by Chris Hechtl
2155 Terranova, after beating off four fleets, launched her first offensive against Earth and the Sol system. The raiding strike destroyed one shipyard with over forty warships under construction and massive loss of life. It was also a major blow to the prestige to Andrews.
Riots over food and the war began. Andrews ordered all rioters sent out on prison ships.
2170: Unrest and riots spark first coup attempt. It failed. Andrews began to show paranoia and instability.
2182: Twin prince and princess born. They were immediately placed into stasis.
2183: Emperor Andrew was assassinated by a suicidal cabinet member. The Empire broke into warlords who fought over the succession. The warlords were overthrown when Terranova fleet entered system and panic ensued. Some warlords fled into the void. The Sol system surrendered to the raiding fleet.
2184: Terran Federation enacted with first extra solar constitutional convention.
First hyperspace communications relay built between Sol and Terranova.
2186: After a long debate, Terranova joined the Federation.
2189: The survey ship Moth reported a sighting of the first ever alien starship.
2191: Survey and diplomatic expedition ship Trigoth disappeared near Moth's sighting; that area of space declared off limits to all Terran ships.
2222: Freighters plying the frontier began to disappear.
2290: The first raid by Exiles on Terran colonial planet Columbia. A massive loss of life and equipment reported.
2294: The Federation declares war on the Exiles and ordered their capture or destruction. They began building and sending out task forces to hunt them down.
2295: After massive loss of shipping, the first convoy enacted. Convoy escort warships Defiant and Markus successfully beat off the first Exile raiding ship.
2305: Federation intelligence discovered the nature of the various Exile clans. They also learned that the Exiles had discovered and captured an alien ship in forbidden space.
Terran Exiles Time line:
2077: The first Wayfarer class colony ship completed construction. It was capable of carrying one hundred thousand people.
A refitted Seeker class ship Shinzu was stranded in a star system one hundred light years away. The ship is declared lost by the republic in 2058.
2108: C hyperband detected. Hyperdrive engineers manage to engineer new hyperdrive settings to take advantage of this. Hyperphysics postulate upward of eight hyperbands. They also theorized a method for short range hyperspace communications (less than one light year apart between transceivers).
First mecha used in riot.
Remington class colony ship left for Botany with two hundred fifty thousand colonists and an illegal cargo of industrial equipment.
A military coup attempt led by General Micholov and corporate backers was thwarted by a young Captain Andrews who was wounded and promoted to Major.
2118: Colonel Andrews discovered corporation involvement in the previous coup attempt and actions during plague. He was directed by corporation-backed orders to kill rioters but instead he rebelled and led a coup. He took control of Earth and purges corporations. He then quickly took control of space colonies. The riots quickly ended. He crowned himself Emperor.
Twenty-three refitted colony ships with class B and C hyperdrives left Sol with disenfranchised colonists totaling one million. Their destination was a newly discovered Terran planet one hundred light years away.
2126: D hyperband hyperdrive engineered into latest Remington class ship. Making a deal with supporters and opponents, Andrews gave the planet Botany to a group of his followers. The ship left, and since it was twice as fast as Remington, it would arrive six months prior to ship. Additional ships were dispatched with it to make certain Remington was destroyed.
2129: Remington arrived in Botany space and was fired on by Andrews’s supporters. Warships ordered the unarmed colony ship to surrender. The ship manages to flee back into hyper for parts unknown after sustaining damage and massive loss of life.
The first prison ships with Andrews’s opponents were sent out to unknown space. Some were programmed to self-destruct or sun scuttle. Others were taken over in mutinies and redirected to parts unknown.
2134: The Remington was declared lost. A cover-up by the administration was begun. Terranova refused Andrews’s rule and declaration of emperor. Terranova declared her independence. Andrews was affronted and began building a fleet to crush them. Terranova anticipated the move and began building defensive ships and orbital platforms.
Remington fled to same star system that has the lost ship, Shinzu. The battered colony ship managed to rescue the survivors, and they banded together. Tentative repairs to the Shinzu allowed it to go into hyper alpha bands. Before they left a ship exited from hyper, the first prison ship, Aurora, with thirty thousand people in stasis. A council was formed, and the three ships form the first Exile clan.
Knowing the intended destinations of some of the other ships, three prison ships managed to change course in a hyper jump and meet up by prior agreement. Together they formed the second clan. Two other prison ships were found adrift with failed engines and were recovered. The second clan decided to train and insert teams into colony planets to steal needed ships, equipment, technology, and supplies. The clan renamed itself the Thieves Guild and began its chosen profession.
2135: The Terran Empire attacks the Terranova Republic, kicking off the first human interstellar civil war. Terranova managed to beat back attackers.
The first Exile clan, called the Remington exiles, managed to cobble together its first extraction ship. The Shinzu was used to insert a team at Columbia, where they stumbled into the Thieves Guild. The Exiles agreed to meet in deep space in 2172.
2172: The Thieves Guild has graduated to its first hijacking. It used its stolen freighter, Richard, to meet with the Remington delegation. Together they formed the first black market.
2173: The Third Exile clan, called the Wanderers, stumbled across one another at a navigation point. After a long discussion, they decided to form up and travel together. They headed to unexplored space.
2178: Terranova, after beating off four Terran Empire fleets launched their first offensive against Earth and the Sol system. The raiding strike destroyed one shipyard with over forty warships under construction and massive loss of life. The strike was a major blow to the Emperor.
Riots over food and war began. Andrews ordered all rioters sent out on prison ships but secretly executed the leaders. Insertion teams by the Guild managed to get on board the ships and steered them to the black market rendezvous. A hacker in the guild managed to reprogram all of the outgoing prison ships to head to a deep space location for later pickup.
2181: Unrest and riots sparked the first coup attempt. It failed. Emperor Andrews began to show paranoia and instability. During the coup attempt, the Guild managed to steal a destroyer, the first purpose built warship of the exiled clans.
2183: Emperor Andrew was assassinated by a suicide cabinet member who had been duped by the Guild into thinking he was about to be purged and executed. The Empire broke into warlords and fought over the succession. The warlords were overthrown when a Terranova raiding fleet entered the system and panic instead of order ensued. Andrews’s wife, the overthrown empress, and their infant twins, Alexander and Tatanya (in stasis), were taken by the warlord Shwartz. Together they fled Terran space with a small task force of battle line units, the royal guard and loyal marines. Three other warlords, Joan Block, General Garland and Admiral Stukov, fled with him. Together they formed the Empire Reborn Clan of exiles, also known as the Remnant. They quickly began acts of piracy.
2184: The Terran Federation was enacted with first extra solar constitutional convention.
The first hyperspace communications relay was built between sol and Terranova.
The Remington Clan has successfully built its first power ship and mobile shipyard. Using the data from the ships and from trades with the guil
d, they manage to refit all ships to the latest in hyperdrive engineering. They also begin construction of additional extractors and the first exile built warship, the corvette Freedoms Ransom.
2186: Terranova joined the Federation.
The Guild was tempted to come out into the open when a blanket immunity for all rioters and those exiled by the Emperor was put forth to the joint senate. It died, however, so the Guild retreated back into the shadows and informed the other clans of the news.
The exiles had managed to build their first destroyer, Robin Hood. The guild informed the other guilds of the Remnant Empire exiles. Scientists of the guild managed to capture blueprints to the Hypercom technology and sold copies of it to the Remington Clan.
The Wandering Clan encountered an unknown hostile race while exploring a star system. The aliens fired on the ships, destroying one and crippling one other. The remaining ships were forced to run and left their cripple behind. They ran to Remington Clan space.
2189: The survey ship Moth reported sighting of first ever alien starship to the other clans, unaware of the previous encounter.
The Wandering Clan was detected by the Remington Clan picket. They are directed to the black market site and made transit there.
2191: The Federation survey and diplomatic expedition ship Trigoth disappeared near Moth's sighting, that area of space was declared off limits to all Terran ships.
2222: Freighters began to disappear; two thirds were taken by the Remnant Empire. The others were either sliced and taken by the Guild or lost to other unknown causes.
The Wanderers reached the black market site and began trade with the guild and Remington representatives there. News of the aliens and Remnant convinced the Remington and Guild elders to build warships. The first cruisers and escort carriers entered production in secret asteroid belt locations in unpopulated systems.
2280: Upon the insistence of the other warlords (for legitimacy concerns), the twins were awakened from stasis and began to mature. Their education and indoctrination were carefully managed.
2293: The first raid by the Exiles on the Terran colonial planet Columbia. Massive loss of life and equipment was reported. The raid was made by General Garland and General Joan of the Remnant. They managed to steal massive amounts of material and took thousands of people for conscripted labor.
2294: The Federation declared war on all exiles and ordered their capture or destruction. They began sending out task forces to hunt them down. The survey ship Charon discovered the Remington Clan’s core system. The picket was unable to stop them from escaping. The Remington ships were forced to flee.
2295: After a year of massive losses of shipping, the first convoys were enacted. Convoy escorts Defiant and Markus successfully beat off an Exile raiding ship (Remnant). A task force engaged the Remnants but was severely damaged before disengaging. The Remnants left the area and discovered the Remington Clan. The clans had a standoff but, with the Remnants licking their wounds, the Remington Clan was allowed to flee.
2297: With intelligence from the Guild, the Remingtons and Guild had been able to avoid the Federation and Remnant fleets. The Remnant had split into three groups, with the first trailing the Remingtons. It managed to ambush a Guild courier ship. Using the data attained, the Remnant set an ambush for the Remingtons.
2298: The Remington Clan had successfully built their first fleet carrier and battle cruiser squadron, and their resource collection ability has grown exponentially. They had split into three groups, the core and two satellite gathering groups. The satellite groups surveyed areas and gathered resources as they went and ensured flank security for the core.
The Prince and Princess of the Remnant, Alexander and Tatanya, led an attack on Zephrain. They managed to draw off the picket and ambush it and insert a Marine pirate squad that wreaked havoc on the planet. Alexander led the fleet element and managed to hold off the returning picket long enough for his sister to extract her Marines with massive amounts of booty and slaves.
2299: The Remnant faction attempted to ambush the Remington satellite group beta but was rebuffed after inflicting heavy losses on the screen. The satellite warned the core and escaped into hyper, unfortunately, abandoning unmanned orbital storage facilities with massive amounts of processed material and components.
2301: The guild attempted to steal the hyper E research and was discovered by Federation intelligence. The intelligence team managed to gather a great deal of data before the guild discovers the hyperdata was false and withdrew. The escaping ship was tracked to a region of space by deep space recon platforms, and a task force was assembled to hunt them down.
2302: The Remington Clan managed to escape into unknown space and a survey ship came across a derelict alien craft. The research team began a frenzied study of the craft with an eye to not only understanding the alien tech but exploiting it.
2303: The Guild has managed to build a small picket of warships, purchased from the Remingtons to secure the black market trading zone. This security ended when the task force dispatched by Federation intelligence found the secret location and engaged the picket. The picket delayed the fleet until all civilian ships managed to flee the area. However, massive amounts of material there for trade were seized by the Federation. The picket, using fighters, had managed to keep damage to its ships to a minimum and managed to disengage. The fleet, realizing the advantage of the carrier, dispatched copies of the engagement with scans of the carrier design to the homeworld.
2304: Word of the black market raid had reached all the clans. The Wanderers met up with a Remington task force after being chased by the Remnant. It was only a matter of time before the Remnant found them.
2305: The Remnant discovered and captured an alien ship in forbidden space.
Zerinoth time line:
NOTE: The time line dating is in Terran standard years for ease of reference.
15000 B.C.: the Zerinoth Clans begin to form into local governments from tribes and mountain villages. Proto hellhound breeding and farming is enacted.
1000 B.C.: First World War with proto hellhounds and Zerinoth warriors.
431 B.C.: Arenoth colonized.
1 B.C.: Phaos was colonized.
121: Phaos great thinker, Freka, postulated that the world was round and that the moons orbit the planet. Over time she discovered that the Zerinoth homeworld orbited the sun and gained a rudimentary understanding of orbital mechanics as well as basic physics, which she passed on to her people.
1230: Fifth world war ended.
1481: Phaos engineers develop the first steam engines, lessening the need of hellhound labor and igniting the first industrial revolution.
1500: Scientists from the Weldeck Clan discovered diet deficiencies was the cause of the proto hellhounds. Many clans enacted diet studies and the problem was rectified, resulting in a drastic lessening of proto hellhound births and a massive population burst.
1551: Phaos engineers developed the first gas engine.
1600: The Treth, fleeing the Demon Mecha, jumped into Zerinoth space. The Zerinoth were at the second stage of industrial evolution, and war between the Phaos and Aservoth over the isles had been at a stalemate. A cold war existed there. After analyzing the Zerinoth, the Treth decided to enslave them to use as cannon fodder for their war against the Demon Mecha. The Treth announced themselves with an orbital nuclear bombardment of the isles. The Zerinoth were informed of their enslavement by ham radio broadcast.
1611: The clans were forced to surrender one at a time over the past eleven years submitting themselves to the control of the Treth.
1612: Over the next century, the Treth callously collected and sold the Zerinoth to other worlds under attack from the Demon Mecha. Over that one hundred years, the Zerinoth Phaos scientists and engineers had managed to reverse engineer some of the Treth tech in secret, including force emitters.
1750: Defiance by the Franos Clan sparked a second orbital bombardment of their oldest city of Caleas. That sparked the revo
lution and war of liberation.
1751: The Ragna'thoth leader, Broken Tooth, and Phaos scientist leader, Xile, managed to use Phaos force beams and EMP weapons to down the Treth ships in orbit. The day of knives was on hand as all Treth on the planet were hunted down and torn apart. Broken Tooth and Xile formed the Zerinoth council and begin assimilating the Treth tech into mainstream use. Their first project was defenses for the planet.
1780: A wraith team refused to take a contract to kill Broken Tooth and Xile, killing their potential clients instead. Hearing of this, Broken Tooth and the council ordered the wraith to become the council guard.
1782: The first flying city (Skythem) was officially opened. Skythem flew over the Ragna'thoth continent and became the new capital of the Zerinoth homeworld. Flying cities shortly become the standard for all modern cities, making for a massive migration away from mountain and canyon cities of ancient times.