall because of malfunction or lack of proper maintenance rather than human fire.
Deep in the Pacific Ocean, TDF sonar probes detect a large, unidentified mass moving toward the west coast of North America at supercavitating speed. It successfully breaches the naval perimeter near Hawaii and then diverts its course north, toward the Seattle-Vancouver Metrozone. Concluding the bogey is KRAKEN, Imperial Navy deep sea assets scramble to intercept, but fail.
Cybrid forces in the NorthAm theater break through human lines along a 200-mile front in the NAP province of Montana-Columbia, throwing human forces on the defensive. They surge North and West toward SEAVAM and its reconstructed spaceports.
ISS Spinnaker leads a fleet of Xavier-Ryu drive ships against a Cybrid naval formation detected near Oberon, in what the Imperial Navy classifies as a “defensive operation.” The fleet is ultimately victorious, but not before garbled transmissions from Spinnaker report a torpedo hit near the main power plant. An instant later, sensor screens pick up a massive explosion from the famed ship’s location, and then nothing.
Cybrids approaching SEAVAM encircle an outnumbered Alliance force of patchwork colonial units, mostly battle-fatigued Martian veterans. The Alliance captain is an ex-rebel named Hunter Otobe. Despite harsh weather conditions, Otobe rallies his soldiers and holds off the Cybrids long enough for the TDF to regroup and counterattack. As a result, Cybrid momentum is broken in North America.
KRAKEN breaks through the sea-wall and enters Puget Sound, attacking the Seattle-Vancouver Greater Metroplex from within. Knights led by Artemis “Deathwish” Chenliu counterattack with cache weaponry and an experimental gravitic “implosion torpedo.” Casualties are high. Chenliu pilots the craft carrying the torpedo straight into KRAKEN, sacrificing herself and causing a fatal breach in its armor. Imperial Knights and Imperial Navy aerosubs savage the monstrous warform in a running three-day pursuit before it finally perishes in a massive explosion.
On Venus, Operation Mercy’s Shore succeeds in clearing the planet of its few remaining Cybrids. A heartbreaking reconstruction begins as Scarab-suited laborers excavate the ruins of arcologies, outposts, and caravans. Venusian poets come to call this time ‘The Grieving.’ Their devastating holofilms and commentaries quickly spread the tragedy of Venus throughout human space.
Hysteria borne of liberation fever paralyzes TDF operations throughout the North American Prefecture. Guerilla resistance survivors begin to emerge from their hidden bunkers and bases. Slaves are freed from Cybrid factories. Recognizing the need to maintain order, Caanon reestablishes the Imperial Police by transferring selected TDF units to new duty.
The Alliance begins to permit Colonial troops to muster out and return to their homes. Victory celebrations are frequently cut short in order to facilitate leavetaking. Many “interplanetary marriages” take place. One such is Imperial Knight Oliphant “Rajah” Praldar-Singh, who marries a Venusian woman.
Artemis Chenliu’s final haiku, calmly delivered over the radio during her famous last run against KRAKEN, is adopted as the catchphrase for Imperial heroism. In the years to come, she is enshrined as a Buddhist saint.
Martian pilots still serving with TDF forces on Earth return home to fanfare and celebration. The first Martian planetary defense forces are established under the command of decorated war hero Hunter Otobe. General Otobe reluctantly takes up the charge and founds the First Tharsis Dragoons from survivors of the “MarsSiege” and returning Martian veterans.
Rioting breaks out in Hong Kong and New Rotterdam over distribution of food rations. Hundreds perish as Imperial Police rein in the chaos. Autopsies later reveal the presence of Trojan Horse units among the dead. Fear and suspicion set in throughout the Empire. Authorities enact rigorous biometric identification procedures as humanity attempts to weed out remaining infiltration units on Earth.
TDF transfers its forces from mop-up operations in Africa, Europe and South America to the NorthAm theater. Alliance “hunting” missions outside Denver, Gierling District, and along the Eastern Seaboard yield huge successes. This overwhelming application of force following the year's earlier victories in Seattle-Vancouver crushes the Cybrid presence in the North American Prefecture.
Caanon declares the renewal of the Empire and victory in the Third Earthsiege. In later speeches, he drops the use of “Earthsiege” for the term “Starsiege,” desiring to encompass the joint struggle of all human colonies alongside Earth.
2840
Final enclaves of Cybrid forces on Earth are eradicated. Cybrid forces in Antarctica make no attempts to flee the planet, but fight to the very last, employing self-destruct tactics whenever possible, reaping carnage among the enemy. Directed by Sword-General Letha Fairchild, waves of BioDerm attackers supported by Imperial Knights overwhelm the last Cybrids in a massive frontal assault. Mother Earth is free once more.
Long Patrol vessels lurking outside the orbit of Saturn report signs of substantial Cybrid fleet movement near Uranus. The numbers indicate a far greater number of ships than Imperial Intelligence estimates had provided for. Alarmed, the Imperial Navy dispatches a task force to Titan to guard against a possible offensive.
Deeply moved by the devastation wrought on Venus, Imperial Knight Oliphant Praldar Singh resigns his commission and takes up permanent residence on the devastated colony. His Venusian wife at his side, he devotes himself to reconstruction efforts with what observers call ‘religious fervor.’
Imperial Navy establishes a new orbital shipyard dubbed ‘Phoenix Station’ at Earth-Luna L5. In a moving speech that takes on the cadence of prayer, Caanon dedicates it to all the ships and spacers lost in the Starsiege, ending with the simple phrase, “May we rise again.”
Mop-up operations continue to eradicate the remaining pockets of Cybrid presence on Earth and Mars. As the full import of victory sinks in, liberation fever sparks riotous celebrations across human space, notable for their spontaneous violence and complete lack of restraint. Imperial Police trying to regain control are swept up in the hysteria. Within the next year, a huge number of pregnancies strains obstetrics facilities and food supply capacity.
Long Patrol deepscout ISS Ranger reports signs of a massive naval engagement occurring beyond the ghost-orbit of Pluto. Imperial Naval Command reports no vessels operating in that region and orders Ranger to investigate. The next day, Eskandani Station receives what turns out to be the last message from Ranger. Badly garbled, the only intelligible portion is “...enough. This is critica****back to****coming arou****no way! Punch the-(END TRANSMISSION)”
Venusians lay foundations of new arcology dubbed “L’Esperanza.”
In addition to enacting strict measures to try to gain control over liberation fever, the Imperial government puts policies in place to encourage the emerging baby boom; military planners quietly incorporate the skyrocketing birth rate into future troop strength projections.
Verity and Bek become the most popular baby names on Mars.
Fierce winter storms sweep across NorthAm. Thousands die of starvation and exposure, as a parts shortage grounds many airships. Aerospace drops bring relief to several groups of refugees, but for others, the supplies come too little, too late.
Departing from the defensive doctrine established in recent years, Caanon orders construction of a “pursuit armada” to hunt down Cybrids beyond the solar system. In a major speech transmitted throughout human space, he declares, “Like the ancient gods and spirits of the hunt, we will pursue our foe without mercy, without hesitation, without fear. To the ends of the universe we shall go. Fly though it may, the Cybrid cannot escape our justice.”
Tharsis mayor Riana Yashida-Jones gives birth to a son. The father is unknown. Severely brain-damaged, the child is diagnosed with irreparable genetic damage and given no more than a year to live.
As a symbol of Imperial-Colonial cooperation, two new flagships are commissioned for the pursuit armada. One is christened the ISS Ambrose Gierling, and the other the FCV Verity Vargas.
2841
Liberation fever diminishes in scale and frequency as the peace settles across human space. Industry begins to shift from war production toward consumer goods. A thriving black market interferes with the economic recovery, however, and illegal narcotics flood the cities.
Unprecedented amity exists between Earth and her Colonies. On Mars, the Imperial presence is quietly withdrawn, but the Alliance Headquarters remains with a small inter-world garrison, situated on the old battleground of Carter Flats. The leader of the Martian contingent is the grizzled commander Joakim “Sax” Saxon, one-time right-hand man to the legendary Bek Storm. His aide-de-camp is the son of his old friend Hunter Otobe.
Fueled by the testimony of TDF survivors, highly publicized court-martials begin, focusing on accusations of atrocities committed by Blood Eagle Knights during the Battle of Denver. Though many Knights are acquitted, some are not, and the trials leave a bad taste with the public. Caanon himself is said to have washed his hands of the controversial Order.
Bulk food shipments become one of the most sought-after underground commodities. Major agricultural shipments require heavily armored and escorted convoys.
Record numbers of births include record numbers of severe birth defects as the legacy of the Starsiege reaches the next generation. Imperial doctors begin to focus research efforts on teratogen detection and genetic therapy. Suicide rates spike as devastated parents try to cope with the continuing presence of the Cybrid horror.
War hero Colossa Eun Alba gives a stern but stirring speech to the reconstituted Imperial Senate, appearing by virtual projection, as his ruined body is still confined to a biotank. He calls for renewal of humanity’s warrior spirit and demands “that our hands not stray far from the sword.”
People traumatized by years of apocalyptic war demonstrate a range of psychological scars ranging from severe PTSD to “running amok.” Suicide rates remain abnormally high.
At the height of the Blood Eagle trials, TDF veteran Michael Church, the hero of Denver, provides testimony that convicts three senior officers of the infamous Order. One is Knight-Captain Ruby Hokanson-Li, aka “Razorfire.” After the verdicts, Church goes into seclusion.
On Venus, Oliphant Praldar Singh is elected First Citizen of the Reconstruction. He commissions the Oberwind Irregulars as the first official sovereign defense force of Venus. Rumors begin to circulate among reactionary elements on Earth that another conflict with the colonies may be inevitable.
Ethan Yashida-Jones dies in a Tharsis hospital, his tissues devoured by fast-growing systemic tumors. Riana falls into severe depression. By the end of the year, it becomes obvious she has developed a substantial drinking problem.
First Church of the Masters takes hold on Earth as well as Mars. Caanon expresses his personal disapproval, but takes no steps to hinder the spread of the new religion.
624 Hektor, a Trojan planetoid at Jupiter's L4 point, explodes in a massive conflagration visible from Earth. The explosion scatters a cloud of asteroids and debris across the Jovian orbital path. Across human space, fears are awakened of another ecocidal attack by the Cybrids. The Long Patrol dispatches the ISS Crimson Inquisitor to investigate.
Caanon assigns two newly-formed Imperial Knight Orders to the pursuit armada: The Fireborn and Adamant Storm. The TDF attaches its First Imperial Starborne Division, and the Colonials offer the Third Colonial Rangers, the most decorated unit of the Starsiege after the Blood Eagle and the recently formed Tharsis Dragoons.
Michael Church’s body is discovered in a garbage-strewn alley in Bangkok.
2842
ISS Crimson Inquisitor arrives within sensor range of Jupiter-L4 and reports a large Cybrid salvage operation underway. She continues to monitor the Cybrid activity while the Imperial Navy musters a taskforce.
Long Patrol deepscout ISS Vainamoinen detects unusual gravitic signature outside the orbital path of Neptune. Caanon puts the Imperial Navy on Red-6, TDF's highest alert status, after analysis of the gravitic readings shows a pattern consistent with manifested XGE drive fields. The limitations of gravitic detection capability mean only generalized location of XGE vessels can be determined, not vector or acceleration readings.
General Letha Fairchild assumes command of TDF and the Orbital Guard. She makes her base of operations on Phoenix Station.
Fast-draft initiated to cycle all able-bodied people into war effort.
Third Lieutanant Orlanda Konovalev of the TDF pilots an interceptor on a spontaneous sortie against a suspected Cybrid incursion near L4. The intruder turns out to be a Cybrid spy probe, easily destroyed. Konovalev's cool professionalism during her approach marks her to TDF superiors.
Long Patrol scrambles all available ships to establish a sensor picket line between the Cybrid XGE coordinates and insystem vectors. Priority channels on GLORIA cleared for high-level response to the threat. Rumors on the Omni-Web describe an exceptional volume of encrypted transmissions between Imperial Command on Earth and Titan.
Antolin Mirador, a clerk at the Rio Luz Bank of Madrid Metroplex, arrested for a horrific murder spree. He claims to be a Trojan Horse acting on behalf of the Great Machine God. Tests confirm he suffers from mental illness. He receives a humane execution after judicial inquiry concludes he committed the murders of which he was accused.
Taskforce Black Denial departs Phoenix Station and vectors for Jupiter at maximum speed. The Cybrid salvage operation departs using what the Crimson Inquisitor's crew concludes is XGE technology. Crimson Inquisitor attempts to follow, but a pair of Cybrid destroyers peel off to intercept. Outgunned, she falls back and evades, losing the Cybrid quarry in the process.
Nanophage alarm triggered in Sector 4, Block 7 of Dallas Metrozone. Blood Eagle strike teams arrive and raze the block within an hour, killing anyone who tries to escape and hunting down those few who exited the building before the red knights arrived.
At Eskadani Chasm, Admiral Nagashima orders the evacuation of non-essential base personnel into the new bunkers hidden beneath the ethane lakes and frozen oceans of the immediate region. The Long Patrol deploys a host of orbital defense drones over the main base and braces itself for the worst. Imperial Command orders a pair of freshly-minted Interdictor Class Battleships, the ISS Damocles and the ISS Radiant Shield, both equipped with Ryu Pinch drives, to reinforce Titan.
Cybrid threat never materializes. After weeks of tension, Caanon orders Imperial Navy to stand down to Red-1. A month later, he downgrades the alert status to Amber-6. Fast-draft halted. Crowds on Earth and Mars spill into the city streets, evincing relief and resentment.
Riana Yashida-Jones wins re-election as mayor of Tharsis, campaigning on the Free Mars Party platform and advocating complete independence from Imperial regulations. She takes her old Emancipator in campaign stops from settlement to settlment, using the video-ops it affords her. Despite allegations of raucous behavior in her personal life, she wins by a landslide.
Protests erupt over “Imperial False Alarm.” Caanon is portrayed as Chicken Little in demonstator placards. Fearing another outbreak of Liberation Fever, Imperial Police overreact. Hundreds of protestors are injured, scores killed in cities across the world.
Duke Colossa Eun Alba is summoned to a private audience with the Emperor, at which he appears in person, his biotank floated into Caanon's presence on a gravitic sled derived at great expense from Predator technology. What the two discuss is not recorded, but Eun Alba's virtual presence thereafter becomes a constant at meetings of the Imperial High Command and TDF's Strategic Planning Directorate. Observers note he also enjoys an unprecedented level of security clearance.
Amid the cramped foundations of L'Esperanza Arcology on Venus, Remara Chandler begins writing The Solitude Canticles, a poetic meditation on grief and remembrance. In the years to come, she will be renowned as the first Venusian Poet-Saint.
Vargas Military Institute established on Mars.
Long Patrol deepscout Walkabout vanishes during investigation of one of Pluto's larger fragments. The planetary shard was on an outsystem trajectory. Cybrids are presumed responsible for the ship's disappearance.
Protest leaders on Earth detained indefinitely. Civil libertarians agitate for their release.
Decorated BioDerm veteran Delta Six lobbies Imperial government for BioDerm clemency, citing Derm casualty rates under command of Letha Fairchild in the Antarctica campaign as “punishment enough.” He is arrested, but released within the month.
Imperial Alert Status downgraded to Amber-2. Caanon makes speech decrying turmoil and berating “those who would embrace the enemy by forgetting what they are. Our history is writ in blood and fire – we do not have the luxury to be soft.”
Shortly after the Emperor's speech, Riana Yashida-Jones gives a speech attacking “...those who would sacrifice their liberty out of fear, who would sell themselves to dictators for security. That is the greatest disrespect to our dead comrades, to forget why we fought.”
Martian runs amok at Imperial consulate, killing three before he is brought down. The tragedy elevates tensions between Imperials and Colonists. Generation-old memories resurface. Dusters mutter the name of Navarre.
Riana Yashida-Jones shot by Imperial sympathizer at a rally in Tharsis.
2843
Martians hold a candlelight vigil for Riana Yashida-Jones as she clings to life in a Tharsis City hospital. To their surprise, they are joined by a silent contingent of Imperial citizens bearing flowers in the name of the Emperor. Within days, most of Yashida-Jones’s old squadmates have rallied to her. NewsNet reports downplay her turbulent personal life. Colonial-Imperial tensions ease.
Imperial security forces on Titan uncover a Trojan Horse cell operating at Eskadani Station. The cell includes a network of smugglers, Long Patrol communications officers, and SCARAB-laborers. Security is tightened across the moon as an atmosphere of paranoia infuses the outer colonies.
A pale but steady Riana Yashida-Jones gives a press conference thanking all her well-wishers and the Emperor. She reiterates the need to avoid the mistakes of the past, saying that “to be human means embracing the risks that go with freedom. We are not cogs in a machine.”
Knight-Captain Sunder Cain of the Blood Eagle leads an inquisition team to Titan to secure the outer colony against further Trojan Horse infestation. The team's presence is controversial among the icegrubs, and Cain's methods are uncompromising. Admiral Nagashima transmits a strongly worded protest to Imperial Command.
Imperial Census shows human population burgeoning, with record numbers of children being born across the system despite fears of genetic damage from the Starsiege.
Fleet shipyards at Phoenix Station begin construction on five new 'Liberation' class colonial frigates. Imperial Command refuses to allow weapons or firing control systems to be installed on location, citing Trojan Horse concerns. On Mars, agitators in the Martian Parliament call for independent naval installations to construct and service colonial vessels.
Earth’s ecosystems show signs of recovery after the years of devastating war. Emperor Caanon dedicates the monument to the Battle of Denver amid a field of wildflowers.
Elections are held for the Martian Parliament. The Free Mars Party, headed by Riana Yashida-Jones, prevails, and Yashida-Jones takes office as the first Speaker of Mars.
NewsNet posts a story linking Michael Church’s death to the Blood Eagle. Though well-documented, the evidence cited consists of oral testimony from unidentified witnesses. The scandal gets attention, but falls into the vast sea of conspiracy theory already surrounding the Blood Eagle.
Escorted by bodyguards, Francisco Navarre, son of former Imperial Governor Ernesto Navarre, enrolls in the Vargas Military Institute on Mars. Despite suffering persecution from his classmates, his scores place him at the top of his class.
Riots break out on Titan following widespread circulation of incendiary rumors that the Long Patrol is infested with Trojan Horses. Some stories accuse Admiral Nagashima himself of being a hidden Cybrid.
Riana Yashida-Jones proposes full independence of Colonial forces from the Imperial command structure. The Martian Parliament passes the bill before the end of the year.
Caanon bans the Church of the Masters from Nova Alexandria.
First Citizen Oliphant Praldar-Singh calls on Venusian legislators to strike down a bill authorizing cooperation with Martian forces in the construction of a Free Colonial Shipyard to be established at a secret location. After lengthy and heated debate, the bill passes the Venusian Senate despite his opposition.
Venusian composer Owain Li-Kant produces the first of his controversial Promethean Symphonies, music inspired by algorithmic fragments salvaged from Cybrid brains.
To quell the rumors about his humanity, Admiral Hidei Nagashima submits to interrogation by the Blood Eagle investigation team. After the questioning is over, he resigns his commission and leaves Titan. Imperial Naval Command makes no move to stop him.
Akim Maatiu, a former naval intelligence officer who infiltrated a rebel smuggling operation during the Starsiege under the alias Maatiu Akimbo, is elevated to the rank of Vice-Admiral and given provisional command of the reconstituted Third Imperial Fleet.
The Imperial Ministry of Health publishes findings of a “disturbing” correlation between widespread post-traumatic stress disorder and cases of child abuse. Citing fears of a “traumatized population,” the Ministry suggests mandatory medication and therapy for all parents of children under 12.
Sporadic food riots break out after a fungus blights a portion of the NAP wheat crop. Fears spread that “Cybrid taint” in the food supply will be another long-running legacy of the Starsiege.
2844
Amidst much pomp and ceremony at the Palace in Nova Alexandria, Duke Colossa Eun Alba is graced with the honorary title of Knight-Exemplar, the most prestigious award an Imperial Knight can receive.
Hidei Nagashima takes up residence on Venus and becomes moderately involved in local politics. He has the vocal support of First-Citizen Singh but is the source of much controversy among the native populace.
Imperial Police stage a three-month long crackdown on black-market trade throughout Earth and the Inner Colonies. Their tactics and behavior are particularly brutal, evoking outrage from civil-liberties advocates across the Inner System. Underground food and supplies trade is sharply impacted while narcotics shipments remain curiously unaffected.
NewsNet reports Duke Eun Alba’s appointment as General of Imperial Forces attached to the Artemis Pursuit Armada. General Hunter Otobe will command the Colonial contingent.
The Blood Eagle inquisition team on Titan stages a surprise raid on a mining facility deep in the Eskadani Chasm. The facility, its workers, and most of the strike team are consumed in a massive explosion that is felt as far away as Huygens Station. Knight-Captain Sunder Cain, after reviewing data of the incident, declares the Blood Eagle mission on Titan complete and returns to Earth without further public explanation.
Martian scholar Orestes Bale publishes his landmark biography of Solomon Petresun. The work, entitled Circuits, Flesh, and Steel, sparks controversy on Earth due to its highly critical analysis of the former Emperor’s life.
Vice-Admiral Akim Maatiu is advanced to the rank of Admiral and offered command of the Imperial fleet assigned to the Artemis armada. He graciously accepts and transfers to the ISS Gierling to oversee the final stages of the naval muster.
Venusian First-Citizen Oliphant Praldar-Singh travels to Mars on a diplomatic embassy to meet with Rianna Yashida-Jones. The two discuss colonial economics, agricultural and industrial trade, and military cooperation among other subjects. The visit dominates the NewsNet feeds for weeks as hired analysts and other talking heads speculate on the future of Colonial-Imperial relations and the establishment of the controversial Free Colonial Forces.
A Cybrid strike force assaults and captures Kuiper Defense Platform Four, one of seven newly constructed naval outposts scattered throughout the outer system. Imperial Command orders the Long Patrol to keep tight surveillance of the platform and its companions but orders no further response.
Thau-Yuros family stock plummets in value after yearly profit and loss reports show a drastic decrease in their portfolio value, caused in large part by the collapse of several industrial manufacturing firms in which they are heavily invested. Hoping to staunch the sudden outflow of capital from the family's holdings, Julius Thau-Yuros resigns his position on the Austin-Yugari board of directors and re-invests a large portion of his funds into a handful of burgeoning chache-tech development corporations.
An obscure religious cult claiming to worship ‘The Immortal Emperor’ makes the newsfeeds when one of its members assaults Orestes Bale during a book signing in Capri Station on Mars.
At the behest of General Otobe, and with the support of First Citizen Singh, Allied Command offers the Admiralty of the First Colonial Expeditionary Unit to Hidei Nagashima. Outraged members of the Martian Parliament call on Rianna Yashida-Jones to condemn the choice. She refuses to do so, and with her tacit approval Nagashima accepts the appointment.
Completing the 28-month Vargas Institute program in less than 18 months, Francisco Navarre becomes the highest rated graduate in the military academy’s short history. He is immediately assigned to the Third Colonial Rangers and placed under the command of Captain Dawo Otobe.
The Imperial Naval muster is completed at Phoenix Station. Led by flagship ISS Gierling, Task Force Ravenous Shield is composed of fifty-six naval vessels, including eight freshly minted Interdictor class Battleships.
Tharsis-Valles Technologies becomes the first colonial corporation to ever be listed in the Census Conlegium Imperium, the Empire’s annual list of top-performing companies. Trade volume on the Colonial markets skyrockets as speculators shop for other potential success stories.
The Gierling and her task force leave Phoenix Station with a host of public vessels carrying reporters and dignitaries in tow. The civilian ships are ordered back to port but a few smaller vessels shadow the fleet for several days before breaking off.
Emperor Caanon’s eldest son and heir, Knight-Commander Hector Weathers, is killed in action during a mop-up operation on Triton.
The First Colonial Expeditionary Unit departs Mars orbit. The battle group is scheduled to rendezvous with Task Force Ravenous Shield somewhere in the outer system, at which time the Artemis Armada will be complete.
2845 The Chase starts
Caanon Weathers is the new Emperor. Humans pursue defeated Cybrids to other star systems using FTL technology derived from Tharsis cache discoveries.
Emperor Caanon delivers an historic address marking the launch of the Artemis Pursuit Armada. The speech is capped by his dramatic declaration that “the Chase is on! Not some mean spectacle for renown or glory, but THE Chase, the great effort of our generation that will at last put an end to abomination, and purchase our freedom from fear.”
Starsiege 2845 Begins
2847 The Second MarsSiege/Rat War ends
3245 The Cyberstorm starts
Corporations begin exploiting new found star systems
Unitech and other corporations begin mining distant star systems. The alien technology has allowed rapid travel between neighboring stars. BioDerm technology reaches third generation. BioDerms are much more reliable now, yet still have major shortcomings as trustworthy pilots.
Cyberstorm I begins
3255 Cybrid activity discovered within Unitech
Unitech discovers that an entity is secretly misdirecting commands from within the Unitech mainframes. At first mistaking it to be Prometheus, the company personnel eventually call the entity Prometheus Prime. Prometheus Prime withdraws influence but leaves traces which soon cause its downfall.
3256 Prometheus Prime located
Location of Prometheus Prime is extrapolated from download logs. Unitech dispatches a vanguard to destroy the entity.
3258 Unitech attacks Cybrid stronghold
Unitech destroys the base. Prometheus Prime is presumed dead.
Cyberstorm I ends
3289 "Meta-jumpgate" discovered
Discovery of first "meta-jumpgate," allowing for travel over galactic distances.
3291 Corporations fight to control meta-jumpgate
Corporations vie for domination of star system that contains the meta-jumpgate.
Cyberstorm II begins
3300.? The Cyberstorm ends
Unitech controls meta-jumpgate, wins control of the meta-jumpgate.
Cyberstorm II ends
3350 The Diaspora Explosion of exploration
Explorers discover the meta-jumpgate is part of a colossal network of jumproutes. Consequently, humanity begins a rapid expansion into the galaxy. The first generation of people travelling through the jumpgate, later to become known as "the First Who Jumped," forsake the security of the Empire to journey into the unknown. These pioneers develop a nomadic culture and find new pride in their ability to survive away from the mainstream of Imperial civilization. The ever-shifting galactic frontier comes to be known as the wilderzone. The Diaspora continues to this day. Humans are not the only ones traveling this network however...
3400 A tribe is born
Wilderzone settlers begin to refer to themselves as a "tribe," calling themselves the Children of Phoenix . They claim to follow the teachings of the renowned warrior Harabec Weathers, hero of the Cybrid Wars. These teachings eventually find their way into written form as the Tenets of Harabec.
3450 The Splintering
Imperial strikeforce invades Wilderzone
The Blood Eagle Order of Imperial Knights journeys to the frontier of known space in pursuit of a band of separatist religious fanatics calling themselves 'The Children of Phoenix.' The Eagle onslaught is ferocious and masterfully orchestrated resulting in a 'Splintering' of the separatist movement into numerous self sustaining Tribes.
3455 The Starwolf form
Starwolf tribe forms, supposedly founded by renegade Children of Phoenix and deserters from the Blood Eagle, although the tribe's true origin remains a mystery.
3472 Change of Blood Eagle leadership
Grand Master Paramount Het DeBures dies in a pitched battle on the CoP colony world of Bira Marduk. His son, Odysse immediately assumes the mantle of GMP and leads the Eagle forces to a crushing defeat of the entrenched Phoenix defenders. Odysse DeBures withdraws his troops after plundering the holdings and leaving the frays and noncombatants to starve.
3480 Blood Eagle suffer from shortages
Cut off from primary Imperial traffic lanes for thirty years now, suffering from a growing shortage of spare parts, and having little established industrial capacity to speak of, the Blood Eagle begin to think of themselves as an autonomous entity outside of the jurisdiction and support of the Throne. Finding Hercs and quantum weaponry too difficult to maintain without a heavy industrial base, they begin looking at the lighter powered armor favored by the tribes as a possible alternative.
3483 Blood Eagle develop their own powered armor
After extensive field testing and strategic simulation Odysse DeBures begins phasing into service a lighter version of the Imperial powered armor similar to the style used by the Children of the Phoenix.
3500 Blood Eagle go tribal
Following a string of embarrassing defeats at the hands of the break away Gorgon Killers DeBures, furious with Imperial silence towards his reinforcement requests and delays in supply shipments, officially breaks ties with the Empire and declares the Order of the Blood Eagle an 'Independent and Self Sufficient Tribe.' At this time, the intensity of the conflict with the Children of Phoenix fades, but warfare is still a constant in tribal life.
Tribes : Vengeance begins
3502 Blood Eagle capture Walter's Planet
DeBures launches his campaign against the Flame Eaters and in under a week claims the world of Walter's Planet for the Blood Eagle.
3508 Blood Eagle reduce the use of HERCs
The Blood Eagle begin to de-emphasize the use of HERCs in combat, instead relying more heavily on SCARAB formations and tactics centering around onslaughts of superior numbers.
3522 Blood Eagle creates four orders
As part of the reorganization of the Blood Eagle around the infantry unit DeBures divides the Tribe into four orders and tasks each one with the conquest of a single world.
3530 Blood Eagle territory grows
After a string of victories against the Phoenix, the Gorgon Killers, the Frost Queens, and the Starwolf Alliance, the Eagles now claim four jumpgates, a dozen systems and twenty worlds.
3538 Blood Eagle order goes into exile
GMP DeBures appoints Sirdar-Prime Arkaday Nagashima, commander of the Order of the Coiled Dragon, to take his place as the Grand Master Paramount. Odysse DeBures takes the entire Order of the Silver Fist into exile and is never seen or heard from again.
3571 Blood Eagle Grand Master dies
Grand Master Nagashima dies of a degenerative genetic disease. The chief houses of the Exiled Bloodlines squabble over the succession and Orestes Halakar prevails over the heirs of Nagashima. The only of Arkaday's sons to survive is the youngest, Achilles, who finds sanctuary among the Burning Steel.
3589 Blood Eagle assault the Ganges system
Grand Master Halakar sends the Order of Wrath into the Ganges system to 'liberate' it's worlds from the rule of the Starwolf.
3610 Ganges III hit with ecocidal weapon
During a conflict between the Starwolf and Blood Eagle on Ganges III, an ecocidal weapon is detonated, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides and reducing the planet to a lifeless husk within a matter of days. Each side denies using the weapon. The enmity between these two tribes deepens radically.
3613 Blood Eagle Grand Master replaced
The Exiled Bloodlines are increasingly hostile towards Orestes Halakar and begin to blame him for Ganges III. Achilles Nagashima presses his claim to the Great Eagle's throne and kills Halakar in single combat. After a brief period of consolidation he is universally recognized as the fifth Grand Master Paramount of the Blood Eagle Tribe.
3630 The Diamond Sword form
The Diamond Sword tribe appears in the wilderzone under the tutelage of The Enlightened Master. Small in number at first, their teachings attract many new followers, and the Sworders' ranks swell.
3633 The Splintering is Complete
Blood Eagle and Diamond Sword make first contact
The Blood Eagle have their first contact with a small group calling themselves the Diamond Sword after landing on a world previously listed as uninhabited only to find it already claimed by the fledgling tribe.
3641, Seventh Sky
The Firetruce Era starts
The First Firetruce
After much political maneuvering, the Children of Phoenix host the first Firetruce on their then heartworld of Navaj Erath, famous for its canyons of windcarved sandstone spires. This intertribal celebration and festival will take place twice each century on a planet chosen by The Children. The collective tribes gather on these worlds to compete in martial games and trade stories and technology. Much diplomacy occurs, as well as much intrigue. The Tenets of Harabec, long known among the Tribes of Man, are modified to include a ban on ecocidal weaponry. Remembering the death of Ganges III, all the Tribes of Man agree to abide by this new Tenet.
3647 Blood Eagle Grand Master leaves on quest
An elderly Achilles Nagashima, fascinated with rumors about the missing Order of the Silver Fist boards a transport to seek out his brethren in hiding. He leaves his oldest surviving son Apollo Nagashima to lead the tribe as Great Eagle.
3652 Achilles Nagashima disappears
Achilles Nagashima's ship is lost in between jumps in the Nirel-Malak Lattice near Imperial space. Many within the Tribe grumble that the Starwolf are to blame.
3659 Blood Eagle forces experience difficulties against the Diamond Sword
Conflict with the upstart Diamond Sword steadily escalates as the Grand Master and his newly established Brotherhood of Steel struggle to find a way to combat the cunning tactics and exceptional efficiency of the smaller Tribe's warriors.
3665 The Diamond Sword captures the Septa Halcyon system
The Blood Eagle loses the rich world of Septa Halcyon to the 'Sworders. Within six months the entire system falls to the enigmatic Tribe.
3670 The Diamond Sword becomes one of the Great Four
Using innovative strategies and striking with precision and economy, the Diamond Sword rapidly carve out a large holding for themselves. They become known as one of the Four Great Tribes, along with the Children, Starwolf, and Blood Eagle.
3670 The Gorgon Killers colonize Bira Marduk
The Gorgon Killers move into the McCrae Lattice and colonize Bira Marduk.
3675 The Gorgon Killers and Blood Eagle clash
Blood Eagle and Gorgon Killer forces clash repeatedly over Bira Marduk with the Order claiming rights to the planet from their conquest of it in 3472.
3676 Blood Eagle Grand Master personally leads assault on Bira Marduk
Grand Master Nagashima personally leads the Blood Eagle assault on Bira Marduk.
3678 Blood Eagle conquer Bira Marduk
After twenty-two months of bloody conflict, Eagle forces have nearly completed their conquest of Bira Marduk.
3679 Blood Eagle conquer the McCrae Lattice
Eagle forces complete their conquest of the McCrae Lattice.
3682 Blood Eagle Grand Master dies
Grand Master Paramount Apollo Nagashima dies leading a raid on Phoenix holdings within the Kepler system.
3683 The Gorgon Killers reclaim lost territory
The Gorgon Killers take advantage of the Blood Eagle instability and reclaim possession of Bira Marduk as well as the whole of the McCrae lattice.
3684 New Blood Eagle Grand Master selected
After two years of infighting Nagashima's cousin, Hirotu Shirowara, finally ascends to the Eagle Throne and becomes the seventh Grand Master Paramount of the Blood Eagle Tribe.
3689 Blood Eagle clash with Winnowers of Fire
Troops from the Burning Flesh Pennant clash with the forces of a heretofore unknown Tribe calling themselves the Winnowers of Fire when they are found to be inhabiting several underdeveloped worlds within the Blood Eagle holdings.
3691 Jaguar’s Hunt
The Second Firetruce
The Children make little impact on the fractious feuding that has become customary among the tribes however there is hope for peace since there has been little in the way of major conflicts. This Firetruce is held on the silvery grasslands of the planet Ushasia.
3695 Blood Eagle form the Cardinal Spear
In response to the Grand Master's call for an overhaul of Blood Eagle intelligence gathering and analysis, and after much debate within the Seven Orders, Cardinal Spear is formed.
3700 The Empire tries to reassert itself
Emperor Tashane Kellison Lewis made a renewed effort to impose the Gracious Rule on the denizens of the lawless wilderzone. The 37th, 39th, and 45th Legions established a base of operations in the Kepler system and began to push into Children of Phoenix holdings. Fighting was fierce as the Children refused to bow to the supremacy of Imperial law. Other tribes joined forces with the Children, and pitched battles were frequent.
3712 Blood Eagle join in on asault on the Kepler System
For the first time since the beginning of their self imposed exile from Imperial space Blood Eagle troops face off against forces of the Legion in a series of minor skirmishes outside the Kepler March.
3725 Blood Eagle Great Eagle becomes ill
Great Eagle Shirowara contracts a previously undiagnosed disease and installs his daughter, Brenthu, as the next Grand Master Paramount.
3728 Blood Eagle negotiate cease fire with the Phoenix
Shirowara negotiates a cease fire with the Children of the Phoenix, a mere formality since hostilities between the two had all but evaporated after 3712, and agrees to limited logistical and strategic cooperation against the Imperial Legions.
3732 The Empire dispatches more forces
The Empire dispatched another pair of Legions in 3732; these drove into the territory of the Blood Eagle to disrupt support for the embattled Children of Phoenix.
3734 Blood Eagle retaliate against the Empire
Incensed by the Imperial incursion into Eagle territory and no longer harboring any qualms about combat with the Imperial Legions, Brenthu Shirowara orders an assault against the Imperial resort world of Sarabande Proxima II.
3734 BioDerms rebel
The BioDerms liberate themselves from humanity under the leadership of a powerful BioDerm warrior called Gir Draxon. The victorious BioDerms amass an armada and begin to liberate other BioDerms in the sector. Each victory adds to their strength, and they fortify their conquests.
3737 The Phoenix Prime lost in fluxstorm
Phoenix Prime Manfred Gregor yl-Harabec was still a relatively young man at this time, having come to power in 3737 when the former Phoenix Prime was lost with a spindleship in a Hyperweb fluxstorm. High Captain Gregor had commanded a Pyre in the war with the Empire, and had earned a reputation as a competent officer.
3738 mperial forces fall back
Imperial forces fall back to defensive positions in spite of a series of recent victories deep in Blood Eagle territory.
3741 The Third Firetruce
The Third Firetruce is held on the world of Chalice, a lushly forested world chosen for its great beauty. the Blood Eagle try to increase their prestige and to challenge the leadership of the young Phoenix Prime, Manfred Gregor. Gregor however proves to be much more formidable than anticipated and his skilled political maneuvering minimizes Eagle gains at the proceedings. It is a time of much prosperity among the Tribes of Man, and a lengthy period of relative peace ensues. Many smaller tribes rejoin the Children of Phoenix.
3752 Sabbot-Styx joins the Blood Eagle
The Sabbot-Styx Tribe pledges allegiance to the Blood Eagle and begins to focus more heavily on weapons manufacture. Rumors abound that they maintain secret ties to the Imperial Court.
3754 BioDerms push into neighboring sectors
The BioDerms begin to invade other sectors with unequalled fury. Humans call the BioDerm hordes “The Scourge” and begin to liquidate their BioDerm populations. Both sides commit numerous atrocities.
3760 Blood Eagle begin planning a major offensive
Grand Master Shirowara gives a speech at court in which she lauds the Exiled Bloodlines for their victories against the Empire and declares that the time is now ripe for a massive campaign of Blood Eagle expansion.
3769 Blood Eagle begin assaulting all nearby systems
Each of the Seven Orders is tasked with an expansive military campaign designed to propel the Blood Eagle into the supreme position of power within the Wilderzone.
3770 Blood Eagle controlled territory doubles
The Blood Eagle initiate a stunning series of offensives, doubling their world count. No other tribe escapes unscathed. Bitter critics accuse the Blood Eagle of taking up the cause of the Empire once again.
3775 Blood Eagle accused of siding with the Empire
The Order of the Talon assaults a series of Phoenix worlds four hops outside of the Kepler March. When Imperial raiding parties pillage Phoenix resupply convoys bound for the front many begin to accuse the Blood Eagle of siding with the Empire once again.
3780 Hector Komarosu (BE) disgraced
Hector Komarosu, Commander of the Red Knife Talon and rising star within the Order of Fire, institutes the practice of decimation in his unit after a particularly disgraceful defeat at the hands of a Starwolf garrison on Secondis V.
3782 Blood Eagle again assault Bira Marduk
Brenthu Shirowara personally leads the Order of Fire in a campaign against the Gorgon Killer holdings in the McCrae lattice. The ultimate goal is the recapture of Bira Marduk, which has now become a wealthy trading planet and an enormous source of revenue to the Gorgons.
3785 Hector Komarosu (BE) becomes Sirdar
Due to his successes in the campaign against the Gorgon Killers Hector Komarosu is elevated to the rank of Sirdar of the Order of Fire.
3788 Blood Eagle capture Bira Marduk
The Blood Eagle continue their campaign of expanding their territory by capturing the key trading world of Bira Marduk from the Gorgon Killers. Great Eagle Shirowara rides triumphantly into the capital of Bira Marduk after having only spent six months planet-side on campaign.
3789 New Blood Eagle Grand Master
Hector Komarosu becomes the ninth Grand Master Paramount of the Blood Eagle after Great Eagle Shirowara and her son are both killed by a stray mortar shell during a routine training inspection.
3791 The Fourth Firetruce
The Firetruce was held on the volcanic world of Crucis Stigmata, in the spartan setting of an ash plain far from any established settlements. Crucis Stigmata was located close to the Blood Eagle's new conquests in the McCrae Lattice, and all tribal delegates came heavily armed and prepared for war. Only the maneuvering of the Phoenix Prime made the Firetruce possible in the first place, as several tribes called for its abandonment.
The Blood Eagle are forced to surrender a number of their gains from the previous twenty years in the face of a possible alliance between the Diamond Sword, Starwolf, and other assorted independent tribes. Realizing that such a war would be overly costly, the Blood Eagle leadership backs down. The Children are quite pleased with these turn of events.
3802 The Phoenix Prime dies
Manfred Gregor yl-Harabec dies. His last words were "Let me rest. O, my people, let me rest, for I have bled for you." He is replaced by Anachrussa Mari Menai yl-Harabec.
3810 Blood Eagle again campaigns against Gorgon Killers
Seeking to regain some of their lost pride from the Firetruce the Blood Eagle initiate a campaign against the Gorgon Killers.
3813 The BioDerm assault continues
Humanity phases out all BioDerm use, in part motivated by the desire to avoid attracting the Scourge. The Scourge continues to drive into human space, amassing victory after victory. Some heavily fortified human systems manage to hold out, thereby puncturing the invincible reputation of the Scourge. The BioDerm forces bypass these tenacious human worlds and rage across the stars in the direction of Earth.
3819 Blood Eagle cease hostilities against Gorgon Killers
Komarosu brings his campaign against the Gorgon Killers to a close. Between the conquest of the McCrae lattice and this most recent campaign the Eagle has reduced Gorgon Killer holdings by more than twenty percent within fifty years.
3831 Leader of the Blood Eagle assassinated
Hector Komarosu, Great Eagle of the Blood Eagle, is assassinated. No evidence of the killer’s identity, motive, or employer is ever uncovered. Cardinal Spear points to the Starwolf but can provide no evidence to support their allegation.
3832 Blood Eagle thrown into chaos
Gregory Komarosu, heir of his father’s bloodline and leading contender for the position of Grand Master dies in a ritual duel with a member of the Starkweather family. The Brotherhood of Steel is thrown into chaos and the Exiled Bloodlines fight bitterly over the seat of the Great Eagle.
3841 The Fifth Firetruce
Asta Michaelis was a damp, mist-covered world, a suitably gloomy setting for the Fifth Firetruce. Whispers of the Empire battling some distant "scourge" abound as Imperial advances into tribal space falter and cease. In the wilderzone, little progress is made toward tribal unification. Splinter groups from larger tribes seize the opportunity to declare themselves independent tribes. This year is no different, as the Blood Eagle leadership, still unsettled, fails to hold the allegiances of the Wolfsbane, Excelsior and Shadow Stalker groups. Many fights break out between Blood Eagle and Starwolf. The Diamond Sword champion humiliates the chief of the Gorgon Killers. This "time of reconciliation" sees little progress toward peace.
3844 New leader of the Blood Eagle announced
Illya Ajax Konovalev brings the twelve year war over the leadership of the tribe to an end after defeating Tesh Komarosu, cousin of Gregory and Knight-Exemplar, and slaughtering the entire leadership of his Order of the Black Star. The Wolfsbane tribe rejoins the Blood Eagle, but the Excelsior and Shadow Stalker tribes choose to remain independent.
3847 The Phoenix Prime dies
Phoenix Prime Anachrussa Mari Menai yl-Harabec dies after a trekohl binge which caused her to collapse and drown in her sanctuary's koi pond. Her grandniece Alvarada "Firespear" Mari Menai yl-Harabec is her replacement.
3850 Great Eagle holds Blood Eagle together
Great Eagle Konovalev convinces the Wolfsbane Tribe to rejoin the ranks of the Eagle and through deft political maneuvering manages to retain the faltering allegiance of the Sabbot-Styx.
3850 Beginning of ‘The Blight.’
Beginning of ‘The Blight’, a mysterious plague that hits the Wilderzone.
3859 Diamond Sword leadership assassinated
An unknown assassin kills the leadership triad of the Diamond Sword. Moving quickly, the Sworders are able to avoid the chaos and anarchy that plagued the Blood Eagle decades before. The assassin evades capture.
3860 Gorgon Killers begin withdrawl
Gorgon Killer forces begin to withdraw from Blood Eagle borders. Eagle colonization efforts in those areas go unhindered.
3865 Starwolf continue to rise
Starwolf and Blood Eagle forces begin to clash more frequently and the Starwolf begin to be commonly perceived as a ‘Great Tribe’ among the ranks of the Blood Eagle and the Children of Phoenix.
3876 ‘The Blight’ ends
‘The Blight’ ends having rendered fully a fifth of the Wilderzone population dead from starvation or disease. The hardest hit among the major Tribes are the Gorgon Killers and the Starslayers.
3880 Blood Eagle leadership changes
Ilya Konovalev resigns his post as Grand Master Paramount and appoints his daughter, Helena to the role of Great Eagle. This is the most peaceful transition of power in the history of the Tribe.
3890 Blood Eagle accept challenge
Grand Master Helena accepts ‘Firespear’s Challenge’ and agrees to attend the Sixth Firetruce with a large contingent of knights.
3891 The Sixth Firetruce
The Sixth Firetruce is held on Tycho Brahe IV, one of the jewels of the Children’s holdings and perhaps the most beautiful planet in the entire galaxy. Much damage control was need to fix the fiasco left by the Fifth Firetruce, such as the perception that the Firetruce was "dead", but Alvarada "Firespear" Mari Menai not only drew many tribes to attend, but rekindled their desire to see the event continue. Phoenix-Prime Alvarada Firespear narrowly defeats the Great Eagle at the Firetruce. Out of mutual respect the two agree to put aside the long-standing feud between their Tribes. Raids between their two territories cease almost entirely for the next several years.
3893 The Phoenix Prime dies
The reign of the Firespear came to a sudden, bloody end in 3893, during a campaign against the Gehenna Shark tribe on the jungle world of Ashkelon III. A sniper round severely wounded Alvarada during a siege of the G-Shark base. Though the wound itself was not fatal, the local microbes caused an untreatable and fatal infection. Alvarada died three days later, naming her great-grandfather Alexi Stefanos as her successor. Though ancient, Alexi was still hale, and he possessed a keen mind and wealth of experience that served the Children well.
3895 BioDerms almost reach Earth
The Scourge comes within seven jumps of Earth. Gir Draxon mounts a massive offensive, but is defeated.
Stellar 7 begins and ends (sorta)
3895 Blood Eagle leader dies
An aged Ilya Konovalev dies in his sleep, the first and only Grand Master of the Blood Eagle Order to so pass. His daughter agrees to ferry his remains to Outermost, where he was born. She dies there in a tragic dropship crash, leaving her only son Alexandre as the nine-year-old heir to the Konovalev line.
3896 Alexandre Konovalev goes into hiding
Helena’s son goes into hiding leaving the Tribe to bicker once again over the leadership of the Order.
3897 Gir Draxon killed in second assault on Earth
Gir Draxon gathers his armada anew and fortifies the Nova-9 star system. Draxon is killed in the next attempt to reach Earth, however, and the BioDerms are thrown into confusion. Humanity uses the time to reinforce its defenses.
Nova 9 begins and ends (sorta)
3903 Old Phoenix Prime dies, son takes place
Phoenix Prime Acantir Stefanos yl-Harabec, aged leader of the Children of the Phoenix, dies in his bed. His son, Renn Gistos yl-Harabec, is elevated to Phoenix Prime.
3903 Alexandre Konovalev returns
Alexandre returns with a Starwolf princess in tow and claims his right of succession. Within five months of returning to Bira Marduk, the world that currently hosts the royal court, he has subdued all his major opposition.
3904 Blood Eagle receive new leader
Alexandre Konovalev, grandson of Illya Ajax, is officially recognized as the twelfth Grand Master Paramount of the Blood Eagle. In an effort to reconcile age-old differences with the Starwolf, he marries Freya Cloudchaser, a daughter of a Starwolf chieftain, the day after he takes his oath as Great Eagle. Later that same year Freya gives birth to twins, Alyxandra, and Geoffrey.
3905 Ulysses Konovalev born
Ulysses Konovalev, second son of Alexandre and Freya, is born.
3915 Konovalev family moves
Grand Master Konovalev sends his daughter Alyxandra to the Starkweather family to be fostered there and moves the Royal Court to his bloodline’s traditional home at Euralio IV, also known as Outermost.
3921 Starslayer settles Theta Draconis IV
The Starslayer tribe settles on Theta Draconis IV after winning a lengthy battle with Diamond Sword over possession of the planet.
3924 Blood Eagle "royal couple" fractures
Geoffrey Konovalev dies at the age of 20. The relationship between Alexandre and Freya decays to the point where she leaves Outermost to rejoin her pack and is never to be seen at court again. The Great Eagle orders Ulysses to take the Marathon Pennant in pursuit of her. Ulysses Konovalev reluctantly takes command of his father's Marathon Pennant to force her to return to the Blood Eagle.
3925 Ulysses Konovalev disappears
Most of the Marathon Pennant die in battle with the Starwolf Hepta Ourubis Pack. Ulysses Konovalev is not found among the survivors. An inconsolable Alexandre Konovalev is furious and vows to destroy the Starwolf once and for all. Freya goes into seclusion, reportedly numb with grief at the loss of her only son.
3928 The Blood Eagle attack the Starwolf
The Blood Eagle Wolfslayer Pennant, including the elite Eviscerator and Deathbringer talons, begin an offensive against the Starwolf holdings in the Hepta Ourubis system and avenge the death of Ulysses.
3929 The Starslayer tribe disappears
Starslayer tribe vanishes mysteriously from Theta Draconis IV. No trace of the 100,000 tribesmen remains.
3930 Blood Eagle accused of using ecocidal weapons
Blood Eagle forces prevail in the Hepta Ourubis system. The Ourubis Pack, nearly 80,000 strong, is wiped out. The Starwolf charge the Blood Eagle with use of ecocidal weapons, outlawed for centuries, and call for all tribes to aid them in destroying the Blood Eagle once and for all. The Blood Eagle vehemently deny the charge, claiming ecocidal weapons were used against the Marathon Pennant in '25.
Many Starwolf swear an Oath of Vengeance upon the Blood Eagle, declaring all-out war upon them. The Children of the Phoenix offer to act as judges and mediate the conflict.
3931 The Phoenix attempt mediation
At a Phoenix bartered peace summit between the Wolves and the Eagles an all out battle erupts resulting in thirty-eight dead and over two hundred wounded. The Blood Eagle forces prove victorious and carry away the carcasses of fifteen Starwolf warriors to use as unit banners. The Children declare this outcome a "promising beginning."
3935 Blood Eagle/Starwolf negotiations successful
Pursuant to successful negotiations, the Blood Eagle declare the Wolfslayer Pennant dissolved and relocate the members elsewhere. They also withdraw any forces from Hepta Ourubis II, ceding possession of the planet to the Starwolf. Several tribal allies, including the Sons of Heracles and Gibraltar tribes, break their ties with the Blood Eagle. Other tribes, notable enemies of the Starwolf such as the Black Vulture tribe and aggressive tribes such as the Way of the Red Sun, now choose to ally with the Blood Eagle. Many subgroups of the Starwolf and Blood Eagle continue to battle one another. The Diamond Sword remain neutral.
3937 Imperial outposts in Kepler destroyed
The Hell Lantern Flame of the Children of the Phoenix destroys Imperial outposts that infringe upon their holdings in the Kepler system.
3938 Starwolf attack Blood Eagle with large forces
Violating the cease-fire two full packs of Starwolf attack Blood Eagle holdings on Deus Sanguinus in a massive, surprise frontal assault. The Red Paladin Pennant is wiped out to the last man and woman. Alexandre Konovalev is now being described as either "determined" or "insane," depending upon whom you talk to. Attempts by the Children to mediate are summarily rejected by all sides.
3939 The Empire resettles the Kepler system
Imperials resettle worlds of Kepler II and VI and place garrisons on these worlds to protect inhabitants. The Hell Lanterns watch but do not attack.
3939 Calls for military solutions denied
The Children of Phoenix leadership rejects the militant demands for a tribal crusade by general Anton Malderi, self-proclaimed "Harbinger of Phoenix."
3939 Red Paladin Pennant reconstituted
The Red Paladin Pennant is reconstituted by a group of Blood Eagle who claim to rededicate themselves to the ideals of honor and ancient chivalry.
3939 Next Firetruce site chosen
The Children of the Phoenix decide to use the devastated world of Hepta Ourubis II for the next Firetruce. Both the Blood Eagle and Starwolf show little pleasure at this choice. The Starwolf have been working for years to repair the ecosystem. They now transfer a massive number of thralls from other holdings to speed the effort.
3939 Wolfslayer Pennant reconstituted
Talon-Prime Fury reconstitutes the Wolfslayer Pennant as a symbol of vengeance against the Starwolf and takes up the mantle of Pennant-Prime in command of it’s forces. The Wolfslayers reportedly ignore the authority of the Great Eagle and answer solely to Fury. Initial victories over the Starwolf Old Ymir Pack show the new Wolfslayers to be even more ruthless than the old Pennant, and Fury proves she is a brilliant strategist. She has the immediate support of the Starkweather and Eun-Alba bloodlines.
3939 Starwolf seeks alliances
The Starwolf attempt to form an alliance with the Diamond Sword against the Blood Eagle. Unsurprisingly, the Diamond Sword deny the petition and remain neutral.
3940 Phoenix face civil strife
The Children of the Phoenix conclude that an alarming number of independent tribes have taken sides with either the Starwolf or Blood Eagle. Full-scale planetary invasions have begun, and bloodfeuds grow more common. The Phoenix Prime remarks that "this path to unity would be a fearful one." Backed by growing support, General Malderi again demands that the Children of Phoenix mount a crusade to force unity upon the Tribes of Man. Again his argument is rejected, but by a far more narrow margin.
Tribes 1 starts
3940 Konovalev makes questionable military decisions
After a series of inspired victories against the Starwolf settlements along the Tessellate Trailing, Alexandre Konovalev inexplicably withdraws his forces to Euralio VI and goes into seclusion. Fury argues that the Great Eagle is too hampered by grief and rage (and madness) to lead the tribe effectively. Blood Eagle sworn to the service of the Line of Konovalev are troubled, but remain loyal.
3940 Fury begins building up forces
Fury claims the title of Sirdar-Prime and begins massing troops on Charybdis at the end of the Nirel-Malak lattice. Late in the year forces from the Order of the Coiled Dragon join her and begin performing maneuvers all along the Starwolf border. Fury begins to subtly call for the ouster of the Great Eagle with some vocal support throughout the Bloodlines.
3940 Diamond Sword Triad have meeting
The Diamond Sword Triad meets on the world of Falcon's Crossroad to discuss the interpretation of a philosophical tract said to hold significant meaning for the tribe's future. Sworders appear unusually restless during the seven months of the debate, but say nothing to outsiders.
3940 Starwolf press into Blood Eagle territory
The Starwolf continue to shift their forces and reserves toward the war with the Blood Eagle. Heartened by Konovalev's sudden withdrawal, Starwolf Packs go on the offensive and strike far afield, deep into Blood Eagle holdings. Divided in their loyalties, the Blood Eagle muster poorly coordinated defenses against the wolves of space.
3940 Rumours appear about The Scourge
Rumors persist throughout the year that the Empire's struggle against The Scourge is not going well and that the Wilderzone itself may soon become embroiled in the conflict. Sightings of BioDerm ships and warriors are reported occasionally by frays, Grievers, and some Independent Tribes, but all are dismissed. None of The Four report any contact with forces from the Empire's Scourge.
Tribes 1 ends
3941 Firetruce site changed to a non-Phoenix world
After much political maneuvering the Diamond Sword manage to convince Phoenix Prime Ren Gistos yl-Harabec to change the location of the Seventh Firetruce to the Diamond Sword world of Sahranon Xi IV. This is the first time in the history of the event that any tribe other than the Phoenix has hosted it.
3941 Starwolf forces gather In the Nirel-Malak lattice tensions build quickly as the Starwolf Ur-Warlord Ursula DiVaragas musters the bulk of her Tribe's forces at Ymir in preparation for a prolonged assault on Blood Eagle space. Best estimates put the size of the Starwolf muster at ten Thousand Knives, or roughly 150 thousand hardshelled warriors. It is DiVaragas intention to destroy the power of the Eagle once and for all and to that end she has mustered almost the whole of her Tribe's fighting forces.
3941 Blood Eagle forces gather
At Charybdis Fury gathers what strength she can to face down the Starwolf Packs, though some suspect her true intent is to push towards Outermost and claim the leadership of the Blood Eagle by force. In response Eagle Pennants from every Order are put in the highest states of readiness. Hearing these rumors, and seeing the mounting tension within the Brotherhood of Steel, Great Eagle Konovalev demands that Fury come to Outermost herself to explain her actions. Her response to him is less than cordial.
3941 The Phoneix Prime is assassinated
As the Seventh Firetruce opens disaster befalls the gathering when, at the opening ceremonies, the Phoenix Prime is assassinated during his Unity Speech. In the wake of the event the Harbinger faction of the Children of Phoenix experience a swell of sudden support and Anton Malderi ascends to the position of Phoenix Prime. This marks a dramatic shift in the political alignment of the Tribe and threatens to destroy forever the dream of peaceful re-unification of the Tribes of Man.
3941 Tears, BioDerms attack Wilderzone
In the first days of the month of Tears a BioDerm force, on orders from the apparently very much alive Gir Draxon, led by Horde Maul descends on Ymir without warning and eradicates the whole of the Starwolf Muster. Over thirty Packs of Starwolf warriors are slaughtered and the strength of the Tribe is decimated in one blow. Fury's forces from Charybdis, intending to strike at the Muster before it is fully achieved, arrive in the midst of the fall of Ymir and are likewise routed. The tribes begin a long drawn out defensive battle that will last for 6 years.
3941 Tears, Fury escapes from Ymir
The Seventh Firetruce begins once again without any high level representation from the Blood Eagle. Sirdar-Prime Fury attempts a surprise assault on the Starwolf Muster at Ymir and barely escapes the vanguard of BioDerm forces already present.
3941 12th of Starry Cloak, BioDerms attack the Firetruce
At the same time a small Horde strikeforce is dispatched to Sahranon Xi IV to attempt a decapitation strike on the Firetruce itself. The force arrives on the 12th of Starry Cloak, destroys what resistance they find, and lays waste to the Firetruce grounds. Many of the Tribal leaders who are in attendance fall in battle but a few escape the onslaught and are later rescued when a Children of Phoenix force led by members of the Keepers sect, loyal to the fallen Gistos, arrive unexpectedly to relieve the planet. The Slonn forces withdraw, considering the strike a success, and return to Ymir.
3941 Fury journeys to Outermost
Having barely escaped the rout at Ymir, Fury journeys to Outermost with a small group of loyal companions. There she reveals her true identity as Alyxandra Konovalev, the supposedly long dead daughter of the Great Eagle, to the Court and the Brotherhood of Steel. She also presents her brother Ulysses and reports on the fall of Ymir. The Great Eagle makes a mad attempt to kill them himself, claiming they are imposters sent to assassinate him but dies in the attempt at the hands of former Sikkiyn-Captain and close friend of the family Starkar Mace. Fury convinces the Bloodlines and the Brotherhood to forestall the decision about an heir until after the BioDerm conflict has been resolved. She then travels to Bella Omega to enlist the support of the other Great Tribes.
3942 The Pact forms
Bella Omega becomes home to the fledgling Pact. The Administrative Council takes shape and appoints Assault-Commanders from among the Blood Eagle and Diamond Sword. Fury is chosen as the first Battle-General of Pact forces.
3943 The Horde hits the Nirel-Malak lattice hard
Horde Maul overruns Blood Eagle and Starwolf forces in the Nirel-Malak lattice in spite of Pact reinforcements. Two additional Hordes appear in the Wilderzone behind the vanguard forces of Horde Maul. The Starwolf officially join The Pact with new reinforcements from fringe colonies not heard from in centuries.
3944 The Horde engages in a massive assault
Using the Nirel-Malak lattice as a primary thoroughfare for troop movement the Horde launches offensives against the Kepler March, the Erasmus Axis, and the Starfall and McCrae Lattices. The Crimson Suns Order takes heavy losses on Bira Marduk in McCrae, eventually loosing it to the Hordes. The Order of the Talon valiantly defends but is eventually forced to abandon the whole of the Erasmus Axis to Slonn forces.
3945 BioDerms suffer first significant losses to Pact forces
Horde Gaunt suffers the BioDerm’s first significant losses to Pact forces under the command of Assault-Commander (Sirdar, BE) Starkweather on Bloodjewel. Starkweather is unable to recapture the world but he does succeed in breaking ‘Derm supply lines throughout that sector of space.
3946 Battle-General Fury leads assault on the Nirel-Malak lattice
Battle-General (Sirdar-Prime, BE) Fury leads three full Orders worth of troops alongside Independent, Diamond Sword and Starwolf forces provided by the Pact in an assault on the Nirel-Malak lattice in order to break the back of Horde transport and infrastructure.
3947 The Pact liberates Charybdis
Blood Eagle and Starwolf troops fight along side one another for the first time in the history of the Order during the liberation of Charybdis from the Hordes.
Tribes 2 starts
3947 The Pact liberate Sehrganda Prime
The Pact in desperate need of agricultural resources next targets Sehrganda Prime, an ex-Phoenix world.
3947 The Pact liberate Ymir
Ymir, a world located near the Imperial border, is next on the list of worlds to liberate. Before the Hordes, it was a Starwolf world but is now little more than a strategically important graveyard.
3948 Blood Eagle begin assault into McCrae Lattice
Assault-Commander (Sirdar, BE) Do’Brennin begins an incursion into the McCrae Lattice with the remains of his Order of the Talon to secure a beachhead for Pact forces.
3948 BioDerms capture Shi-Draconis Alpha
The Hordes take the Diamond Sword world of Shi-Draconis Alpha.
3949 The Pact liberates Bloodjewel
Assault-Commander (Warlord, SW) Voert leads a Pact force consisting of primarily Starwolf forces in the liberation of Bloodjewel. Blood Eagle forces immediately move in to garrison the world and tensions flare between the ‘wolf liberators and the returned Blood Eagle administrators. BioDerm survivors seek to escape and reinforce the Kepler system, where Pact and Horde forces are mired in combat. Few Horde forces make it off world.
3950 The Firetruce Era Ends
The Pact liberates Shi-Draconis Alpha
A Pact offensive on the ex-Diamond Sword world of Shi-Draconis Alpha results in the division of the Hordes in the Wilderzone, breaking the back of their main campaign.
Tribes 2 ends
3950 The Pact prepares to assault Bira Marduk
Fury completes her conquest of the Nirel-Malak Lattice and moves her forces to the Cardinal Gate at the trailing end of the McCrae Lattice in preparation for an assault on Bira Marduk.