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The history of the Wing Commander Universe spans a period of over two billion years (albeit with the vast majority of its events occurring during the 27th Century. As with all of history, the events that have unfolded during that time shaped the Wing Commander Universe and those beings that live in it, determining how they live and how they get along with others (or don't).
GMs may at some point have a desire to conduct a campaign at some point in Wing Commander's past. Perhaps they'd like to center a campaign on a particular set of events or conduct an adventure directly involving them. Others may simply need to refer to past events during the course of their adventures. While some may consider the date of the birth of the Terran Confederation mere trivia, it is possible that a clever GM could work it in as a vital - even critical - part of an adventure or campaign. For these reasons, the following timeline of major events that have occurred in the Wing Commander Universe is presented in this sub-Chapter. Note that this timeline, like the ones that appeared in the documentation of the games, is largely Confederation-centric; for adventures involving other races, GMs and adventure designers are more than welcome to create whatever histories and background stories they wish, provided that nothing they create directly contradicts the events on this "official" timeline.
| Date | Major Events |
|---|---|
| 2,400,000,000 BCE | The Steltek rule a galaxy-spanning empire. A Steltek base is established on the surface of Mars, which would in the distant future be found and studied by Dr. Lemuel Monkhouse. The Steltek eventually retreat from the galaxy after bringing ruin upon themselves with their technology. |
| c10,000,000 BCE | Proto-Kilrathi begin using their instinct and natural weaponry to hunt; they lie in wait along the trails of prey-animals and attack the weakest member of their herds. As they become sapient, the early Kilrathi begin to build shelters out of acidic ash and develop the ability to build traps. Use of weapons begins to evolve on Kilrah. |
| c4000 BCE | Terrankind begins recording history in various parts of the world, most notably in the region of Mesopotamia. |
| 3517 BCE | The Kilrathi begin recording history. Beginnings of Kilrah's Metal Age. |
| c3300 BCE | Terrankind begins working with alloys of bronze. Beginnings of Earth's Metal Age. |
| c1600 BCE | "Star Gods" appear on Kilrah; they find the relatively uncivilized Kilrathi unworthy of their advanced technology. The aliens promise to return and destroy the Kilrathi should they ever fall in combat against another race and to return when the Kilrathi are finally worthy to challenge. This becomes a pillar of Kilrah’s developing society and culture. |
| 1319 BCE | The Prophet Sivar and the Prophetess Kt’lan write The Prophecy of Sivar, which is based on the promises of the "Star Gods". This leads to the creation of the Cult of Sivar and is regarded as the true beginning of Kilrathi civilization. The legendary Emperor Xag forms the First Kilrathi Empire. |
| c790 | Records point to this time-frame as period in which the planet Anhur is initially colonized, the first Terran-inhabited world in the Tri-System. Information on how a group of Terrans came to exist there is subsequently lost and becomes a profound mystery when Confederation explorers make their first visit to the Hom system nearly two thousand years later. |
| 1454 | A Kilrathi armor design that would be used as the standard uniform for their armed forces well into the 27th Century is first used. |
| 1582.055 | A papal bull with the opening phrase Inter gravissimas is decreed by Pope Gregory XIII. This bull establishes Earth's Gregorian Calendar, which is ultimately accepted as Earth's international calendar. Though modified just prior to the inception of the Confederation, it remains in general use through the 27th Century and beyond. |
| c1800 | Beginning of Terrankind's Industrial Age with the development and eventual widespread usage of steam-powered machinery. |
| 1926.075 | American professor, physicist and inventor Robert H. Goddard successfully launches Terrankind's first liquid-fuel rocket. |
| 1945.297 | In the wake of Earth's Second World War, the charter of the United Nations is ratified by Terran nations of France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, bringing the Terran global council into existence. |
| 1961.102 | Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut, becomes the first Terran in space and the first Terran to successfully complete an orbit around the Earth, launching Earth's early space age. |
| 1969.201 | American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin become the first Terrans to set foot on the surface of Luna. |
| 1998.297 | Launch of the experimental Deep Space One probe. Several technologies are first tested including the first operational xenon-based ion engine. Ion engines would eventually see widespread usage on all Confederation fighter craft after methods to increase their thrust without reducing their specific impulse are developed. |
| 2032 | The design of the first fusion powered craft, UNS Sagan, is approved and construction begins at the Boeing Company's McDonnell-Douglas division manufacturing plant in Everett, Washington. |
| 2041 | Sagan launches from the L3 station. Sagan would go on to fly a regular shuttle route between Luna, Mars and Titan for almost 75 years before she was finally decommissioned. |
| c2090 | The Grand Unified Theory is perfected, ultimately leading to the production of Earth's first anti-gravity "repulsor" vehicles and confirms the existence of anti-gravitons. |
| 2167 | The United Nations establishes Olympia colony, the first permanent Terran settlement on another planet. Supported by space stations orbiting Phobos and Luna, Olympia ultimately becomes the primary staging area for Terrankind's migration to the outer planets of the Sol system. |
| 2168-2215 | The U.N. establishes permanent colonies on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, places research facilities on the satellites of Uranus and Neptune and lands on Pluto, Eris and a few of the other outer plutoids. During this time, Terra becomes ever increasingly reliant on the outer planets for heavy industrial metals. |
| c2190 | Earth's earliest attempts to create a "hopper" drive using anti-graviton technology are made. The science behind the drive would ultimately be legitimized by Dr. Andre Morvan in the early 24th century. |
| 2214 | Dr. Shari Akwende creates Earth's first anti-graviton generator. Her subsequent experiments with the device lead to the discovery of "Anti-Graviton Tropic Anomalies", also known as jump points. |
| 2219 | The first of the Great Pandemics begins on Earth. After the loss of Luna Station, the outer planets seal themselves off entirely from Earth. For the duration of the emergency, no one from Terra could travel beyond the Lagrange transit stations. Any colonist who chose to return to Terra would not be allowed to return to space until such time as the quarantine was lifted. These conditions last for the better part of a century, resulting in the increasing self-sufficiency of Earth's colonies and popular resentment on Earth against the relatively healthy (and rich) colonials. |
| 2257 | Ivar Chu McDaniel is born on Mars. |
| 2277 | The Shata first arrive on Kilrah and begin to trade with the still relatively primitive Kilrathi. |
| 2294 | While assigned as an organic chemist and lay preacher to the Neptune Research Base, Ivar McDaniel begins experiencing ecstatic visions in which he believes he experiences direct communion with the Divine, receiving prophetic revelations. He writes of his experiences to friends on Mars, who encourage him to collect and publish his insights. McDaniel teaches that the long-awaited apocalypse had occurred but only to Terra itself; those who migrated to other worlds were a redeemed "Elect" but they could not be fully empowered as long as they remained in the Sol System. To achieve salvation, the Elect had to undertake the "Final Exodus" and leave the Sol system entirely to seek spiritual and genetic perfection among the stars. His views spread throughout the colonies; he eventually accumulated a very large number of followers. Beginnings of the McDanielist religion. |
| 2304 | Invention of the D-Drive in the Tri-System. Colonization of the planet Bex. The biological agent known as Malacreaux's Bite destroys the colony on Io after the agent is released by a piece of rogue AI software. The first working Morvan Drive is created, allowing Terrankind to leave the confines of the Sol System for the first time. Beginning of Terrankind's Starfaring Age. |
| 2309 | The Outer Planets Policy Council comes firmly under the control of the McDanielites. |
| 2311 | The first Morvan Colony ship, Yam Suph, is launched. Bound for Sirius, it contains 1,200 colonists including Ivar Chu McDaniel. The ship never arrives at its destination; orthodox Pilgrim theology later taught that McDaniel and his crew were transfigured directly to a higher plane of existence from which McDaniel continued to spiritually direct his followers. |
| 2312-2450 | Subsequent sloship efforts are far more successful; missions to Alpha and Proxima Centauri, Cygnus and Sirius all safely arrive at their destinations and successfully establish self-sustaining settlements. By 2350, regular trade routes are established between Titan and the Centauri colonies. During this time, the McDanielists began to refer to those who take passage on interstellar colony ships as "Pilgrims". By the end of the 24th century, the Final Exodus is complete; all McDanielists had completely abandoned the Sol system. The effort depleted the Sol system colonies; outer planet populations in 2400 were less than a quarter of what they had been a century before. Little news of the extra-solar colonies is received in Sol at that point. At some point prior to 2450, the administrative center of the newly formed Pilgrim Alliance is established on Beacon, with spiritual authority headquartered on McDaniel's World. From there, the Pilgrims began to push into Vega Sector. |
| 2334 | The Shata trade rudimentary space travel technology to the Kilrathi and are in turn slaughtered. For the first time the Kilrathi leave their own biosphere; the Kilrathi are propelled into their Industrial Age. |
| 2416.236 | In light of more than two centuries of global cooperation and effective sovereignty over all of the nations of Earth, and due to the need for a central government to represent the planet's interests amongst its extraterrestrial colonies, the United Nations formalizes its sovereignty over all of Earth and rechristens itself the Terran Confederation through the signing of the Articles of Confederation. |
| 2423 | The quarantine of Earth is finally and formally lifted; Earth once more begins to interact with the rest of the Sol system. The mineral resources of the outer planets were absolutely essential to the rebuilding of the Terrestrial industrial base; Earth spent most of the 25th century rebuilding its influence and had little leisure time to devote to exploration or pure research. |
| 2431 | Mantu explorers first visit the Kilrah System and are attacked by the Kilrathi. The Mantu fight back and the ensuing war ends in a draw. The Kilrathi spend the next 200 years demonizing the Mantu. |
| 2434 | The Kilrathi first encounter forces of the Hari Empire. |
| 2456 | Earth adopts the "stardate"-style calendar in recognition of the need to keep a relatively accurate standard date and time frame of reference for all of its colonies. The stardate calendar (basically just a retooling of the Gregorian Calendar) removes all references to pagan gods and ancient rulers, though a few of their references (particularly the names of the days of the week) still remain in the common vernacular. |
| 2462 | Alarmed by the growing number of Earth-origin sloships in their sphere of influence, the Pilgrim Alliance sends a heavily armed Pilgrim sloship to Luna with a demand a meeting with Terra's leaders. The result of the following summit was the Treaty of Luna, which established Pilgrim title to all habitable worlds within 50 years sloship travel of Earth. Earth agreed to forsake all sloship exploration of other systems and the Pilgrims agreed to a policy of strict non-interference with Sol system affairs. The Confederation and the Alliance also arrive at a few strictly limited trade agreements. |
| 2469 | Clan Kiranka fights Clan Ki’ra in the Seventh Dynastic War, which ends with the deaths of millions of kil, several planets devoid of life and Clan Ki’ra almost completely wiped out. Clan Kiranka becomes the new Imperial Dynasty and the Eighth Kilrathi Empire is established. The Kilrathi Empire is given Jump Drive technology by the peaceful Utara; the Kilrathi use this technology to hunt down and summarily wipe the Utara out of existence. Interstellar technology will not become ubiquitous on Kilrathi warships for another hundred years. Beginnings of Kilrah's Starfaring Age. |
| 2476 | The Kilrathi begin a war against the Hari Empire, systematically wiping out over one thousand Hari colonies. |
| 2480 | The Kilrathi-Hari war ends with the total destruction of the Hari Empire; all remaining Hari commit suicide rather than surrender, rendering the race extinct. |
| 2504 | The Pilgrim Alliance invents Terrankind's first successful Akwende jump drive; its existence is kept secret from the Confederation. The first variant of the Kilrathi Fralthi-class cruiser enters service; Fralthi are first used during inter-Clan conflicts. |
| 2515 | Using the nascent Akwende Drive technology, Pilgrim explorers of Germanic decent begin exploration of a new region of space rimward of Enigma Sector. Finding a particularly fertile world, the explorers establish a colony known as "Landreich" ("rich land"). |
| 2529 | The KF-100 Dralthi, the first of the very successful line of standard Kilrathi Imperial medium fighter craft, enters service. |
| 2550 | The CF-105 Scimitar is first introduced. While much maligned over its service life for its relatively poor performance characteristics, the design proves durable and reliable for front-line service; it remains in use by Confederation military forces until 2655. |
| 2588.315-2588.323 | TCS Haile Selassie, having been equipped with the first working Confederation Akwende drive prototype, completes a successful set of round-trip jump transits between Sol and Polaris. |
| 2593 | Akwende Drives become ubiquitous in the Confederation; jump routes are soon established that reach beyond the Pilgrim sphere of influence. Sol begins establishing colonies in Hawking, Enigma and Landreich Sectors, leaving Vega Sector to the Pilgrims. The Pilgrim Alliance vigorously protests this expansion as a violation of the Treaty of Luna but the Confederation takes the stance that the Luna Accords only prohibit sloship colonization and direct encroachment on Pilgrim space, neither of which described the Confederation's policy. |
| 2594 | The Kilrathi Empire spends a short time studying the newly discovered Varni Republic before launching a surprise attack lead by Crown Prince Joor'rad nar Kiranka. The Kilrathi claim victory after thirty days of fighting having conquered all ten Varni worlds, though Joor'rad loses both an eye and a leg in the Varni's suicidal final defense. About this time, Varni refugees begin to appear in Confederation space, bringing with them stories of Kilrathi brutality. |
| 2598 | The Kilrathi once again engage Mantu forces in a brief conflict that ends in a draw. |
| 2609.156 | James Taggart is born to James and Bethlyn Taggart aboard Ares Station in orbit of Venus. |
| 2613.078 | TCS Iason, an Odysseus-class explorer ship, is commissioned. |
| 2613.164 | Geoffrey Tolwyn is born at his family's estate in the Shetland Islands. |
| 2615 | The Terran Confederation begins their initial, cautious exploration of Vega Sector. A militant faction seizes political and religious control of the Pilgrim Alliance, inflaming the Pilgrim populace and bringing relations with the Confederation to an all-time low. Alarmed by this turn of events and the possible effect a general war would have on their own colonies, the local government of Landreich secedes from the Alliance and declares neutrality, forming their own sovereign government that would later be styled as the Free Republic of the Landreich. |
| 2621.293 | Dr. C.L. Kohl is captured and executed by Kilrathi priestesses while observing the Sivar-Eshrad ceremony on Ghorah Khar. This marks the first recorded encounter between Terrankind and the Kilrathi race. |
| 2628 | Terran merchants of the Landreich first encounter the Kilrathi, though their claims are ignored by both the Confederation government and the Alliance. |
| 2629 | Remote Deep Probe 12 reports the existence of the Mantu to the Confederation; the core of their territory is located some 10,000 light years away from the Confederation to coreward. Shortly afterwards, the probe goes silent. A newly-established Confederation colony on Fawcett’s World is captured by Kilrathi forces. This marks the second major encounter between Terrankind and the Kilrathi Empire; while the capture of Fawcett’s World is never officially acknowledged by the Confederation, it does become a common rumor. Rather than have the Terrans slaughtered, Baron Vakka nar Ki’ra orders that they be taken prisoner. The computer of the Confederation transport is searched for information and all Confederation colonists who had at some time served with the Fleet are taken to Kilrah where they are personally interrogated by the Emperor before being executed. The Confederation survivors at Fawcett’s World voluntarily speak to the Kilrathi and work to live. Vakka’s good friend, Harga, is made commander of Fawcett’s World; Vakka spends a year on Fawcett’s World learning about the Terrans. |
| 2629.105 | TCS Iason encounters a spacecraft of unknown origin, later identified as KIS K’rath’kan under the command of Kal Shintahr Brath’kar nar Caxki. Commander Jedora Andropolos, CO of Iason, transmits a wide-band, non-verbal greeting and waits for a response. Less than twenty minutes later, the still-unidentified ship opens fire with full lasers, completely destroying Iason with the loss of all hands (Brath’kar would report to the Empire that he believed the Terrans had been attempting to neutralize his ship’s shields with their communications systems). Confederation deep space tracking computers point to a possible point of origin of the bogey, a previously unexplored planet soon to be known throughout the Confederation by its native name - Kilrah. This incident marks the official first contact between the Terran Confederation and the Kilrathi Empire. |
| 2630.168 | Christopher Blair is born to Major Arnold Blair and Devi Soulsong of planet Peron on Nephele II. |
| 2630-2634 | The Confederation government receives numerous reports of unwarranted assault, space piracy, kidnapping and interplanetary plundering, all taking place at an increasingly expanding distance from Kilrah. Frequent attempts to meet with the Kilrathi High Command are rejected without explanation. In retaliation, the Terran Confederation Grand Assembly votes unanimously to enforce a strict non-aggression policy; the leaders of Kilrah are warned that their next transgression could lead to military reprisals. |
| 2631.105 | Todd Marshall, the youngest son of Arnold "Boomer" Marshall, is born on planet Leto in the Proxima Centauri system. |
| 2631.244-2635.049 | The Confederation and the Pilgrim Alliance fight a war. Though the twelve-system conflict is minor in comparison to those fought later in the century, it is the bloodiest space war ever fought by Terrankind to this point. The conflict ends with a series of extended sieges leading to the complete dissolution of the Alliance. All Pilgrim worlds are brought into the Confederation as protectorate colonies. While the treaty with the Pilgrims technically includes the Pilgrim worlds of the Landreich Sector, the provisional Landreich government refuses to recognize it due to their secession from the Alliance sixteen years earlier. |
| 2632 | Joor'rad nar Kiranka ascends to the throne of Kilrah; he will ultimately be the last emperor of the Kilrathi Empire. Rumors about the Kilrathi capture of Fawcett’s World begin to spread. |
| 2634.089-2634.170 | As Emperor Joor'rad gives the Great Clans the go-ahead to attack the Confederation, the Confederation Navy prepares Plan Orange Five, which calls for limited action only to push the Kilrathi back gradually through the Facin Sector and hold elsewhere with "punitive response only to force them to cease their border harassment." Ensign Geoffrey Tolwyn, a recent graduate of the Fleet Academy and protégé of Commander Winston Turner, makes the mistake of running afoul of Confederation Assemblyman Jamison More. His career nearly coming to an end as a result of the incident, Ensign Tolwyn, along with Lieutenant Vance Richards, receives an assignment in the McAuliffe System of the Vega Sector to accompany Commander Turner and the smuggler Hans Maximilian Kruger on a much-needed reconnaissance mission of the Kilrathi Empire along their border with the Landreich. |
| 2634.186 | SS Anna Magdelena, a refitted transport ship ferrying orphans to their new homes on Dieno, is openly attacked and destroyed by a pair of Kilrathi fighters; no one survives. In retaliation for this incident and the five-year string of equally heinous abuses of all known laws of civility, the Terran Confederation officially declares war on the Empire of Kilrah; beginning of the Terran-Kilrathi War. |
| 2634.228 | TCN cryptographer Ches M. Penney intercepts and decodes a stray Kilrathi cipher implying that a strike will soon be launched against the planet McAuliffe and its orbiting space station, Alexandria. Confederation High Command orders a counteroffensive twice the size of the anticipated fleet, hoping to reach McAuliffe first and ambush the attackers. |
| 2634.235-2634.239 | The McAuliffe Ambush: After a tense rush to McAuliffe, a Confederation task group centered on TCS Ark Royal, Concordia, North Carolina, Masada, Yorkshire and the private vessel SS Lazarus establishes a formidable defensive position around the planet on Confederation Day. When the Kilrathi fleet arrives, however, it is quadruple the expected size. Several days of bloody fighting all but obliterate the defensive forces, leaving a still-sizable force of functional Kilrathi spacecraft. The Kilrathi, momentarily daunted by the ferocity of Terran resistance, turns back to regroup and repair. The first large-scale engagement of the war ends with the Kilrathi spearhead momentarily broken. Prince Ratha, the eldest son of Crown Prince Gilkarg, is killed in the engagement; the young Prince Thrakhath nar Kiranka becomes second in line to the Kilrathi throne. |
| 2638.348 | A Confederation Space Force patrol at Masa surprises a Kilrathi corvette in the act of looting a Free Trader. Because most of the Kilrathi crew was aboard the Confederation vessel when the patrol attacked, the corvette was taken with only minimal damage. Although the Kilrathi privateers were all killed in the fighting, the corvette provided a wealth of important intelligence including the best data yet on the total radius of the Kilrathi sphere of influence, locations of Kilrathi colonies near Confederation space and multiple strategic jump routes. |
| 2639.006 | A Kilrathi carrier group attacks and destroys the agricultural colony on Hellespont, an unarmed settlement of assimilated Pilgrims; 82,000 Terrans are killed or enslaved in the attack. About 12 hours later, a similar force attacks the shipping port of Tartarus; that colony is able to hold out until reinforcements arrive from Brimstone Naval Station. The Kilrathi eventually withdraw from the area after 48 hours of heavy fighting. |
| 2639.033-2639.040 | The Enyo Engagement: Kilrathi occupation forces land on Enyo and hold a quarter of a million Terrans hostage, reinforced by orbital guns. The Confederation regroups under the leadership of Captain Geoffrey Tolwyn; A-14 Raptor heavy fighters drop porcupine mines in the region of space near the colony's principal jump point. Kilrathi ships steer clear of the mined region, allowing Phase Two of the operation to begin: a scrambled radio signal detonates certain specially modified mines, clearing the way for the arrival of a sizable Terran reinforcement fleet through the jump point. Terran forces make an immediate strike against the gunships threatening the population centers. The mines split the gunships and the fleet units assigned to intercept the Raptors, allowing the two Confederation forces to form a pincer around the enemy fleet. The gunships are destroyed with minimal civilian casualties. After a subsequent pounding match that lasts only two days, the Enyo Engagement ends with the Kilrathi in full retreat. Casualties on both sides are nearly identical but the Kilrathi have been forced to abandon a strategic position three jumps from Sol. |
| 2639 | In an attempt to shore up the coreward border of the Terra Quadrant from Kilrathi incursions, the Confederation begins initial colonization of the Gemini Sector. Within five years, the region around the Perry system becomes heavily fortified; the last major battle in the Sector against Kilrathi forces occurs in the Blockade Point Tango system in 2654. |
| 2640.160-2640.200 | The Kilrathi launch a major offensive in Vega Sector resulting in a temporary Confederation withdrawal from about 30% of their systems in the Sector. |
| 2640.240-2640.340 | A successful counter-offensive in Vega Sector allows the Confederation to reclaim most of their lost systems. The pattern of offensive/counter-offensive stalemates would ultimately characterize most of the tenor of the war. |
| 2642 | Terran Confederation military command determines the need for a heavy space fighter craft carrier and authorizes the design of the Bengal-class. The construction contract is ultimately awarded to Trojan Four Spaceyards. |
| 2642.082 | The two sides settle into a long and unending stalemate, creating tension along the frontier. Several Terran worlds declare independence from the Confederation as a prelude to declaring neutrality in the conflict. |
| 2644 | The newly-launched Bengal-class Strike Carrier TCS Tiger’s Claw (CVS-7), on its shakedown cruise with a minimal spacecrew and an under-experienced command, finds itself in the path of a surprise Kilrathi invasion force. The ship’s unexpected presence along the Kilrathi flight plan, clever tactics on the part of the command crew and performance above and beyond the call of duty rout the superior Kilrathi force. Shortly thereafter, Tiger’s Claw is given permanent assignment in Vega Sector. Late in the year, the Kilrathi repulse a Confederation attempt to bring all of Epsilon Sector under its control. T'Kon Meth and T'Rel Meh fall after heavy fighting but the invasion effort stalls soon afterward. |
| 2645 | TCS Kipling is launched at the Trojan Four Spaceyards. Because of design modifications, Kipling is ten meters shorter and several tonnes less massive than the earlier TCS Bengal and Tiger's Claw. |
| 2645-2653 | Abandoning their effort to penetrate the Terran front lines in the central sectors of the border worlds, the Kilrathi switch the focus of their attack to the Pleiades Sector. After initial Kilrathi successes, Terran defenses hold; this front also eventually settles into a stalemate. |
| 2646 | The Kilrathi launch a successful counter-offensive to reclaim T'Kon Meth and T'Rel Meh. |
| 2646.005 | Beginning with Baird’s Star, seven core systems declare independence from the Terran Confederation. The Grand Assembly successfully attempts to bring these worlds back into the Confederation and prevent other worlds from seceding by changing the strategic aims of these worlds from direct engagement to intelligence, particularly cryptography. |
| 2648.305 | The Confederation succeeds in breaking the principle Kilrathi encryption code. In order to prevent a repeat of the McAuliffe debacle, Fleet Intelligence takes pains to ensure their decryption is accurate. |
| 2648 | The NAVCOM A.I., a computer that essentially re-creates the mind of a single Pilgrim Navigator, is invented. It is used for the accurate charting of jump points. |
| 2649.189 | Fleet Command, using information on Kilrathi deployments gained via Intel's decryption efforts, assembles a force consisting of 60% of the Vega Sector Fleet with the aim of invading and occupying Kilrah itself. Given the size of the force, the apparent quality of the intelligence and the overall strategy, a final Confederation victory seems well in hand. |
| 2649.205 | Terran ground forces launch an attack on a G'wriss as an opening move in the Fleet's push to Kilrah. Terran troops establish a beachhead but stronger-than-expected space defenses wipe out most of the invasion's space support, ultimately forcing a complete rout of the invasion fleet. TCS Tiger’s Claw is detached from its previous station and assigned to intercept pursuing Kilrathi fighters in a three-day delaying action that eventually becomes known as Custer’s Carnival. Swarmed and badly damaged by Kilrathi fighters, the carrier distracts the Kilrathi forces long enough for the rest of the Terran fleet to reach safety. Despite the fact that three-fourths of its engines are destroyed and half its pilots are listed as casualties, the heroic efforts of the Claw’s crew allow it to make it back into Terran space. Two Gold Stars and numerous other medals - many of them posthumous - are awarded to her personnel. The carrier itself spends six months in spacedock for repairs and refitting. |
| 2652.102 | The first Confederation psycho-anthropological profile of the Kilrathi is compiled by Second Lieutenant Christopher Douglas, giving insight into the minds of those who had previously been simply thought of as "The Enemy." It would be revised through 2668.312 with a compilation of facts offered by the eventual Kilrathi defector Ralgha nar Hhallas as well as intelligence gathered by Terran Intelligence and various Covert Ops teams. |
| 2653 | Due to heavy losses in battle against the Kilrathi, the 201st Plebe class of the Confederation’s Space Force Academy replaces the regular flight crew aboard Tiger’s Claw with Commodore Geoffrey Tolwyn in command. Amongst the plebes assigned to the Claw are Cadets Todd "Maniac" Marshall and Christopher "Maverick" Blair. |
| 2654 | The Terran Confederation makes first contact with the Double Helix species. The F-44 Rapier-II Medium Fighter enters service. This celebrated craft with its sleek lines and famous silhouette will ultimately become synonymous with the might of the Confederation military. Rapiers and their multiple variants remain in service with military and paramilitary forces through the end of the 27th Century. Gemini Sector Governor Menesch is implicated in the illegal sale of F-38 Talon fighters and their schematics to the Church of Man. Upon his indictment, Menesch disappears, bringing down his administration and sowing chaos in Gemini. Star*Soldier, a publication of the Rondell Corporation, begins its production run with its first issue released on 2654.015. The highly successful vid-zine acts as a news and information guide for both military and paramilitary forces alike within the Confederation. |
| 2654.074 | Aided by Pilgrim fundamentalist terrorists, a Kilrathi fleet destroys the Confederation’s Pegasus Station and secures a path straight to Earth. Tiger's Claw, the only fleet carrier between the Kilrathi and Sol, fights desperately to delay the enemy advance. Using intelligence gathered by Tiger’s Claw, Commodore Tolwyn turns the tables on the Kilrathi, surprising them and eliminating the entire fleet as it arrives in Sol. |
| 2654.079 | Pilgrim fundamentalist traitors serving in the Confederation fleet, frustrated by the failure of the Kilrathi attempt to invade Earth, mutiny and capture TCS Olympus, a Confederation cruiser carrying an experimental weapon. Terran and Kilrathi forces both race against time to stop Olympus and secure its technology. The weapon is ultimately disabled, but the Pilgrims manage to escape with Olympus herself. |
| 2654.130 | The descendants of Pilgrim explorers thought lost for generations return to known space to collect their remaining brethren. They briefly make war on both Terrans and Kilrathi before leaving the galaxy. This act effectively ends the McDanielist religion; the Confederation has no further recorded contact with the Pilgrims after this point. The Pilgrims do not bother to attempt to collect any of their Landreich brethren. |
| 2654.131 | Prince Thrakhath abandons his live-and-let-live policy towards border pirates by destroying Base Tortuga in a massive show of force. |
| 2654.162 | The Kilrathi begin a lend-lease program with non-Starfaring races along the frontier. The primitive natives of Dioscuri II are armed with surplus Dralthi and ordered to make war against Confederation forces in their system. |
| 2654.176 | Admiral Rhea Bergstrom attempts to trap a Kilrathi fleet in the Seti Beta system using TCS Tiger’s Claw as bait. Prince Thrakhath turns the tables, catching the Trafalgar battlegroup in a pincer; Trafalgar and her escorts are destroyed in the ensuing action. |
| 2654.184 | The Empire develops its first stealth fighter, a specially modified Sartha with radar-reflective paint and a low-emission ion drive; it is code-named Strakha. Confederation pilots working in pairs manage to trap and destroy the prototype. |
| 2654.185 | KIS Naoukeric attacks the planet Oasis, shattering a two-decade long neutrality agreement regarding the planet. The Kilrathi carrier is later destroyed under mysterious circumstances. |
| 2654.190 | Dr. Bronwyn Sing, the head researcher on planet Greenhouse, attempts to illegally infect a captured Kilrathi pilot with a bio-agent; the kil is shot down before he can spread the disease. |
| 2654.287 | Terran Intelligence reports that the Kilrathi High Command is directing war efforts from the Venice System. Reconnaissance patrols identify Kilrathi ships and boldly give chase, discovering an Imperial starbase; the patrols are lost but not before relaying their coordinates back to HQ. A small Terran group of elite fighters is dispatched to the Imperial starbase. The Kilrathi launch significant resistance but are eventually overpowered and the base is destroyed. Badly beaten, the Kilrathi move their central military command back to Kilrah. This event briefly brings all of Vega Sector under Confederation control and marks the end of what's known as the "Vega Sector Campaign", though Vega Sector will still remain a significant battlefield for the remainder of the war. Simultaneously, the celebrated Battle of Repleetah unfolds. The small research planet of Repleetah had long been home to dedicated researchers from various corners of the universe. A group of Terran scientists vote to pay a visit to a Kilrathi research facility with the goal of reaffirming their mutual dedication to the unfettered pursuit of knowledge and to offer peaceful co-existence with their fellow scientists. The scientists are exterminated in a surprise biological attack by the Kilrathi, prompting a limited retaliatory action by the Confederation. Marines from both sides of the conflict rush to Repleetah and engage in the most sustained land-based fighting of the entire war. In trench warfare reminiscent of Earth’s World War I, each side fights with dogged determination and in full bio-resistant suits. Meager gains are bought with hundreds of lives only to be lost to the next counter-attack. Since Repleetah quickly loses any strategic significance it might have had, it comes to represent what each side can win with as little investment as possible: neither side is willing to commit anything more than ground troops. The bloodshed continues unabated for over a decade. |
| 2654.293 | Prince Thrakhath prepares the yearly Sivar-Eshrad ceremony on the planet Dolos, where the native populace had been enslaved by the Kilrathi Empire. Seeing an opportunity to redeem himself after his disastrous involvement in the Olympus affair, Commodore Tolwyn feints the enemy by pretending to launch a Marine assault to take the planet and then proceeding with a full strike on Thrakhath’s flagship, KIS Agon Ra Sivar, when it diverts fighters to defend Dolos. The plan is ultimately a success, delivering a heavy blow to Kilrathi morale and earning Tolwyn a promotion to Rear Admiral. Thrakhath’s dreadnought is destroyed though Thrakhath himself survives. Christopher Blair is captured during the conflict though he is quickly rescued. |
| 2654.326 | Shortly after intelligence reports indicate that Kilrathi engineers have developed a new super-weapon for use against inhabited planets, all radio contact is lost with the Goddard Colony. TCS Tiger’s Claw rushes to Goddard and forges a path for relief transports and corvettes, only to discover that a quarter-million Terran lives have already been sacrificed by the Kilrathi. |
| 2654.327-2655.199 | Operation Thor's Hammer: Deeply angered by the tragedy on Goddard, the crew of Tiger’s Claw pursues the Kilrathi strike force into enemy territory. The mission proves demoralizing for most of the Claw's pilots, who are forced to destroy the captured TCS Falstaff and Gwynhevar during the course of the mission. After searching for nearly seven months, reconnaissance fighters finally locate and isolate the dreadnought KIS Sivar, which is suspected of carrying the prototype super-weapon (this is later confirmed during after-action analysis). The Claw pursues and, in a stunning display of deep space logistics and fighting skill, eliminates the dreadnought. Afterward, the Kilrathi Emperor has his son Gilkarg, the Crown Prince and the commander responsible for the dreadnought’s loss, executed. Prince Thrakhath replaces Gilkarg as Crown Prince and heir to the throne. |
| 2655 | After the events of Operation Thor's Hammer, TCS Tiger’s Claw again travels behind enemy lines as part of a battle group charged with destroying the laboratories and shipyards responsible for producing the Sivar weapon. Using captured enemy fighters to sneak behind fortified enemy lines, the carrier’s pilots cripple Kilrathi bases in the Jakarta System. Upon completion of this mission, Naval High Command reassigns Tiger's Claw and its pilots to serve as Honorary Guard for the Confederation delegation finalizing a new alliance with the planet Firekka. |
| 2655.278-2655.315 | Operation Crusade: A huge Kilrathi battle fleet led by Crown Prince Thrakhath and his Drakhai (Kilrathi Imperial Guard) moves into the Firekka System. During this time a Kilrathi Khantahr that defected on 2655.271, Ralgha nar Hhallas, is instrumental in assisting the Confederation’s efforts, soon joining the Space Force's ranks as "Hobbes" and providing psycho-anthropological data on the Kilrathi. The Kilrathi fleet’s intent is unknown until Ralgha nar Hhallas exposes the plan to use Firekka for the Sivar-Eshrad. As with the ceremony on Dolos the previous year, the Confederation decides to disrupt the religious ceremony in the hopes of breaking enemy morale. Marine troopships jump into the system and stage an assault on the Kilrathi priestesses. The mission is successful and on 2655.315, and the Claw retreats to Terran-controlled space; in short order, Firekkan natives revolt and force the remaining Kilrathi forces to withdraw, though not before the later takes hostages. The hostages are soon freed in a post-authorized covert operation involving the recently retired James Taggart, Tiger's Claw pilot Captain Ian "Hunter" St. John and the Firekkan freighter captain K'Kai. |
| 2656 | The Confederation launches the Enigma Sector Campaign in an attempt to drive the Kilrathi out of the relatively advanced theatre, which contains several strategic jump nodes that lead directly to the Confederation's core systems. TCS Tiger's Claw is reassigned to Enigma Sector and tasked with the destruction of the Kilrathi command post at K'Tithrak Mang. While en route to the system, the Claw is ambushed and torpedoed by the first operational squadron of Kilrathi Strakha stealth fighters, resulting in the loss of the ship and most of her crew. A small number of her pilots on patrol survived; Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Blair was the only survivor in the immediate vicinity of the Claw at the time of the incident. His missing flight recorder disc and stories of invisible stealth fighters earned him the scorn of Admiral Tolwyn; he was convicted of negligence, demoted to the rank of Captain and relegated to Caernarvon Station in the Gwenydd System for the next nine years. Shortly after the destruction of Tiger's Claw, rebel forces manage to wrest control of the planet of Ghorah Khar from the Kilrathi Empire. Rather than risk having stealth technology fall into the hands of the Confederation, Prince Thrakhath orders his subordinate Khasra Redclaw to destroy the Ghorah Khar shipyards, effectively ending further production of the Strakha line until early 2667. |
| 2657 | Janet Williamson authors A Treacherous Hero, a book about the alleged treason committed by Christopher Blair resulting in the destruction of Tiger's Claw; the book remains on the bestseller's list for more than eleven months and is made into a holo-vid in 2673. |
| 2661 | TCS Concordia (CVS-65), a Confederation-class dreadnought, is launched. In the years to come, she becomes the flagship of the Confederation Fleet in Enigma Sector. |
| 2656-2667 | The Enigma Sector Campaign drags on for the better part of a decade with the Sector largely locked in a stalemate. Meanwhile, Kilrathi forces begin making new inroads into Vega Sector. Confederation forces are able to successfully defend Olympus Station, a Terran starbase established to defend Ghorah Khar from Imperial reprisals, from repeated Kilrathi assaults. During these years, the focus of the war drifts away from the decade-long Battle of Repleetah; supply ships and reinforcements had long since ceased their support of ground troops on the ex-research planet. In late 2664, only a handful of troops remained on either side of the conflict. The sole surviving Terran officer, Lieutenant Miles D’Arby, led his men in a last ditch effort to overrun the Kilrathi position. No one lived through this final action on either side; the Battle of Repleetah finally came to an end. It is estimated that the Confederation had lost more than 2.7 million troops in the battle while Kilrathi losses are estimated at upwards of 7 million. In 2667, Terran forces from TCS Concordia daringly jump behind enemy lines and finally destroy the Kilrathi sector headquarters at K’Tithrak Mang. The first confirmed sighting of a Strakha is made by none other than Christopher Blair, who is exonerated and promoted to the rank of Colonel by Admiral Tolwyn himself. |
| 2667 | Confederation forces dispel a Kilrathi attack on Pembroke Station, the gateway between Enigma and Vega Sectors. These same forces then attend to a mutiny on the Rigel Supply Depot, where mutineers have split into two factions; the mutineers aboard TCS Gettysburg, who wanted to return to Confederation service, are exonerated while the base containing the mutineers, who had become a group of raiders in the area, is destroyed. The Kilrathi once again unsuccessfully attempt to re-capture Ghorah Khar and Khasra Redclaw is killed after an attempt to assassinate Prince Thrakhath. Thrakhath is captured and brought aboard the covert ops ship Bonnie Heather but eludes his captors through a daringly engineered escape. Concordia begins overseeing the testing of the new F-95 Morningstar heavy fighter, a powerful new fighter carrying the Mace tactical nuclear missile. Traitors from the Society of Mandarins led by Zachary Colson interrupt the tests and steal a prototype. Covert Ops responds by locating the Society’s main base of operations. A team sneaks behind enemy lines in a captured Kilrathi freighter and destroys both the base and the stolen fighter, killing Colson in the process. A massive Kilrathi invasion of the Deneb Quadrant eliminates the Confederation’s 6th Fleet in a matter of hours; the tattered remnants of the Fleet escape to Enigma Sector. Kilrathi forces occupy Deneb and remain in possession of over half of Epsilon Sector for the remainder of the war. The Venture-class corvette TCS Johnny Greene accepts a surveillance mission to the mysterious Kilrathi planet Vukar Tag. Encountering overwhelming opposition, the corvette is barely able to make the jump back to Confederation space with the fragmented information it had gathered. Acting on information gathered in Johnny Greene's mission, Marine and space-based attack forces from the newly launched Wake-class escort carrier TCS Tarawa (CVE-8) attack and seize control of the planet of Vukar Tag, destroying the ancestral home of the Dowager Empress Graknala. This is later revealed to be the opening move in "Operation Back Lash," an attempt to divide and strike the Kilrathi fleet hard. Tarawa, the cruiser Intrepid and the destroyer Kagimasha are dispatched to Kilrah itself to divide the Kilrathi home fleet, affording the remaining Confederation Fleet a much greater chance of success in an ambush against the home fleet when they arrived to try and take back Vukar Tag. The operation succeeds beyond anyone’s expectations – Tarawa pilots destroy a full third of the Empire's carrier construction yards, significantly damaging the Kilrathi war effort. |
| 2668 | The False Armistice: Terran forces hit on the strategy of striking at Kilrathi supply lines and shipworks, eliminating nine carriers under construction, four shipyards and crippling dozens of transports. Running low on combat ships and supplies, a peace accord is unexpectedly offered by Kilrah and accepted by the Confederation government. All fleets are withdrawn, even those in the midst of combat. The Battle of Earth: In the following months, several frontier colonies refuse to abide by the armistice rulings and invest ships in an attempt to ascertain that - as they strongly suspect - the armistice is a ruse. A group of Free Corps volunteers launched from the Landreich later discovers such proof deep beyond the frontier and relays that information back to Earth as the Kilrathi ambassador nearly succeeds in killing off the entire naval command structure in a suicide bombing. The armistice is renounced and a hastily assembled force of still-intact Confederation ships prepare to defend against the coming Kilrathi assault, led by Admiral Tolwyn aboard TCS Concordia. The first Kilrathi strikes result in the total radiation-warhead destruction of Warsaw, Gilead, and Sirius Prime. Marines board in a suicidal charge and detonate antimatter mines aboard several of the new Kilrathi Hakaga-class carriers, successfully destroying three of them. The remaining Kilrathi fleet reaches striking distance and launch anti-matter rockets on crucial defense cities - Chicago, Pittsburgh, Boston, Miami, Quebec, Berlin, Paris, Kiev, and others - before retreating to friendlier space. Earth is saved but at tremendous cost, putting the Confederation on the brink of total defeat. |
| 2669 | TCS Concordia is ambushed while fighting a rearguard action over Vespus. She is knocked out of orbit and crashes in shallow water off the coast of the Mistral Sea with the loss of all hands. On 2669.011, the Terran Intelligence Agency deploys an experimental craft equipped with self-sustaining recycling systems, a mining apparatus and a 62 person Special Operations team from Goddard Transfer Station through a newly discovered jump point. Its mission is to search out and destroy Kilrathi forces and eventually to deploy a series of unmanned posts in the outer Kilrah Sector. The craft is dubbed Lexington in the wake of the Battle of Earth under the assumption that the Concordia-class carrier of the same name severely damaged in the battle would have to be scrapped. Though the Special Ops team succeeds in reaching the Kilrah system, Lexington is never recovered and is presumed lost.
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| 2669.221 | Dr. Forbin, a prominent scientist aboard the solar shadow ring station La Belle Dame Sans Merci, reports gravimetric disturbances in the Tanhauser Nebula. These disturbances are determined to be consistent with jump point formation. In the midst of investigating what might have been the first ever observations of a jump point formation, the station is attacked by a raiding party of Kilrathi light attack fighters using the nebula as camouflage; despite its total lack of military value, all aboard the defenseless station are slaughtered - many of them are inexplicably tortured to death. This marked the eighteenth such occurrence reported since 2667. Forbin’s discovery later leads to a peacetime TCN task force designed solely with the purpose of observing and analyzing jump points. |
| 2669.233 | The Trafalgar Outerworlds report a devastating pandemic that eradicates over four percent of the system’s population. The disease vector is proven to be Terran blood. Trafalgar Disease Control halts the mortality rate at 23 deaths per day and later identifies biochemical weaponry as the guilty carrier. Simultaneously, the Kilrathi mount a series of bioweapon attacks in the Locanda and Delius systems. Forces off of TCS Victory (CV-40), an older Yorktown-class light carrier, are able to successfully defend all but the main Locanda colony; several colonies in Delius are eliminated before Confederation forces can respond. The immediate death toll is reported at 2,867; all affected worlds are quarantined and eventually see the annihilation of their populaces. Linguistics specialists at the University of Hawaii on Earth make marked progress in deciphering the intricacies of the Kilrathi language and begin publishing their research in leading journals. Civilian research to these discoveries is sharply restricted after this news gets back to Kilrathi forces, causing them to change their encryption schema. |
| 2669.242 | Confederation forces liberate the enslaved population of the Cabrea System. The TCN Human Relations Agency immediately clamps down on all vid-transmissions from the system, citing "the interests of Confed-security." Reports emerge that horrific conditions exist within the system. A psychological assistance team en route to counsel survivors and deliver supplies is obliterated in a surprise attack as they pass through a normally peaceful asteroid belt; transmissions from the cargo ship indicate that the Kilrathi have developed a new fighter that is nearly indistinguishable from a small asteroid chunk (later designated as K'ha'haf). TCN headquarters orders a strategic withdrawal from outlying Confederation systems as part of a larger operation to give up areas of relatively minor importance in the hope that the Kilrathi will spread themselves too thinly. This action receives great criticism from those who claim that the withdrawals are only an improvised response to the advance of the enemy. The criticism lessens, however, with the introduction of the new F-103 Excalibur heavy fighter and a successful push into the Ariel system. |
| 2669.247 | The Confederation tests TCS Behemoth on a Kilrathi colonial planet in the Loki system. The test run disintegrates an entire planet in less than five seconds; approximately 1,500 Kilrathi settlers are killed, later raising critical judgments from the Terran Diplomatic Association. Behemoth's design is subsequently leaked to Kilrathi forces, which intercept and destroy it before it can be deployed to Kilrah. Less than a week after the loss of Behemoth, forces off of TCS Victory support a Marine-led effort to liberate Dr. Philip Severin from a Kilrathi prison planet in the Alcor System. A key player in TCN detonation technology, he immediately is set to work completing his earlier designs on another weapon, the Temblor Bomb. TCN military police fighters squelch a civilian riot on Rampart military station in the Enyo system, where organized protesters attempted to damage communication facilities and 27 fighters parked for repairs. The leader of the protest, Alexander Romorin, is killed by one of his own followers during the hand-to-hand melee as he struggled with minimally-armed personnel. Participants are questioned and sent to a minimum security holding moon. This event marks a swelling current of civilian unrest after forty years of the Terran-Kilrathi conflict. |
| 2669.262 | Confederation forces break through Kilrathi lines and advance to the Freya and Hyperion systems, where they again meet heavy Kilrathi resistance. Facing an imminent homeworld invasion, the Empire boosts its forces in these systems and eases up on attacks on outlying colonial worlds. Construction begins on temporary Confederation bases in the area; Confederation transmissions are encoded with the newly developed UUENSX-17 encryption system. The conflict index reaches 10.2, the highest average in the war’s history. The Galactic Red Cross troops run medical supplies, food and fuel dangerously close to the front lines, losing approximately a third of their transports to ambushes. The Civilian Pilot’s Association volunteers troop and supply transport runs as the war progresses closer and closer to the Kilrah Sector. The Temblor test project enters the completion stage and a prototype is successfully detonated on a seismographic fault in the Hyperion system. Dr. Severin is subsequently named an honorary Captain in the Terran Navy and awarded a research bonus of 1.2 million credits. |
| 2669.267 | President Quinson and the Scientific Warfare panel approve the use of the Temblor Bomb in six instances, including that of attacking Kilrah directly. Having expected this decision, TCS Victory pushes to the jump point leading from Hyperion to the Kilrah system. Colonel Christopher Blair, Major Todd Marshall, 2nd Lt. Winston Chang and 2nd Lt. Robin Peters launch from Victory in F-103 Excaliburs at 0545 hours. With the aid of covert fuel depots and after having shot down and killed Crown Prince Thrakhath in a final duel, Blair penetrates Kilrah’s atmosphere and launches the Temblor Bomb into the V’rakath fault; the resulting blast rips Kilrah along its three major faults, shattering its crust and killing billions of the planet's inhabitants, including the Emperor himself. Aboard KIS Hvar’kann, Kal Shintahr Melek nar Kiranka formally surrenders unconditionally to Blair, an action later formalized with the Treaty of Torgo. After forty years, 4.2 quadrillion credits’ worth of war materials and a total count of 9,500,012,432,187 deaths, the Terran-Kilrathi War is finally over. |
| 2669.315-2671.056 | Project Goliath: Landreich President Max Kruger dispatches Admiral Tolwyn, Admiral Vance Richards and Commodore Jason "Bear" Bondarevsky to refit a crippled Kilrathi Bhantkara-class supercarrier, KIS Karga, in response to the problem of ambitious independent Kilrathi warlords attempting to rebuild the fallen Kilrathi Empire near the Landreich's borders. With the help of Hyilghar Murragh Cakg dai Nokhtak (nar Kiranka), the Landreich successfully restores the carrier to service, re-christening it FRLS Mjollnir. Kruger dispatches Mjollnir to cripple KIS Vorghath, a Hvar'kann-class dreadnought that had joined the forces of warlord Ukar dai Ragark lak Haka at Baka Kar; the operation is ultimately a success though Admiral Richards is killed by Ragark's forces. In the aftermath, Bondarevsky elects to remain with the Landreich Navy while Tolwyn returns to the Confederation to head the Strategic Readiness Agency (SRA). |
| 2669.322 | In the months immediately following the end of the war and the signing of the Treaty of Torgo, a P.O.W. exchange is implemented and Sectorial diplomats begin negotiations with Kilrathi settlers. Eighty-six new bills are introduced in the 1,234th Confederation Grand Assembly pertaining to the rights of Kilrathi survivors. Riots driven by racism among Terran colonies peak, paralleling the integration of the early- to mid-20th Century. M’ragrakath nar Hhallas is appointed as the main Kilrathi spokesperson and is assassinated during an interplanetary conference on Venus. Following his death, an overwhelming percentage of Kilrathi survivors commit zu’kara. In an effort to ease tensions, the Terran Diplomatic Association sets up eighteen Kilrathi reservation worlds. The Terran Navy concentrates peace efforts on outer worlds, where renegade forces are staging brutal attacks on Kilrathi colonies. Many of these renegades are from Sol System, where unemployment has skyrocketed to 22.3 percent since the end of the war; most of the unemployed are discharged military personnel. Analysts predict that recovering from half-a-century of warfare will be a long, consuming task that will require at least two decades of economic and social adjustment in every facet of life. The Terran Confederation assigns eighteen reserve marine units to civilian trade bases in Gemini Sector, where reports filter in concerning increased contraband activity. Gemini had long been a problem area for patrolling forces due to the large number of nearby Kilrathi inhabitants and the localized Free Trade Agreement. The move sparks unrest among members of the Merchant’s Guild after over half the trading force relocates to other nearby Sectors. Military officials step up patrols along the Clark-S'kh'haral Quadrant border as attacks on civilian merchant ships in the region reach an all-time high. A team of sociologists and archeologists en route to Gemini Sector are captured by Kilrathi renegades; vid-transmissions of their torture beamed back to Sol. News of the incident leaks out to the general public, who become outraged and demand reprisals on Kilrathi P.O.W.s. The four men aboard had been undertaking a dangerous trek to investigate rumors of a Steltek “Rosetta” stone believed to contain valuable information on uncharted systems near Gemini. About this same time, reports are first received of a marauder vessel attacking merchant shipping in Gemini; it is widely believed that this vessel is a secret Kilrathi weapon. TCN forces eventually track down and destroy the marauder vessel. |
| 2670 | Mordecai Jones, leader of the Church of Man in the Gemini Sector, is exposed as having authorized and led an attack on a Terran super-weapon tested in a nearby Sector. The Church denies responsibility for the attack, which was carried out by three squadrons of refurbished Kilrathi Salthi Light Fighters and resulted in the deaths of all 25 technical assistance crew members working on the weapon’s components. Six months later, Jones is reported as missing (later confirmed dead) by his followers; his temple on planet Eden is subsequently bombarded. Following his death, TCN officials inspect the remnants of Base Gaea and find detailed accounts of over 35 attacks on orbital guns and scientific research outposts. |
| 2671-2672 | Open warfare breaks out between the Free Republic of the Landreich and the Terran Confederation. Rear Admiral Bondarevsky takes command of the Landreich’s escort carrier fleet, ultimately ending the conflict in a strategic draw. President Kruger’s hold over the government begins to slip as a result of the affair. |
| 2673 | The F-104 Bearcat undergoes regular combat trials. Though a promising design, the Bearcat would only see a limited production run in favor of the F-108 Panther. |
| 2673.219-2673.233 |
The Black Lance Affair: The galaxy’s peace is interrupted once again as pirate raids against peacetime shipping become more and more common. Admiral Tolwyn, believing that the human race needs to be genetically purified before it faces another threat like the Kilrathi, leads a unit of genetically enhanced pilots known as the Black Lance in an effort to instigate a new war between the Terran Confederation and the newly formed Union of Border Worlds. Tolwyn authorizes the elimination of "impure" planetary populations through the use of biological weapons, resulting in the deaths of over 90% of the population of the Telamon system. Forces on both sides of the conflict rush to prove to the Confederation Grand Assembly who is responsible for the attacks prior to a vote of war against the Union. The final battle takes place on the floor of the Grand Assembly, where Colonel Christopher Blair tricks Tolwyn into implicating himself. Tolwyn later commits suicide after having being sentenced to death, believing his failure has doomed all of Terrankind to extinction. |
| 2674 | Robert Brindle’s novel Clipped, a tragedy about conditions in Kilrathi placement facilities on their designated reservation worlds, is criticized by veterans and administrators as both inaccurate and inflammatory. The publicity generated causes thirty system Assemblymen to call for a committee to be formed to review conditions in the placement facilities. |
| 2675 | The Circean Civil War concludes as the Union of Border Worlds and Terran Confederation focus on civil wars plaguing the former Kilrathi Empire. T'kirsa is settled by the newly-formed Firekkan Planetary Alliance. Murragh Cakg dai Nokhtak loans FRLS Mjollnir from the Landreich and takes the ship into Kilrathi space in a bid to claim the Kilrathi throne. However, expected support from the Landreich Navy never materializes and Murragh’s attempted coup falls apart short of the planned invasion of Pasqual. Murragh fights an epic retreat pursued by Chancellor Melek’s police forces. He returns to the Landreich and lives out the rest of his days in exile. Civilian protestors use the novel Clipped as ammunition in acts of civil disobedience near the Grand Assembly Headquarters. Dozens of people are injured and hundreds more arrested in demonstrations that last throughout the Assembly’s quarterly sessions. After much public outcry and several internal inquiries as to the conditions of Kilrathi placement facilities, the Confederation agrees to help the Kilrathi form a new governing body to self-regulate conditions and manage Kilrathi/Confederation relations. Shortly after, the Kilrathi Alliance of Clans (KAC) is announced. Staffed by royal clan leaders and Sivaran Priestesses, the KAC promises a new age of cooperation and self-determination for the Kilrathi. |
| 2676 | At a KAC-organized rally of the Great Clans, many Kilrathi leaders speak out on conditions in placement facilities. Speeches applaud efforts made by the Confederation to provide adequate oversight and resources. The event is marred by violence following an inflammatory speech given by an enigmatic teenage clan leader named Ra’Khaj nar Ghoran. Ra’Khaj, representing the Kiranka clan, calls for true Kilrathi self-determination and puts pressure on the KAC to cut access to Confederation holo-vid, consumer goods and other "implements of cultural domestication". After naming several other clans he considered "complicit in the destruction of Kilrathi honor", an open brawl breaks out amongst their representatives and members of Clan Kiranka present, leaving 20 dead and dozens injured. |
| 2680 | The Confederation in conjunction with Hurston Dynamics begins field-testing chain ion weapons technology, also known as "cloud-burst" technology, at Krieger Starbase. Influence of Kilrathi culture on fashion and entertainment begins to spread outside of the Border Worlds. Some systems put a ban on the import of all imitation Kilrathi weaponry, Kilrathi-styled/Terran-sized armor and clothing wear. This only increases the value of such items on the market. Kilrathi placement facilities in the Border Worlds are reduced to only three planetary locations (down from fifty a decade earlier) as another displaced clan is relocated to a system within Kilrathi space. These reservations were beginning to come under the scrutiny of several Sentient Rights groups; charges of neglect and cruel treatment go unheard at the General Assembly. Governor Cavazos, then head of the General Assembly, publicly states that the remaining Kilrathi will be relocated to areas in the domain of the former Empire in less than five years. His statements are almost drowned out by representatives of the Border Worlds calling for faster action. Rein Ertrobs releases the fourth book in his wildly popular series of fantasy novels set within the Darkening universe. Entitled Lev’s Pact, the novel forces the publisher to restructure its flat-scan transmit hub in order to accommodate the over one billion requests. |
| 2680.321 | TCS Midway (CVX-01), the prototype ship of her class, is called to take on the Kilrathi "Demon’s Eye Pack" in the Valgard System of the Epsilon Sector during her maiden voyage. TCMC Colonel John "Gash" Dekker leads Midway’s Marines on the ground without incident; two pilots from the megacarrier become the only casualties of the entire operation. |
| 2681.014 | Thirty-six Kilrathi in the Demon’s Eye Pack captured through the efforts of the crew TCS Midway are convicted of piracy, murder and malicious disorder and are summarily executed at 0700 Hours (CST) at the Valgard Military Prison complex. Included in the mass execution was the pirates' leader, Krahtagh "Bloodeye" N’Ryllis. Despite requests by the Kilrathi Provisional Counsel that the prisoners should be executed traditionally, they are executed as a group by flash incineration. |
| 2681.018 | Confederation Astronomical Station K-105 picks up an unidentified energy surge near the remains of Kilrah Prime. The surge is initially believed to be an equipment malfunction or the reflection of a solar flare. A short time later, TOBY drones from TCS Devereaux are destroyed while exploring the debris belt near Kilrah Prime followed by loss of contact with Devereaux herself. The Sivarist monastic outpost on asteroid K-14G is shortly thereafter destroyed as well followed by Astronomical Station K-105. Fighters are scrambled from Surveillance Outposts Bravo and Delta to recon and respond. The activity would be identified as the opening of an immense, artificially generated wormhole a few weeks later. |
| 2681.019 | The recon group from Outposts Bravo and Delta jump to the site of K-105; contact with them is subsequently lost. The Kilrathi colony on Rawsh (Kilrah 6) and a previously unknown Kilrathi smuggler/insurgent base on KI-7D (Kilrah 7.4) are destroyed. Contact with Surveillance Outposts Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta is lost; they are presumed destroyed and Kilrah System is presumed to be in full enemy control. Seven recon missions are dispatched to the Kilrah systems from Tal’q Naval Station, which sends a FLASH message to Earth and goes to full alert status. Major Leeward Washington and Hugyn Squadron discover the remains of the smuggler’s base during the seventh recon attempt from Tal’q. Major Washington quickly completes his recon of Kilrah 7.4 and returns to Tal’q with photos and a possible enemy artifact: an irregular slab of hard, crystalline substance with a hand-print of one of the appendages of the enemy in its central cavity. Washington’s is the only recon mission of the seven to return as scheduled; the others are presumed lost. Further recon missions are terminated pending the analysis of known data. A short time later a strike group led by the corvette TCS Brack is dispatched from Tal’q to Rawsh. |
| 2681.020 | The last transmission is received from TCS Brack. An initial Terran Confederation Intelligence Assets (TCIA) report on the incident is compiled and dispatched. The hostiles are code-named "Nephilim" after the Hebrew legend of the "giants in the earth." Fleet Intel suspects the Nephilim may in fact be the "Star Gods" of Kilrathi legend. |
| 2681.025-2681.051 | The Nephilim continue their invasion into both Kilrathi and Confederation territories. From TCS Midway, recent TCSF Academy & Flight School graduate 2LT Lance R. Casey, son of legendary Tiger's Claw pilot Major Michael "Iceman" Casey, comes aboard and assists in a series of tactical operations designed to stop the Nephilim’s advance. He is kept under the watchful eye of Commodore Blair during his time aboard; Blair at one point in the operation is captured, probed and traumatized by the aliens before being recovered by Midway Marines. In the end, the Nephilim wormhole in the Kilrah System is collapsed through the efforts of Midway's pilots and Marines. When the Marines cannot reach the last "tower" of the wormhole gateway’s structure, Commodore Blair boards it himself and completes their work; he is attacked by a Nephilim Overlord before he can affect an escape. When the gateway is destroyed, Blair is still aboard it; he is declared missing in action and presumed dead. Blair is survived by no immediate relatives. |
| 2681 | Leonard Styles, a staff photojournalist for ISDN (Intersystem Daily News), takes the first shots of the Nephilim in action against a transport convoy fleeing the Kilrah Sector after an official evacuation order is given. His stark images of a Nephilim destroyer slicing through a civilian transport put an image to a threat dismissed by citizens of the more remote Sectors. A joint Hurston/Bartok Industries and Confederation research program develops the “dust cannon”, a mass-driver variant using “dust-cull” technology to recycle power plant waste matter into a nearly limitless ammunition supply. TCS Cerberus, a new Hades-class “quick strike” cruiser, is unveiled by the Confederation. Constructed by Bartok Industries, Cerberus is quickly put on a secret assignment by the TCIA to investigate reported straggler Nephilim in Sol Sector. As most of Known Space begins to mourn the loss of Christopher Blair and tries to begin repairing its wounds, a larger Nephilim strike force emerges. Cerberus fights through the alien hoards to capture a new wormhole in Proxima System. Intelligence believes that the Nephilim are searching for something. While the Confederation prepares to use its newly captured wormhole to strike back against the Nephilim, three more open - in the K’sktag System, the Hhallas System and the Valgard System. Beginning of the Nephilim War.
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| 2682 | Massive waves of Nephilim craft begin pouring through the K'sktag, Hhallas and Valgard Gates, with Nephilim battle groups offering significant challenge to the defensive fleet in Proxima. Contact with all Kilrathi colonies in the M'Shrak and Vukar Tag Sectors is lost by the end of the year. Epsilon Sector begins to see its first casualties of the war as group after group of Kraken squadrons issue from the Valgard gate. The alien viral agent later to be known as the "Green Plague" begins affecting several colonial worlds in Vega and Epsilon Sectors. The initial transmission of the disease is linked to a deep space salvage freighter called Hispaniola, whose crew had illegally salvaged pieces of SS Ana Maria Alberghetti. With exposure to planetary atmosphere, the salvage began to decay, causing dormant microbes to become active; the disease spreads through improper handling of the affected material. The virion, which is transmitted either by being absorbed through the skin or inhaled, feeds on living tissues and manufactures a chemical that induces euphoria, causing its victim to neglect the deleterious effects of exposure. Traditional methods of treatment prove ineffective and a galactic search for a vaccine/cure begins in earnest. The number of deaths linked to the disease is set at 47,000 for the year.
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| 2683 | TCN Captain Malik Santos completes his initial analysis of the tenor of the Nephilim conflict. His analysis of the enemy's disposition suggests the Nephilim are continuing their search for whatever they were looking for two years prior in greater force. His report also includes recommendations for countering the Nephilim threat; among them is the need to develop a weapon with firepower that matches or exceed those of the enemy Kraken-class ship killers as well as the unprecedented recommendation to forego significant levels of defensive shielding on capital ships in favor of extremely heavy armor plating. Deep space intelligence indicates that the Nephilim are in total control of M'Shrak Sector. While some sporadic pockets of significant resistance still exist, intelligence believes the same will be true of Kilrah Sector by the early part of the next year. With no tenable cure for the Green Plague yet discovered, the CVCD (Confederation Viral Control Division) calls for the immediate quarantine of entire systems, starting with Kreiger in Sol Sector. Kreiger was home to a research starbase that had been conducting initial tests on Alien technology - tests that ultimately left the starbase a floating hulk filled with seven hundred corpses. Other than CVCD operatives, no traffic in or out of the system is allowed. The death toll from the disease totals over 3,000,000. Exploratory Services activity is put on hold. Governor Cavazos of Sol Sector is reelected in a landslide despite protests from varied civilian interest groups accusing him of being ineffective in his handling of the Nephilim crisis. His personal Assembly vote in support of the execution of the “Bloodeye” pirates in Valgard two years earlier also earns him great criticism in the growing Kilrathi civil rights movement. At his inauguration, Cavazos stated, “People hate the tough decisions, but they hate the man that makes them more.” A group calling itself the "Hearts of the Tiger" (HOTT) sends out its belief on a holo-vid broadcast purchased by their eccentric and extremely wealthy founder, Hillel Jackson. He claimed to have received a message from the late Commodore Blair that offered a dialogue of hope and oneness for all creatures of the galaxy. After the transmission the HOTTs claimed a membership of 100,000. Although written off as a minor cult, sightings of Blair in the Trk’Pahn and Gemini sectors begin to be reported by a number of converts.
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| 2684 | Acting on the recommendations of Captain Santos the previous year, the Confederation reactivates the Behemoth line of dreadnoughts, incorporating a number of significant defensive updates into the design. Construction of TCS Colossus is completed before the end of the year. Meanwhile, initial plans are drawn up for a new type of heavy capital ship, whose design incorporates multiple heavy plasma cannons and heavy armor plating. A massive surge of Nephilim craft cross the border from Kilrah Sector into the Roberts and Downing Quadrants of the Vega Sector. Units of the Outerworlds Navy and Naval Reserves sustain heavy losses but manage to stave the Nephilim off for the better part of the year. Due to heavy losses from Nephilim incursions, the KAC petitions the Confederation to allow Kilrathi clansmen to enter the Confederation Navy and Space Force. Rather than allow this, the Grand Assembly agrees to put the provisions of the Treaty of Torgo that forbid the Kilrathi from operating their own military forces in abeyance: for the first time since the end of the war, the Kilrathi have the legal right to operate their own fighters and capital ships. The Confederation also allows the Kilrathi access to their battlecruiser design plans. All craft entering critical systems are now scanned for the Green Plague before being allowed to proceed. The “iron maiden”, a single-person chamber filled with micro-needles synched to inject a prototype vaccine to every point on the body, is proven to have limited yet repeatable effectiveness in stopping the progression of the virus in infected individuals. The treatment is so aggressive, however, that even with the virus neutralized the patient is usually unable to survive the invasive application of the vaccine's antibodies in their already-weakened state. The death toll from the Plague escalates to over 24,000,000. Argent, Hawking, and Avalon Sectors remain untouched. Corporations such as Hurston Dynamics and Bartok Industries agree to fund their own private militias to patrol their home Sectors in light of Confederation Naval losses. The Confederation welcomes the assistance whereas activists are suspicious of corporate motives. At a press conference announcing the Bartok militia in Argent Sector, Admiral David Colburn states, “We have no doubt that fine institutions like Bartok Industries will respect the laws and constitution that protects the rights of all citizens of the Confederation. This is a time of need and they are willing to sacrifice valuable resources to make sure everyone remains safe and secure in their homes." Confederation officials applaud Nanofab structural prototypes tested by the Guinterin Combine as "the single greatest advance in history since brick and mortar". Prohibitively expensive and subject to rapid decay, the technology is estimated as still having many years of development ahead of it before it could be used on a widespread basis. Leonard Styles releases another flat-scan photo essay showing the effects of the Green Plague on the hardest-hit Sectors, stating "I wanted to put a human face to an epidemic that most citizens would rather ignore." When ISDN runs the essay, the Nephilim Relief Fund sees a fifty million credit increase in donations over the course of the following week. Basic Edible, the Confederation’s largest supplier of foodstuffs, loses 10 of its 40 agricultural planetary operations due to plague quarantine and Nephilim attacks. Rations on both staple and luxury foods are put into effect by the Confederation. The black-market for edibles skyrockets. A holo-vid event entitled "Plague" is cancelled by order of the Confederation government in light of the epidemic. Although the Terran Confederation Broadcasting Network protests that it is purely fiction, they agree to pull the feature starring Morgana Carr. |
| 2685 | A number of new fighter craft designed to counter the Nephilim threat first enter service, including the Confederation Hurricane-II, the UBW Predator heavy fighter and the Kilrathi Dralthi-IX. Private militias and mercenaries also benefit, receiving the first new significantly upgraded variants of the F-27 Arrow-V, F-44 Rapier-II and A-17 Broadsword designs. The Nephilim continue their push into Vega Sector with Confederation units meeting and eventually establishing a defensive line in the Douglas Quadrant from Planck's Star through Vega, though not before the Nephilim push into Sol as far as Sirius. The First Battle of Warsaw is fought this year; TCS Jutland is destroyed during the course of the battle. To save their worlds from certain destruction, several member worlds of the Union of Border Worlds surrender to the invaders, who subsequently occupy their territory. The remaining forces of the Outerworlds Reserve Fleet flee into Confederation space at McAuliffe. Local militias shoot down ships fleeing quarantined systems as they enter Argent Sector. Although the militiamen responsible are indicted, they are viewed as heroes in their home Sector and hidden from extradition. Over forty systems scattered throughout the Sol, Vega, Trk’Pahn, and Gemini sectors are quarantined and blockaded by a coalition of official Confederation and conscripted local militia vessels. Supplies are delivered to the afflicted areas with unmanned expendable drones. The death toll from the Plague tops the 200,000,000 mark. Sol Governor Cavazos is assassinated by terrorists while en route to a conference on the status of reconstruction efforts following the initial stages of the Nephilim conflict. A security leak within Bartok Industries reveals to ISDN and other representatives of the press that cloaking technology had been developed by the company and utilized for a number of TCIA craft; the technology was described as "stable on both large and small scales". No explanation of what “large and small scale” meant, but the implication that consistent and reliable cloaking technology was in active service made for a huge media buzz. Although no further details were forthcoming from Bartok or the Confederation government, this marked the first public admission of stable Confederation cloaking technology. Rein Ertrobs releases the final chapter of his popular Darkening fantasy series. Although critics are mixed in their blessings of Ertrob’s works, no one could deny the impact it had on the population: the hardprint is immediately unavailable and the publisher’s transmission hub crashes due to the crush of customers. |
| 2686 | TCS Indomitable, first of her class and first of the battlecruisers, is launched. The Confederation begins mass production of these powerful warships. TCS Port Broughton, tenth and last of the Midway-class, is commissioned. All other previously ordered Midway-class ships are cancelled in favor of Indomitable-class battlecruisers and Behemoth-class dreadnoughts. As the first Indomitable-class ships make it to the front lines, the Nephilim advance is finally halted in Vega. Unexpectedly, however, the Nephilim open up a front in the relatively undefended and plague-weakened Clarke Quadrant of the Gemini Sector. Perry Naval Station is destroyed late in the year. CVCS researchers finally isolate the Green Plague; extensive tests begin on non-intrusive antibody delivery systems. Gemini Sector is the hit hardest by the virus due in part to the distribution of contraband Nephilim technology via pirate and mercenary activity. All jump points out of the Sector are blockaded and drones are utilized to send in supply shipments. Although a marked slowdown in the spread of the plague is noted, total casualties (after incorporating Kilrathi estimates) pass the 600,000,000 mark. The new Sol Sector Governor, Yoshida Grider, is elected on a platform of growth and reform. The foundations of what would become the CCSP (Confederation Citizen Subsidy Program), a group designed for the organized expansion and solidification of Confederation influence, are laid in secret with Governor Grider driving the program.
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| 2687 |
The KAC launches KAS Kiranka, the first Kilrathi battlecruiser. The design of the ship is partially based on the design of the war-era Hakaga-class carrier. 80% of Gemini Sector’s remaining systems are non-responsive to any communications. Drone transport shipments continue despite the lack of communication. |
| 2688 | Strike on G#38KMSx-Red. Confederation-based militia groups briefly manage to take control of the Valgard wormhole, using it to strike at a Nephilim installation on its far terminus with a group of sixteen Rapier-II Vanguards. While all sixteen craft are ultimately destroyed, they successfully manage to destroy over 2,000 Nephilim fighter singlehandedly, a kill ratio of about 129-to-1. Militia forces remain in control of the Epsilon terminus of the wormhole for the next three years. Sporadic reports from Landreich Sector indicate that the Free Republic has come under heavy attack by Nephilim forces. Both the Confederation and Union of Border Worlds governments choose not to divert any military forces to investigate these reports. TCS Tripoli disappears while on patrol in the Antares Quadrant of the Epsilon Sector; she is declared missing in action and presumed lost. Mass inoculation against the Nephilim Virus begins in earnest. Emergency teams are sent to key systems in Gemini to evaluate the damage and to assist survivors. The economic and social impact involved with the loss of Gemini’s cultural and industrial resources forces the fledgling CCSP to re-evaluate its strategy for future pioneering efforts. A bomb kills Ra’Khaj’s wife and children; it is later discovered that a Clan Juk’Teth assassin set the bomb. Ra’Khaj disappears from public life leaving a public statement that simply says: “My clan must discover the internal truths of our forebears in an atmosphere undiluted by the corruption brought to our souls by both the Confederation and its pets in the KAC.” Saranya Carr dies in a collision with an asteroid. Millions mourn; Morgana Carr gives her eulogy at a funeral ceremony with over 500,000 attendees. |
| 2689 | H. Maximilian Kruger, the president of the Free Republic of the Landreich for over thirty years, dies while still in office. An emergency vote leads to the presidency of Daniel W. Galbraith, who pursues a policy of confrontation against the other major Terran governments due to their failure to act against Nephilim incursions in the Landreich. Galbraith closes the Landreich's borders to all military and civilian traffic, severing the Free Republic's diplomatic ties with both the Confederation and the Union of Border Worlds. The Confederation announces the effective eradication of the Green Plague; all Sectors, Quadrants and systems have stores of the vaccine in place. The final death toll from the disease is estimated at 725 million. Gemini Sector suffered the most casualties both from the virus and a lack of support during the quarantine; it is discovered that Zahne and Dokuga pirate clan raiders were looting and picking off the drone transports sent to deliver foods, fuels and medicines. It is announced by the Confederation that Gemini will remain under tight military control until a plan for reclamation and reconstruction can be put into place. A second attempt is made to destroy the construction reef on the other end of the Proxima Wormhole. A battlecruiser task group centered on TCS Brazen is sent through the gate with bomber elements from TCS Ptoloman's Rift and local In-Sys militia supporting. The attack is successful with the militia Warpig-variant Broadswords ultimately making the kill shot. Though the task group sustains significant bomber losses, the Confederation manages for the first time to establish its own beachhead in Nephilim territory. Lightgate racing, formerly an underground sporting event, is brought to the mainstream as a new TCBN holo-vid program. |
| 2690 | Confederation Marine forces operating on the far side of the Proxima wormhole score an intelligence coup by successfully capturing a Barracuda-class corvette. The Marines bring back a wealth of data, some of which takes Confederation analysts years to decrypt. This information leads to the knowledge of the Nephilim's self-designation as the "Allied Peoples" and (more importantly) the exact location of the Nephilim homeworld as well as the far end termini points of wormhole gates in local space. Through this data, Confed and Kilrathi-allied strategists make the capture of the Hhallas wormhole a primary strategic goal. A lull in the war gives the Confederation some much-needed respite. Sightings of Nephilim forces in Vega and Gemini are sporadic during the year, allowing the Confederation to reclaim several key systems. Military planners warn, however, that the Nephilim may simply be gathering their forces for an all-out attack. Gemini Sector forces are largely able to push the Nephilim out of the Sector, but the damage has been done: Gemini is effectively abandoned by the end of the year. AMQ Chemical announces it has developed a regenerative polymer that sustains the bonding within Nanofab structures. Although limited to high-density “cement”-, “ceramic”- and “metal”-style substances, the firm believes simulated wood and other highly porous materials will be supported in a short period of time. AMQ readily admits that this does not solve the problem of Nanofab decay but does provide a stopgap solution that could indefinitely sustain a given structure’s integrity with repeated treatments. In Firekka a group of reformists bent on pushing a new military to protect Firekkan systems wins an unprecedented election, one that dethrones the old guard of spiritual flock leaders. |
| 2691 | The Nephilim launch their most massive fleet to date following the discovery of a Steltek derelict in the Epsilon Sector. Simultaneously, new wormhole gates with accompanying Kraken squadrons open in heavily populated Confederation systems including Torgo, Tamayo, Enyo, Weslyn and Beacon. Militia forces are able to collapse most of the new gates, but the Kraken fleet in Torgo proves to be too much for local defense forces and the Confederation is forced to order the evacuation of the system. In a delaying action, it is KAS Vrax'hmal that fends off the Nephilim forces long enough for the transport groups to escape.
“tHE lOVE aNIMALS” reunite to do a war tour; they are killed in a Nephilim attack. Uil Yth’s guitar is saved and becomes an object of pilgrimage for fans. |
| 2692 | The Nephilim move freely through the bulk of Confederation space for most of the year, ignoring some planets while devastating others; they do not penetrate to Earth though Confederation forces take massive losses in Sol's defense. Subsequent intelligence reports indicate that the Nephilim are searching for crystalline artifacts of Steltek origin. Cohesive defensive lines are re-established in Sol Sector late in the year. TCS Mistral Sea is destroyed in the Gwynedd system while in support of an action to establish a defensive line in Enigma Sector. After analysis of previous engagements and exposure to the Green Plague, new weapons are developed to attack the Nephilim's organic ships. In a controversial move mollified only due to the substantial damage the Nephilim had already inflicted against civilian infrastructure, modified bioweaponry designed to be deployed using missiles and torpedoes is authorized by the Confederation Grand Assembly. The first bio-tipped weapons reach frontline units by the end of the year. Utilizing recovered and decontaminated Nephilim technology, Professor Sparks' theories are proven. A signal is sent from the Spielberg system in the Enigma Sector to New Atlantis in the Avalon Sector instantly utilizing prototype “data nodes” that are partially synched to the jump signature of the respective jump points. |
| 2693 | Confederation forces begin making headway against the Nephilim, securing the local end of the Torgo wormhole gate by the end of the year and liberating the occupied Union of Border Worlds by .237, though not without taking significant losses. In the Sirius system, 40% of the Confederation’s standing fleet is lost in a single battle (Second Warsaw) in an as of yet unexplained conflagration. TCS Bataan is declared missing in action and presumed lost while on patrol near Trafalgar. Ra’Khaj comes into direct conflict with Confederation forces. He unveils a Hvar'kann-class dreadnought, a type of Kilrathi vessel not seen in Confederation space for almost thirty years. Unnamed Confederation agents working in the TCIA defeat him. Ra’Khaj escapes Confederation space to parts unknown with the remnants of his Clan. The Guinterin Combine announces its merger with AMQ Research at the first public Nanofab demonstration. Within a matter of five minutes a single-story living complex is built on top of a foundation replete with all structural amenities. Critics call it the “death of craftsmanship”, while supporters contend that it will only raise the intrinsic value of handcrafted items. |
| 2694 | Confederation forces begin making significant headway against the Nephilim. In a last ditch attempt to hold their ground against the Confederation Fleet, the Nephilim surge forward once again to Sirius, largely catching the Confederation's rearguard by surprise. Improvised tactics on the part of General Dirk Wright, commander of the 12th fleet, lead to a Nephilim defeat at Third Warsaw. TCS Port Broughton fights a delaying action in the Corsair system to stave off a Nephilim encroachment on Firekkan territory long enough for the combined 18th Fleet to arrive. Though successful in holding off the Nephilim encroachment, Port Broughton takes critical damage in and is eventually disabled. Facing an imminent boarding action, ship's CO Commodore Strevell reluctantly orders her to be abandoned and scuttled. Local militia forces salvage the ship's hulk by the end of the year. Commodore Patricia Drake is appointed head of the CCSP. She begins to organize military and corporate strategy as well as the oversight of the distribution of systems for individual Corporate CCSP training facilities. |
| 2695 | The Ardai campaign: Having had tremendous successes in Vega Sector, Allied forces make the initial push towards securing the K'sktag wormhole, with the Confederation pushing through Freya, the Kilrathi through Hellespont and the Border Worlds supporting both elements. Significant resistance is not encountered until the groups reach the K'hrissak and H'rissth systems, at which point they are routed by the sheer number of Nephilim present. In a move later known as Zhrtx's Doublecross, the retreating carrier battle group centered on TCS Midway is pinned down in K'njKuru and is forced to jump to K'n'Khur. The pursuing Nephilim cut off the group's escape to K'ssak, trapping Midway and her escorts in a bottleneck that ends at Ardai. The carrier is ultimately extracted by the Lawrence battle group as well as through innovative thinking on the part of General Wright, who first comes up with the idea of using cloaked Paktahns during this campaign. Confederation forces regroup at Freya and Hellespont. A team of Hurston Dynamics researchers announces a prototype “skip drive” that is developed based upon research borne out of new communications relay technologies. Skip drives would allow faster-than-light travel through a series of relays or foci that a ship is accelerated between. As Dr. David Ghrol explained, “it's like dipping into white water rapids and being plucked out before you hit the rocks or go over a waterfall.” Although still impractical for intersystem travel, skip drives were on track to radically change notions of intra-system travel. Addressing the need for more laborers and service workers due to wartime losses, the Confederation Grand Assembly reverses a three-hundred year old law against the development of semi-sapient robotics with the stipulation that they “never achieve a level of intelligence or ability greater than the beasts of burden that have served Terrankind since the beginning of civilization.” While such technologies are being developed, the Assembly passes legislation allowing for the forced conscription of mercenary forces; commerce with military outposts drops off sharply a few weeks after this legislation is passed. The once-peaceful Firekkans aggressively pursue a program to bolster their military forces after the Nephilim conduct a series of raids into their systems. The Confederation sets up training facilities and assists the Firekkans in the acquisition and manipulation of resources necessary for the development of a standing militia. Morgana Carr puts her eggs on the market in a last ditch effort to recoup money needed for the payment of outstanding debts incurred during the making of the aborted sequel to Riva Jones: “Daughter of Destiny”. |
| 2696 | Allied forces drive the Nephilim from the Enigma, Vega and Trk'Pahn Sectors entirely. In retaliation for their losses and with Allied forces encroaching on Valgard, the Nephilim begin a series of vengeance strikes throughout Epsilon Sector; Antares Quadrant is particularly hard hit with multiple arcologies in the quadrant destroyed. Farragut Naval Station in Antares System is heavily damaged in the fighting this year, though the Nephilim fail to destroy the base; Farragut ultimately becomes the only Halsey-type space station to survive the conflict. In Argent Sector, the star in the Hardwicke System unexpectedly goes supernova. A number of ships travelling through the uninhabited system are destroyed and jump tunnels shift throughout the entire Sector; the Miller System in Shelus Quadrant is completely cut off from the Confederation's main jump point network as a result. Early reports suggest the blast was the result of a new Nephilim weapon. The HOTTs announce they have completed their placement of subspace beacons at all civilian-accessible jump points; they put out the call to all citizens to reserve thirty minutes of dedicated information analysis to assist in the search for Blair. Sealed archives on Black Lance technology become available via the Freedom of Data act. Taboo subjects such as bio-engineered wetware drones are covered in terrifying detail. The public spends an unprecedented number of credits on flat-scan bandwidth to view the archives. In response to recent legislation deregulating control of the development of intelligent robotics, a series of novels entitled “Path to Obsolescence” explore and inflame the public debate surrounding unchecked artificial intelligence. Although the Confederation government and subsidized corporations dismiss these fears, the novel’s author, Sophia Argent, defends the opposition to synthetic life by pointing out the loose language of the legislation, which does not place proper limits on the definition of “semi-sapient”. In a public address she is quoted as stating, “Beasts of burden can be construed as slave labor. If we could have trained oxen to construct and affix the yoke to their collective necks we would have. Should we forget what happened on the moon of Io in 2304 and the suffering caused by our relentless pursuit of convenience?” The Guinterin Combine, Paulsen Kinetics, Hurston Dynamics and Bartok Industries all announce new lines of “helper” and “worker” bots that can function with little or no guidance. The Confederation sets up a relationship with these corporations to provide these bots for the reconstruction of rich mining and agricultural planets left bare of life after the Green Plague. Although the Confederation lacks the resources to purchase the bots outright, they enter into an agreement that gives the involved corporations limited oversight on the planets, moons and asteroids upon which their “workers” are put to service. The Hurston Dynamics prototype skip drive ship is destroyed during a test run; engineers begin work to iron out flaws in the design. |
| 2697 | Allied forces continue to drive the Nephilim back into the Kilrah and Vukar Tag Sectors with some in-roads finally made into M'Shrak Sector. By the end of the year, the K'sktag wormhole gate finally falls under Allied control. The Landreich, looking for weaknesses in the Confederation lines near its border, sends a probing action to the Goddard system. Confederation forces turn back the Landreich probe over Steltka. The action is the first of several minor skirmishes between the Confederation and the Landreich over the next few decades. Following the deployment of drones, bots and other worker synths in support of reconstruction, the Confederation grants limited gubernatorial power to the involved corporations above and beyond that of the initial oversight offered previously. Paulsen Kinetics wrangles a patent on bioweaponry even though it is technically in the public domain. In particular the atmospheric delivery of mutagens (either harmful or beneficial) is explored for its potential to “pacify” wild planets. Hurston Dynamics unveils new remote probe technologies designed to locate and establish new jump routes between systems. When launched, the probe utilizes an internal reactor and primary sensor array to seek the nearest jump point signature. When it is within range, it partially submerges into jump space and then splits in half, sending the detached “bottom” through. If the probe has a valid connection in space, the second stage chassis detaches a secondary sensor array outside of jump space and transmits data back to the first stage causing both halves to act as limited data nodes. Persotech, a corporation based in Vega Sector, unveils its line of non-invasive body augmentation devices. Sporting the slogan “Life is Better”, their “head-to-toe” line of attachable components make use of a patented adhesive that bonds when an internal cooling unit is activated and detaches at body temperature. Their “Eye-Guide”, an ocular overlay that provides variable zoom, focus and frequency filtering controlled by both pupil and corneal distortion, is a particularly huge hit. Hillel Jackson, leader of the HOTT, dies when he steps out of an airlock to pursue what he believes is a vision of Commodore Blair. Without his leadership, the HOTT organization begins to fall apart into factionalized groups of bickering zealots. |
| 2698 | Reports are leaked to the general public regarding the existence of Nephilim death camps in the liberated Kilrah and Vukar Tag Sectors; early estimates indicated that anywhere from 11 to 17 billion Kilrathi and captured Confederation personnel had perished in the camps. The Nephilim are pushed from the Epsilon and Vukar Tag Sectors. In the middle of the year, the Nephilim make one final attempt to advance in Epsilon Sector; local militia in the Corsair system based off the hulk of Port Broughton successfully turn the Nephilim advance back. Shortly thereafter, Allied forces collapse the Valgard wormhole, ending the Nephilim threat in Epsilon Sector. Conditions within the Sector are so horrific, however, that the Confederation government orders a general withdrawal from the area, making subsequent assaults into M'Shrak Sector via Kilrah Sector. Galaxy First! protests bioweapons by placing a ship in a weapon's testing area. Although the Confederation craft present have no intention of harming the vessel, the protestors move it directly into the path of the Plunkett-class destroyer TCS Gleaves; the two vessels collide and a critical hull breach occurs on the Galaxy First! Vessel with the loss of all hands, including Morgana Carr, who was on board with several other celebrities. The fashion industry scrambles to take advantage of the popularity of the illegal practice of “modding”, which involves the “graft & splice” of Kilrathi, Firekkan and other non-Terran features onto Terrans. Fashion moguls unveil lines of lenses, “textureskin” sprays and other legal variants of the practice, which only serves to legitimize modding and brings the attention of the Confederation government. Persotech unveils its “Muscleskin” line of performance wear amidst growing concerns over the long-term effects of Eye-Guide and other Persotech augmentation devices. Complaints of a variety of symptoms are addressed at a meeting of the Confederation Business Oversight (CBO) committee to decide whether to commission an independent study of Persotech products. Persotech CEO Simon Drei objects to the complaints at the hearing and calls for the CBO to allow his company to conduct the investigation stating, “We promise to drill down and think outside the box in order to find proactive solutions to our customer’s issues. Negative roadblocks in the shape of ill-informed committees and independent researchers will only provide barriers to clear thinking.” The CBO unanimously votes to assign an independent research team to investigate the claims. After much corporate lobbying and criticism that the Confederation has not properly exploited new jump space communications technology, the Confederation government, in the name of Galactic security, commandeers the HOTT network and retrofits the relays to meet the data node specification laid out by Prof. Sparks and his team. Although there is some resistance by the varied and divided factions of the HOTTs, they are unable to provide a unified front and are discounted at subsequent Grand Assembly gatherings. |
| 2699 | After nearly twenty years of fighting, Allied forces finally take the Hhallas wormhole gate, driving the Nephilim out of Known Space and back to their home stars. The 34th Task Force centered on TCS Lawrence becomes the first group to penetrate all the way to the homeworlds of the Allied People, using Hurston Dynamics jump probes to quickly scout out jump routes in their home region. Seven star systems in the Antares Quadrant of Epsilon Sector break away from the Confederation. Under the leadership of Admiral Vanhecke and with the hulk of TCS Port Broughton as its seat of government, the new alliance of the systems styles itself the "New Confederation". In later years, the New Confederation becomes the de facto destination for civilians in Epsilon Sector displaced by the Nephilim conflict. The highly surreal bio holo-vid of Commodore Blair’s early career, entitled Wing Commander, is met with mixed reviews. Critics are harsh with one ISDN reviewer stating, “Simply because Rhond Klopommel lacked a fundamental understanding of jump space, fighter designs and basic Newtonian physics, we are forced to endure the fanciful flights of the artist as opposed to the hard history we were expecting to receive. This makes me long for the comfortable naïve romp of the “Luna Jones: Jumpscout” series. Blair deserves better and maybe one day he’ll receive just treatment.”
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| 2700 | Allied forces launch massive bioweaponry attacks on the home systems of the Allied Peoples in a series of actions reminiscent of Operation Back Lash 35 years prior; Nephilim shipbuilding is brought to a standstill. Simultaneously, Allied forces stage a massive bombardment of the Nephilim homeworld. Though irradiated to a near lifeless husk, an offer for surrender is not received until 2700.149, after the apparent suicide of most of the Nephilim leaders. The remaining Nephilim leaders travel to Kabla Meth under heavy guard aboard TCS Lawrence. Aboard TCS Norman, Confederation President Harrison rendezvous with Lawrence on 2700.222, with the Nephilim leaders signing a formal instrument of surrender later that same day; the Nephilim War is officially at an end.
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| 2701 | The CCSP, still operating under maximum security clearance, begins initial exploration of a new Sector accessible from a newly discovered jump point in the Tr’Pakh system in the Clarke Quadrant of the Gemini Sector. Military surveyors attached to TCS Buckley begin the task of charting the Sector and assigning Quadrant boundaries. The jump point into the new Sector is guarded by constant patrols. Meanwhile, CCSP officials begin plans for the re-colonization of Gemini Sector. The Hellespont system withdraws from the Union of Border Worlds, citing rising tariffs and increased government centralization. Before the Orestes and Peleus systems can follow suit, the UBW is forced to deploy the Outerworlds Reserve Fleet to Hellespont in a bid to keep the Union from collapsing entirely. Planet Scorpion in the Fiddler's Green system experiences a tungsten rush; nearly overnight, the local population grows to over one million. The largely lawless settlements in the system remain profitable for the next ten years, until the tungsten unexpectedly dries up and prospectors move out for greener pastures. The Kraven Mk. I laser system is introduced. While power-intensive and having a tendency to overheat, the Kraven laser proves to be a vast improvement over more traditional laser systems in terms of raw destructive capability. Former Commodore Julia Novak is elected into the seat vacated by Governor Rayak. She pledges to stay the course on policies spearheaded by Rayak while strengthening the military she served for so many years. Although the halt on Persotech devices has been in place for a full year, grey and black-market sales continue. Thirty separate incidents involving individuals going on murderous rampages are reported in multiple Border Worlds and Confederation fringe systems. In each case, Persotech devices were found to not only track thoughts but modify them as well. The CBO issues its findings in regards to the Persotech thought-mining incident and demands a recall of all Persotech branded products at cost to the company. Following the tragic murder sprees, the Confederation demands Simon Drei’s arrest. Regenerative structural materials are developed by Bartok industries utilizing previously sealed Black Lance technical specifications. Prohibitively expensive to reproduce and requiring a zero-g factory environment, they still mark a step forward in structural and vehicular safety. Bartok Industries CEO Quentin Wood is able to procure a record level of subsidization after demonstrating the material’s abilities at a Confederation military conference. Wood hints at other pet projects, including structures and vehicles that could potentially store excess energy in a manner similar to animal fat cells. DigitalHolovid releases the final vid in which Morgana Carr starred, No Mercy. Written by Aaron Dunbar and co-starring Keenan Weaver and Clint Mason, the fictional "true story" biopic is a re-telling of Antun Zharovic's classic holo-vid Crusader from the perspective of Vilmar, one of the original story's protagonists. The vid is a financial success despite mediocre reviews, reaping in nearly ¤100 million in its opening weekend. The vid's success is largely attributed to Carr's death. |
| 2702 | The second stage team of the CCSP begins surveying potential jump points leading into the new Sector (christened "Hope") located in Avalon Sector. After disappearing into hiding for two years following the release of Wing Commander, Rhond Klopommel regains public favor with the introduction of UMuse, a device that makes use of an individual's personality to generate music. Developed initially in conjunction with Persotech and later with the Guinterin Combine, the device is designed to parse an individual's current “state of mind” via the use of a neural impulse scanner, which creates a profile of the individual that is tied to elaborate matrices of musical styles, modes and instrumentation. The user can then further shape the resultant output by listening to the music and thinking about what they like or dislike as it plays, causing secondary and tertiary scans that shape the sound closer to what the person wishes to hear. An instant hit, it creates a new type of musical celebrity: RDs, "real deals", which stood in opposition to the sculptured producer-driven music that had ruled the industry for centuries. The most popular musical artifact to result from the device was a volume of pieces scanned from inmates in the maximum-security prison facility in the Torgo System; entitled “Darkness Brought to Light”, it was singlehandedly responsible for the sales of over 40,000,000 units of the UMuse system. After the declaration of the Kilrah, Vukar Tag and M'Shrak Sectors as safe for re-colonization, the Kilrathi begin an attempt to re-settle their native territory; they find few remaining habitable worlds with many of them utterly stripped of resources. A hearty few colonists, though, are able to re-establish a Kilrathi presence in the area. |
| 2703 | Galnet is completed and brought on-line. Based upon legacy HOTT beacons and further Confederation development, the network provides the fastest inter-system communications and information exchange developed to date, connecting even the most remote systems. The CCSP, still operating in secret, accelerates its program to take advantage of the new network. |
| 2704 | With the completion of Galnet, the Confederation government announces that a new program called Safety-Net is to go live in the early part of the year, requiring its installation on all operational craft whether new or already in service. All ships that contain the Safety-Net chipset are identified and tracked throughout Confederation space. The Safety-Net system is designed to prevent friendly fire accidents as well as to crack down on pirate raiders and smugglers in civilized areas. Several hacks for the chipset are almost immediately discovered on captured pirate and smuggling vessels, which might have gone undetected were it not for the fact that they decided to use their weapons; when an energy signature matching weapons fire of any type is detected in a Safety-Net area and it does not come from an authorized craft, Confederation patrols are immediately alerted, the coordinates of the incident uploaded and sent to investigate. Though universally unpopular, a notable drop in pirate activity occurs after Safety-Net is implemented.
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| 2705 | Hurston Dynamics makes a second set of skip drive tests; these tests proceed far more smoothly, though the developers still believe it will be a few years before skip drives can be rendered reliable enough to release to the general market. The CCSP is unveiled by the Confederation in a simulcast holo-vid and flatscan announcement. The call for volunteers is put out to the civilian populace, including youth seeking a college education; within 24 hours the CCSP is inundated with over 10,000,000 applicants. Details of the program show a joint effort by several corporations, including Basic Edible, Comalco, Guinterin Combine, Bartok Industries, Hurston Dynamics and Paulsen Kinetics, to provide resources and training for CCSP participants. The Guinterin Combine cruise disaster lawsuit is finally settled with an undisclosed credit payout to the survivors and families of victims. The settlement also lays out new specifications that all cruise ships must meet; the inclusion of limited offensive weaponry and more stringent armor requirements requires Guinterin to retrofit their remaining ships and begin construction of newer models before they can resume service. Comalco unveils nanofab-based silicate mining and refining processors as part of their new "Settlers" line of CCSP oriented products. They promise nanofab mining, refining and energy structures based on GuinterinAMQ tech for all supported materials in as little as two years. |
| 2706 | An assessment of pirate and Kilrathi raider threat levels in Gemini and Hope Sector indicates more and more activity throughout the frontier region. Although Gemini Sector is relatively well guarded, the CCSP program finally submits to a policy of allowing CCSP participants in Hope Sector to own and operate armed craft in the region. After twenty years, the Guinterin Combine resumes civilian cruise ship service; their new ships sport thick armor and enough defensive weaponry to put them on par with an average Confederation corvette. Sol Governor Julia Novak is elected to a second term in a landslide victory against former AMQ CEO Howard Lee. Lee, an outspoken advocate for corporate deregulation, vows to never give up fighting for "a strong Confederation not bogged down by outdated notions of big government meddling in the affairs of its citizens." |
| 2707 | Border World terrorists hijack one of Guinterin’s new cruise ships, SS Humboldt’s Destiny; her crew is spaced in the Seggalion system and the ship's passengers are held hostage. When the Confederation military catches up with the vessel, they find it has been fitted with a series of armaments including illegal bioweapon technology. The patrol to find the ship is destroyed shortly after it communicates this information to the Confederation fleet. Photographic journalist Leonard Styles is reported as killed in action covering the Confederation assault to re-take the hijacked Humboldt’s Destiny. At his funeral service a week later in Styles' home system, ISDN Chief Editor Illyana Neuman comments, "Styles work will be remembered long after I and the individuals documented in his work are forgotten. It is a rarity to see such dedication and devotion in a journalist these days and I hope his work will inspire a new generation of photographers to distill the magic and mayhem of the human condition into such vivid, beautiful, undeniable truths." The CCSP takes the veil off of the Gemini Sector after years of official secrecy. The corporations taking part in the reconstruction activities in Gemini have rebuilt key systems in each Quadrant - specifically Troy, Nexus, Perry and Junction - to act as training facilities. |
| 2708 | Settlement of the Hope Sector is publicly announced by representatives of the CCSP; a series of Confederation systems with basic facilities present are revealed to already be in place for use as CCSP training facilities. Problems between the Border Worlds, the Confederation and the issue of Kilrathi refugees begin to boil over as multiple systems begin talks of secession. Leonard Styles makes a dramatic reappearance bearing the images and testimonials of the Border Worlds "terrorists" who initiated the cruise ship hijacking; the details of his undercover investigation lead to the re-opening of talks between the Confederation and UBW assembly members and an independent committee is formed to examine the claims of each group. A marathon emergency session of the UBW's Ruling Council seeks to hammer out an agreement that will satisfy all sides involved. Styles takes the opportunity to announce his involvement in documenting the CCSP program in the Gemini and Hope sectors. |
| 2710 | Vel Ricaud, who would one day found Ricaud Planetary, is born on Janus IV in the Isaac System. |
| 2712 | A flotilla of Kilrathi refugees arrives in the Tyr System claiming to have been forced out of M’Shrak Sector by Clan Kiranka forces being led by Ra’Khaj. This information follows a three year blackout of detailed Kilrathi societal data by the KCA, who subsequently denies the flotilla’s claims by releasing a statement: "The KCA is in full control of this situation. The extremist Ra’Khaj has not been a threat to KCA authority or Kilrathi citizens since his cowardly exit in the face of Confederation might." The refugees respond angrily, pointing out records on board their craft that prove Clan Kiranka strikes at the heart of their home systems in the K’Sath’Que Quadrant. Anti-Kilrathi Border Worlders protest the presence of the flotilla and call for it to be turned back into Kilrathi space; sapient rights groups take the opposite perspective. Tyr Managing Officiate Kirstin Farn offers the refugees asylum on the system's main agricultural planet until the issues can be resolved. |
| 2713 | A second flotilla of over thirty Kilrathi transports and personal craft arrive in the Silenos System, claiming the same persecution as the first. Silenos’ Managing Officiate, Donald Reise, orders the refugees back into the plague-abandoned Kilrathi system of Valgard. After sapient rights groups protest, Silenos provides the flotilla with enough vaccine in case they are exposed to the Green Plague. This flotilla provides more evidence of Ra’Khaj acting without restraint in the M’Shrak Sector. Confederation inquiries into the true state of affairs are met with more denial and roadblocks from the KAC, who maintain their stance that everything is under control. |
| 2715 | Hurston Dynamics begins to offer consumer skip drives in several test systems in Sol Sector. “We have the network set up and now we need the ships. We look forward to having a skip drive network established throughout Confederation space by the end of the decade.” |
| 2718 | After years of silence, a message is relayed from the KAC to the Confederation from Ra’Khaj. Written in a Kilrathi dialect unused for a century, it outlines his demands for the liberation of the Kilrathi from their Confederation oppressors and the elimination of all traitors to Kilrathi honor. A timeline of three years is given for the KAC to comply with his demands. |
| 2719 | Hurston Dynamics successfully tests a reliable skip drive design. In the interest of maintaining border security, the Confederation Grand Assembly quickly passes legislation that forces the technology to be sold strictly to the military, foiling the company's plans to begin offering consumer-grade skip drives to the general public. |
| 2721 | A terrorist attack destroys the Kilrathi colony on Hhallas, killing 300,000 Kilrathi; the attack is traced back to Ra’Khaj's forces. One month later, a task force of Confederation battlecruisers, newly equipped with operational skip drives, occupies and secures every system in the M'Shrak Sector simultaneously in a massive show of force. Ra’Khaj nar Ghoran is caught at a jump point and killed while attempting to escape the Sorn System; his death marks the end of major Kilrathi internecine warfare for the duration of the 28th Century, though sporadic fighting amongst the Kilrathi continues. |
| 2722 | The Confederation Navy begins stationing its ships near jump points; with skip drives and the Galnet network, this policy gives the existing fleet tremendous flexibility. Elements of any size - including the entire Confederation fleet - can arrive in troubled regions within minutes. Pirate attacks in frontier sectors such as Gemini and Hope decrease significantly after this policy is put in place and the Confederation government is largely able to restore order to the war-torn Vega, Trk’Pahn and Epsilon Sectors. |
| 2725 | In a move reminiscent of Commodore Matthew Perry's visit to Japan 900 years earlier, a group of Confederation battlecruisers centered on TCS Manhattan skips straight to the Landreich System. Admiral Santo Mokuami delivers a message from Confederation President Chao demanding that the government of the Free Republic re-open their borders to trade. After a brief standoff, the Landreich's leadership agrees and formal relations between the major Terran spheres resume. Confederation exploration of Wild Space begins in earnest, starting with the colonization and settlement of Hope Sector. |
| 2735 | Ricaud Planetary, a Tri-System-based shipping corporation, is founded. |
| 2740 | The twin sons of Vel Ricaud, Vel II and Sar, are born on Janus IV. |
| 2750 | A shrewd businessman, Vel Ricaud begins to devote some of his company's resources towards clandestine and downright illegal activities, with the goal of enhancing his profits; this is the beginning of the Tri-System criminal organization known as the Kindred. |
| 2770 | Vel Ricaud II is diagnosed with amniotrophic ossecular degeneration. With no cure available, his father arranges for him to be placed in a custom cryo-pod until a cure can be developed; Jan Mitorr of Crius oversees the operation. Shortly thereafter, Vel Ricaud's wife dies. |
| 2772 | Vel Ricaud dies; his son Sar takes control of his company. Over the next twenty years, Ricaud Planetary's legitimate operations are overshadowed by their criminal enterprises to the point where the legitimate corporation largely disappears from the public view. |
| 2790 | Sar Ricaud, by this time addicted to the anti-aging drug Revive, becomes increasingly irrational and paranoid; his ability to make crucial decisions is questioned. His chief lieutenants Malakai and Rhinehart arrange for Vel Ricaud II's cryo-pod to be brought to Crius aboard the cargo ship Canera so that Vel Ricaud's rightful heir can take over the company. Canera is attacked and crash-lands at the Mendra Spaceport on planet Crius, resulting in the deaths of all aboard. Vel Ricaud II's cryo-pod is on the ship when it goes down; he survives the crash but suffers from anterior amnesia after his revival due to his long cryo-sleep. Doctors Janna Frevel and Yvan Loomis of Crius Hospital oversee the initial stages of his recovery under the assumption that his name is "Lev Arris", a name found on the side of the cryo-pod. In a subsequent assassination attempt on Ricaud, Dr. Frevel is killed. With the assistance of CIS officer David Hassan, Vel Ricaud II regains his memories late in the year and takes control of the Kindred from his brother Sar with the intent of ending the Kindred's illicit activities. |
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