The Corporate Wars
As the world began to face an economic cataclysm due to the starvation of fossil fuels worldwide, the time came for an upgrade to a new fuel source. Fusion, the most efficient method of generating energy at the time, became the new standard, and allowed humanity to colonize Mars and Venus, as well as a number of Jupiter’s moons. During this colonization period, and in order to survive the economic downfall of the Earth, numerous powerful corporations and companies banded together to form mega-corporate empires and consolidate their power. As the diversity of product distributors began to disappear, the collective industries of entire countries came under the ownership of one corporation or another, and in time the nationality of these countries began to diminish. Eventually, a new World War erupted.
In the wake of this event, many different governments banded together, abolishing their borders in order to unify their strength under the promise of world peace as a one world nation. The mega-corporations of the time took the opportunity to take control of the colonies in space and two new super-factions arose: Terra-Venus and the Mars Foundation. At the end of the world war, earth became united under the one world super-power: The Federation of Earth.
With Earth subjugated under the rule of this new democracy, The Federation turned its attention towards the colonies on Mars and Venus, launching an assault against them with the intention of “liberating the colonists that had become enslaved by corporate rebels.” The war lasted for nearly a decade, and at the end of it The Federation of Earth conquered nearly every colony. However, due to the immense power of Terra-Venus and the Mars Foundation, laws were instituted allowing mega-corporations the right to continued free-enterprise.
During this re-unification, several “sleeper” ships were launched into deep space with the intention of colonizing Sirius and Centauri systems. By the time they arrived at their destinations, however, nearly a century had passed, and significant new developments in space transportation had happened. Gravity induction had become the new method of propulsion. The discovery and power to harness “gravitons” became the ultimate achievement in clean and efficient energy conversion. This allowed for amazing new developments in technology, as well as new expeditions to Sirius and Centauri.
During this century “mecha,” which had been employed ever since the initial corporate rebellion during the last world war, eventually became the standard unit of military force and saw applications in almost every industry and combat situation. Because of their versatility and application, a new mega-corporate super-power was formed within the Federation of Earth known as Sol-TECH Industries. Sol-TECH, however, was merely a front for the political takeover staged by a small, but immensely powerful anti-federal faction calling itself “The Free Earth Alliance.” The FEA fed on the subtle resentment that the colonists on Mars and Venus felt for the Federation, promising them independence with their support of their coup against the Federation. Because Sol-TECH was the primary developer of mecha at the time, they maintained technological battlefield supremacy, and with superior trained pilots and strategies, as well as support from the colonies, it was only a short time before the Federation collapsed, and Sol-TECH Industries became the new supreme power.
Once again corporations were given the power to reign independently of any established government, and Sol-TECH, for the most part, came through on their side of the bargain by allowing the reinstatement of the independent governments on Terra-Venus and Mars Foundation. However, Sol-TECH was ultimately corrupted by their possession of superior mecha and weapons, and it was not long before the colonists once again suffered, only this time under economic pressure from Earth. Enraged by ridiculous taxation and fees placed on essential resources, a terrorist organization calling itself “Anti-Earth” gathered immense support from criminal organizations and under-the-table deals with mega-corporate Mars and Venus. They sent numerous “ghost” cyber-op units into Earth’s territories in order to assassinate or harass Sol-TECH Industries. By the end of only one year, they had managed to nearly cripple their mecha productions on Earth, and had captured numerous warships and battle-stations in orbit of Earth. A new war was beginning.
Besides the terrorism by Anti-Earth, Sol-TECH industries had also undergone a schism within its ranks as it divided into two separate corporate factions: Trinity Enterprises and Soltauri-Tech Industries. Trinity gained its support from Sirius System, which felt that the unnecessary economic oppression of the colonies should stop, and that Earth should make amends in order to keep the peace. Soltauri-Tech gained its support from Centauri System, who felt that the greed of the colonies was irrelevant compared to the threat of the Anti-Earth terrorist group. For a short time it seemed as if Soltauri-Tech, which had the full support of the Free Earth Alliance at first, would win out over Trinity Enterprises, who were opposed by both the Earth Alliance and the Anti-Earth organization. However, the assassination of the Earth Alliance’s main representative allowed for a representative from Trinity Enterprises to step into power, promising new everlasting peace with the colonies and the total defeat of the Anti-Earth group. The former representative had strong ties with Soltauri-Tech, and due to the strong presence of Soltauri-Tech forces in outer-space as opposed to on Earth, it was Soltauri-Tech that took the full brunt of the war with Anti-Earth. Soltauri-Tech integrated itself into Trinity Enterprises as a subsidiary entity in order to survive the war, and at the same time, the Free Earth Alliance, under new diplomatic leadership, managed to sway the remaining Federal military factions to unify with the Alliance, forming a new super-power: The Confederate Earth Alliance. A confederation as opposed to a federal government appealed to both sides, as well as the colonists. Anti-Earth quickly began to lose support from its former allies, and was eventually defeated in a final battle waged in Earth’s orbit.
The Stellar Expansion Era
Following this final unification of human occupied space, a decree of total military pacifism was put out by the Confederation, and all military weapons were destroyed. A new peace-keeper force was created under the control of the Confederation called "The Unity Space Force." Humanity entered a new peaceful era of technological advancement, and space colonization that lasted for almost five centuries. Humans encountered numerous species in their explorations, but none of them harbored much intelligence.
The Cybernet saw its birth during this era, rapidly replacing the internet. Advancements in cybernetic nano-technology allowed for the near immortalization of human minds within computers through the preservation of the brain after death. Cybercities were formed within cyberspace where humans could live in a digital world for as long as they pleased. Then, one day, a terrible computer virus was released into the cybernet, and billions of people died as a digital-plague cut a swath through humanity. More and more users of cybernetic implants died to this virus every year, until a cure was found through the invention of a computer AI designed to cleanse the cybernet of the machine code responsible for this epidemic. These simple AI’s eventually evolved into the complex automated security of the cybernet called “network spiders” or “nano-spiders." Because of the almost complete downfall of cybernet, however, the internet saw a resurgence of popularity during this era, and that popularity still exists today.
The Gene Wars
At the height of this era a secret war emerged between Trinity Enterprises and its rival the Gemini Corporation involving new advancements being made in bio-technology. By this time, genetic engineering had crossed a threshold that made it possible to compete with the advancements being made in cybernetic technology. Through a process called "gene-therapy" it was possible to modify the human genome in any number of ways, producing new off-shoots of the human species. These hybrid "gene-hacked" as they were called, quickly began to spread as the influence of gene-therapy took over the consumer market and became available to the public. At first the changes were limited to merely cosmetic differences, but in time, as the shadow war being waged between the cybernetic industry and the bio-engineering industry became intense, the human genome began to degrade.
Generations of new gene-hacked were being born, and with each new modification the human genome became more and more diverse. Competition between Gemini Corp. and Trinity Enterprises became fierce. When Taisho Mitsukaima, the president of Gemini Corp. was assassinated in the seventh year of the race for market supremacy, the battle became open war. Completely ignoring public statements given by the Unity Space Force to disarm and stand-down, Trinity and Gemini unleashed their terrible secret weapons against one another in open defiance of the government. It seemed as if the comfortable peace that had been enjoyed for centuries was about to come to a shattering end.
Gemini advertised to the citizens of humanity, offering them the gift of "evolution" if they sided with them against Trinity Enterprises. Trinity Enterprises countered by offering gross discounts and liscences to purchase the newest cybernetics being offered by Trinity Enterprises at the time to those siding with them against Gemini. Although officially neither side had the legal right to declare war, it was unspoken that the two factions were engaged in one, as both sides formed powerful criminal syndicates to fight for them. Space piracy became an overwhelming issue, and the trade-lanes became a battlefield. The Unity Space Force increased salaries and encouraged millions to enlist, and independant ship-owners were lisenced by the Confederacy to put an end to all the piracy. Bounty-hunters, mercenaries, privateers, and freelancers flourished during this time, and the corporate war became nothing but a free-for-all to see who would come out on top.
Then, quite abruptly, the war ended. Because of a mistake made on the part of Gemini Corp. incriminating evidence was made public knowledge revealing the inhuman experimentation that was going on in their secret test facilities. Gemini Corp. was shut down almost instantly. The company split apart into four subsidary entities known as Freya-Borlan Pharmaceuticals, Neo-Taisho Bio-technologies, Mars Proto-genetics, and Jasper Permanente. However, a distinct breed of gene-hacked had emerged by the end of the war that only bore a remote resemblance to normal humans. In fact, their genome had become so distinct that it had become impossible for them to mate with anyone outside of their own breed. They faced terrible prejudices for almost a century, and when it seemed as if the Confederacy could do nothing to put and end to the horrible acts of persecution, it was decided that for their own well-being they should be exiled from known space.
The gene-hacked were henceforth considered an alien species and given the name "Nekojin" which had been the name of the first off-shoot known to emerge during the Gene-Wars. They were given seven colony ships equiped for deep-space exploration and cryogenically frozen for the journey. Some remained behind, but were forced into hiding in order to avoid persecution. Those who left settled the band of stars now known as "The Nekojin Territories," and have prospered on their own ever since.
The Age of Ascension
By the end of the “inter-stellar expansion” period, humanity had colonies in almost 30 star systems, and had settlements on more than a hundred different planets. It was at the height of this expansion that humanity first encountered sentient life outside itself. The Nephyr were the first advanced alien life-forms humans learned of, and the secret was guarded closely by the border colonies for several years. Eventually this secret became irrelevant when an advanced fleet of Nephyrexian warships entered orbit of Earth, declared war, and immediately demanded humanity’s surrender. The Confederation had no choice but to come to terms with the Nephyr, lest the Earth, the ancestral home-world of humanity, be completely annihilated. The terms were found to be acceptable, however, and the Confederate government was abolished to make way for humanity’s formal inception into the collective “Commonwealth” of the "Ascension."
The Ascension as it is known, was made up of many numerous other space-faring species that had crossed an evolutionary threshold in the form of magical awakening. Over the next century, humanity began its own “Ascension.” In accordance with the Laws of Ascension, weak races which resorted to violence when it was not approved by the Nephyrexian Dynasty would not be recognized as superior races, and may even find themselves exiled for their crimes if they refused to abide by Ascension law. Humans initially found these laws oppressive and the religious aspect of their origins extremely taboo. But with little choice in the matter, and facing annihilation by the Nephyr if they refused, humanity was forced to come to terms with itself as one of the weaker races in the multiverse.
One of the biggest contributors to this case was due to the fact that humanity was mostly unaware of the existence of magic as a real palpable force and lacked any means to harness it with science. Because of this, humanity was incapable of many of the technological miracles that "arcanika," the arcane science of the Ascension, allowed the Nephyrexian Dynasty to demonstrate. One of the greatest of these miracles was inter-planar travel - something leaps and bounds ahead of the meager inter-stellar drives humans had invented. For all their technological advancement, the sciences of humanity amounted to nothing more than an anachronistic art-style in the end, as the power of magic and arcanika far surpassed that of mundane technology alone.
Many centuries passed, however, and humanity eventually managed to catch up with the collective culture of the Commonwealth, advancing computer technology and inter-stellar travel by leaps and bounds. Graviton induction became so miniaturized and efficient that never before thought possible designs for starships, mecha, and all sorts of new technology sprang out of nowhere almost every generation. Although humanity had almost no grasp of the science behind arcanika - and the Nephyr had no intention of educating them about it - humans still managed to produce many technologies that nearly surpassed the utility of magic and arcanika in many ways, offering the Nephyrexian Dynasty new alternatives to their existing way of life. For such tributes, humanity was given leniency in its own internal political affairs, and humans were left unchecked by the Nephyr for almost a thousand years.
The Age of Rebellion
This extended leap of absence on behalf of the Nephyr would prove to be the worst move they could have made in the end, as humanity wasted no time in preparing to rebel against their masters. This time their rebellion would not be some simple peasant uprising limited to a single star system (as it had often been in the past), but a great crusade against the Dynasty under the unified might of a newly formed military organization calling itself "The Earth Genesis Protectorate." This new military, equiped with privately developed sciences and weapons that had never been revealed to the Nephyr, would become the champions of their people and supposedly lead them into a new golden age of liberty and social freedom.
They could not have failed more dramatically. At the height of their consolidation, the Nephyr returned to human occupied regions of space only to frown in disgust that the behavior of their human subjects. At once, all human freedoms were revoked, and a ban was placed on further development of any sciences outside the pre-existing sciences of the Nephyr. Any technology that was not Nephyrexian in origin was to be destroyed and replaced with the magical technologies of arcanika. The Nephyr were swift, violent, and ruthless in carrying out these decrees. Billions died as they cut a swath directly towards Earth, leveling the technological defenses the EGP had declared supposedly "impervious" to the power of arcanika.
Humanity was forced to watch as its dream of independence was swept away by a flood of Nephyrexian warships. In the end, when the vast armada of the Nephyr lay seige to Earth itself, it was said that so many were the number of warships in orbit that for a whole week, day was turned to night and the stars themselves could not be seen for all the ships obscuring them. Poets would record the event in history saying, "it were as if death itself had poured forth from a great maw of absolute darkness that hid the celestial heavens we had once called home behind a nightmare of rage and contempt for our people." But when it was thought they would succeed through sheer presence of numbers, the EGP countered with a final trumph that not even humanity itself was prepared for.
The Second Exodus
Prior to the preperations for a rebellion against the Nephyr, a small group of EGP explorers using reverse-engineered Nephyrexian arcanika managed to discover the ruins of an unimaginably massive starship floating in the uncharted depths of space. Upon embarking, they managed to uncover an ancient conspiracy as old as the stars themselves involving the disappearance of a race of beings calling themselves "the Qix'thraa." This race, so it would be learned, had mastered the science of temporal mechanics, and had developed a way to bend and manipulate the fabric of space/time in ways totaly inconceivable to human sciences at the time. However, because the sciences of the Qix'thraa were extremely similar to that of humanity in that they were not based upon the arcane sciences of the Nephyr, it would become possible, given enough time, to incorperate them into the existing technologies of that era.
Humanity had found a proverbial "sword in the stone" with which they might become the new rulers of the known multiverse, if they could one day learn to master the temporal sciences of the Qix'thraa. In a most dramatic fashion, right when it seemed that the Nephyrexian fleet might unleash their terrible destructive power upon their homeworld, these human explorers managed to activate the enourmous relic vessel and "warp" back to Earth. This in itself was without precedent, as faster-than-light travel without magic, and through physical scientific means alone, had been deemed impossible by both the collective of humanity and most magically inclined races throughout the multiverse. Dropping into orbit of Earth in such a way as to devestate almost a third of the Nephyrexian war-fleet within the span of a few seconds, the EGP fully tipped its hand by utilizing the true power of this amazing discovery. In one cataclysmic explosion of light and energy, the ancient starship opened an enourmous space/time distortion that quickly surrounded the Earth and moved it into a paralell dimension. A cosmic surge of pure chaos rippled forth from the newly born "Earthstar" which appeared in the wake of the Earth's disappearance, causing reality itself to warp and distort out to a radius of nearly a full light-year. Unfortunately, using this deus ex machina damaged the ship's central core and ultimately led to it self-destructing. As much data as was possible at the time was downloaded from the ship's central computer cores as the explorers who had found it quickly looted everything they could from it in the few short minutes they had left. It was a great loss to humanity, but what was salvaged still managed to provide the EGP with an incredible edge against the Nephyr.
The Age of a Thousand Crusades
For the time being, the EGP retreated along with the Earth into the newly formed paralell dimension the Earth now occupied. There it would spend the next several thousand years preparing for the next planned revolt against the Nephyr, seeking to fully master their newfound sciences. Amazing inventions were pioneered by the EGP, not the least of which were telepathic engineering, phase-cloak technology, faster-than-light capability, and even a limited form of time-travel. During this time of advancement, the EGP would lead numerous small "crusades" against the Nephyr in order to instill fear into the hearts of their enemies and remind humanity of their own eventual liberation. These small invasions were named the "Thousand Crusades" and continue to this very day.
A religious cult formed over time in secret amongst humans proclaiming the divinity of the human spirit and naming the EGP the spiritual successors of humanity. Within the pages of a new gospel called "The Protovangelion of Earth" a prophecy was put forth detailing the day when the Earth Genesis Protectorate would eventually return to free humans from the oppression of the Nephyr, and lead humanity in a final apocalyptic crusade from which they would emerge as the inheritors of the entire multiverse. The teachings of this cult were strictly banned on penalty of death by the Dynasty, but they continue to be passed down through the generations in secret, as the few copies of the Protovangelion of Earth are kept from the watchful eyes of the Nephyr.
It has been thousands of years since that great victory against the Nephyr, and humanity's faith has begun to falter. Though the legends persist, due to the engineering of history by the Dynasty, many have forgotten or have begun to doubt that the Earth ever existed as anything more than a faerie-tale. The EGP are largely dismissed as a myth without substance, and the "Thousand Crusades" are reduced to nothing more than re-occuring terrorism by religious fanatics and violent criminal factions preying on the beliefs of simple-minded humans. Unfortunately, a great deal of these claims are true, which further creates the impression of a hoax in the minds of most humans. Over the last few centuries, there have only been a handful of crusades, and each has been pacified relatively quickly and without major incident.
The New Age
But rumors have begun to circulate that this will soon change. The day of the prophecy is said to be fast approaching, and fanaticism is at an all-time high. Plots have been put in motion on both sides by humanity and the Nephyr to see the Thousand Crusades resolved one way, or another. Everywhere there are whispers of the end times. Everywhere there is both deception and new hope. Humanity has been tricked by charlatans enough times, however, to remain cautious in speaking openly about such things, and for the moment, all wait to see what will happen next...
