Scientific Advances

In the early 2100s, mankind reached for the stars, fueled by the brilliant mind of Dr. Hsieh Ho. The first steps began when Hesh Ho unveiled a new branch of mathematics, Polydimensional Non-Euclidean Geometry. He tited it closely to the physics theory of Superstrings, and through math that was both brilliant and beautiful, he provided a proof for the existance of 496 particles, including tachyons. Hesh Ho theorized, based on his proof, that any of the 12 dimensions positied by his research should be accessible from our normal space. In fact, he stated that one of the dimensions, which he labelled Tachyon Space, or T-Space, should allow faster than light travel.

With the theory laid, in 2175 the UNSS Magellan made the first T-Space transition, returning successfuly a week later. This opening of the universe to fast interstellar travel sparked humanity's verfor for manifest destiny. The rapid expansion of humanity had begun. In 2210, Dr. Wayne Marshman of Northwestern University, discovered a way of artificially warping and creating gravity fields. Within the next century, P-comm communications were developed, allowing for faster-than-light communications between Terra's outposts. Prof. G. Greerson of Furman University discovered a method of creating 'shields' by manipulating gravity fields. With such technology, mankind began to race towards the stars...a well armed race.

The Human Raj

By the 23rd century, the various colonies of Terra had begun to split off from mother earth. Separated by several months travel, and communications, many of the colonies became culturally separated from Sol society. When several of the larger colonies (most notably Sigma Eridani and Laurea II) declared independence, the Terran government demanded monetary recompense for the expenses of founding the colonies (a very considerable sum). When the rebelling colonies refused, violence broke out. The 'War of the Raj' as it became known lasted all of two months and only had two major engagements. The first being a large naval strike at Eridani's capitol of Hughe's Bay, and the retaliatory strike by a small force of Eridani marines. The Battle of Hughe's Bay resulted in the complete destruction of the city, and casualties of several hundred thousand. The counter-strike (which occurred two months later) severely damaged Antarctic Control, and ended with the suicidal thermonuclear detonation at the United Nations Headquarters (which had long since been moved to Geneva) which wiped out most of the ruling world government.

The high casualties caused both sides to pause and begin peace talks. The Colonial League and the remains of the UN signed the Treaty of Reykjavik in 2278, which brought about an end to the hostilities and created a provisional united human government. Over the next two years, the provisional government was replaced by a new government. This 'Raj' as it came to be called gave much of the long term decision making power to the central 'Terran Parliament' but left much of the actual implementation of the policies to the various colonial governments.

The Human Raj made first contact with an alien species in 2461, when an Terran transport 'rescued' the Naram Cruiser Slerea. Due to the great similarity between the species, as well as the patience of the Naram diplomats, an alliance between the Naram and the Human Raj was quickly formed. This alliance was exceedingly profitable for both sides, which began exploring the galaxy together, as well as making several technological advances from the mixing of scientific theory, most notable the T-Doppler as well as most modern Holo-technology.

The Human Raj stood for another two thousand years, surviving contact with, and the subsequent fighting for territory, the Kess Rith and Ssoran Empires. To avoid any escalation of conflicts, the rapid growth of the Raj was halted, and uneasy truces with her neighbors were formed.

The Snow Plague

On the 27th of April, 5029, the first death from an hitherto unknown disease occurred on Heronrest. Over the next thirty days, 90% of the population of Heronrest, and the surrounding forty systems died. The Snow Plague spread like wildfire throughout the worlds of the Human Raj, whose quarantines always seemed one step behind the plague. Within a year, 80% of the human population was dead. The Naram, who were willing to bomb cities to maintain quarantine, kept their casualty rate down to around 65%. Entire planets were wiped out, and some isolated and cut off drifted into their own dark ages.

The Kess Rith leapt to the offensive, and over the next century, humanity was pushed back and held to ten core worlds around Terra. the Naram managed to maintain over a dozen worlds, but at horrendous costs.

The cause of the Snow Plague is well known, but its source is still a mystery. It is actually a combination of the common cold virus (hence the name) and a trigger virus. The trigger viruses (of which there were six varieties) were quickly isolated, but where they came from is a mystery. Many point to obvious genetic tampering, implicating a Kess Rith of Ssoran (or perhaps even a Vauvusaran) origin, but no proof exists, and the parties involved all deny it vigorously.

Slavery

By 6331, the Human Raj had recovered, or so it thought. Population increasing, it set out to expand beyond its ten worlds. The Kess Rith and Ssora beat them back brutally and efficiently, and set themselves up as the de facto rulers of what remained of the Human Raj. The human population on the core worlds, as well as those on the more far flung planets, were used as a slave pool. Using Terra as a slave farm had progressed to such a state that many alien companies relocated much of their manufacturing facilities to Terra to cut the costs of shipping labor. The most famous, Sev Tem Aerospace, began using human test pilots in their research program. These pilots formed called themselves the Death Express, and rapidly honed their skills to a razors edge against the Ssoran equipment. This state endured for over 200 years, until the arrival of Alexander Trajan.

Trajan's Revolt

In 6565, Alexander Trajan, took the reigns of the Glorious Rome Movement from his father Simon. This movement was dedicated to preserving the lore and majesty of earth's past, and Alexander began staging a series of military pageants, mock battles and drills. These were extraordinarily popular, and many 'legions' were formed to participate in these demonstrations of martial ability. This greatly increased morale amongst the populous, so the Kess Rith and Ssoran overlords let it continue.

In 6569, Professor Stomtra developed VLCA technology, that could provide near instantaneous communications over extremely long distances. Trajan received word of this technology, and began a covert campaign to link the various human core worlds without the knowledge of their overseers. Amazingly, Trajan's plan went undiscovered, and soon all of the core worlds were in instantaneous communications, without the Kess Rith or Ssora even aware that the technology existed.

In 6565, armed with obsolete smuggled Ssoran rifles, Trajan and his legions, along with the Death Express (flying the cutting edge of Ssoran technology) hijacked the Ssoran fleet in orbit around earth. He and his newly formed navy then attacked a Kess Rith convoy, using Ssoran tactics. Armed with the information transmitted by his VLCA net, Trajan was able to completely destroy the uneasy peace between the Kess Rith and Ssora. Sending his VLCA technology, and what weapons he could spare, to the various worlds with a high Naram or Human population, Trajan was able to spark rebellions on literally hundreds of planets simultaneously.

Formation of the Commonwealth

In the far off Orion Arm, the human/naram populations allied with the Baufrin, and supplied by Trajan, spent three years throwing the Kess Rith Empire off of their worlds. In 6584, facing a battle on every front (and from within) the Kess Rith offered peace to the rebellious planets. On May 14th, the peace accord was signed by Sephra Decla on Shannedam IV, and the Commonwealth was formed. Trajan was incensed by what he saw as treachery, and immediately cut off relations with the Commonwealth.

Trajan's Era

With the Kess Rith and Ssora turned against one another, the newly formed New Roman Republic was able to expand outward once again. Lead by the military minded Trajan, the Terran Republic was patterned after the old Roman Republic from millennia earlier, and included the rigid class structure of Citizen, Plebeian and Slave. While this rigid class structure was not an overly brilliant political move, Trajan's successes on the battlefield more than made up for it. By late 6607, just a year before his death, he began to make moves to modify what he had created to be more forgiving. However, he died before any changes could be made, and the leaders of the New Roman Republic saw no reason to reduce the amount of power that they had managed to obtain.

Formation of the TOG and the Renegade Legions

Such was the state of affairs until 6679. When Grand General Douglas Constantin tried to have General Ivanolo Buntari court-martialed for the wanton destruction of an already surrendered Kess Rith World. Ivanolo's father was a high-powered senator in New Rome, and the political fallout from the court-martial resulted in treachery. The entire senate, as well as First Consul Kershaw, was killed by a small thermonuclear device detonated under the senate. Ivanolo, having returned to earth, quickly took control, and in a brilliantly arranged coup, had himself elected Caesar by the new senate. He quickly solidified his hold and revamped the New Roman Republic to his liking, by creating the new Overlord class, and gave them, and the secret police force called the Lictor, almost unlimited powers. On July 14th, 6680, the Terran Overlord Government came into being.

General Constanin, having been accused by Buntari of planting the bomb (who had since slaughtered Constanin's son at the earliest opportunity) gathered the naval fleet together on the Kess Rith front. On September 15th, 6681, Constantin and over half the fleet, disgusted with Buntari's actions, left Terran space. Labeled Renegades by Buntari, they were pursued through Kess Rith space, until they found safe harbor in the Commonwealth, where they have stayed ever since.

The Past Two Centuries

In 6691 Caesar Buntari issued the Patria Protestus, which stripped all women of citizenship, limited them in rank, and relegated them to the status of property. Three months later, he was killed by the 1st Praetorian Guard, an all female unit. Much of the female content of the TOG armed forces left for the Commonwealth, forming the elite and skilled Minerva and Athena units of today.

The past two hundred years have seen the Renegade Underground come to the foreground. Specializing in guerrilla warfare, and single man actions, the Underground conducts a quiet and deadly campaign of revolution within the TOG, sabotaging manufacture, destroying military installations and assassinating TOG leaders.

TOG is currently ruled by Caesar Nicholas Julianus and his Overlords. Julianus has continued the current military campaigns against both the Commonwealth and Kess Rith Empires. The Ssoran have long since allied themselves with the TOG. The Naram Republic was partially annexed by the TOG (forming the Mochov District) in 6727, coerced to do so by Lictor infiltration, an event known as the Seduction to some, the Rape to others. War is waged on all sides, without mercy, without respite, and without an end in sight.

Shannedam County

The war between the TOG and the Commonwealth has gone badly for the Commonwealth. The TOG's shear size has forced the Commonwealth and its allied Renegade Legions to retreat, giving almost half of the Commonwealth's territory to the TOG. The fighting has now moved deep into the Alaric Grand Dukedom.

Shannedam County is now the front line of the conflict. The TOG made its first advance in 6811, taking several central worlds of the county in a brilliant piece of tactical maneuvering. After solidifying their line, and taking several read-guard planets, the TOG again massed an attack. In 6829, their advance was shatterred when their attempt to land on Defiance (formerly Shannedam IV) was completely repulsed, with heavy casualties inflicted on the invaders. Since then, the front has settled, as Caesar's attention has waned.

Technology

T-Space

Developed by Dr. Hsieh Ho in 2175, based on a theory of dimensional mechanics. Dr. Ho postulated the existence of several 'dimensions' adjacent to the standard four which one could translate an object into with the proper particle bombardment. Furthermore, Dr. Ho was able to mathematically deduce that one such dimension consisted entirely of tachyons (which had been detected in 2156 by Dr. Timothy Holz). As such, this so called T-Space had the property of a _minimum_ relative velocity equal to c, the speed of light.

Entry into T-Space is accomplished by an FTL drive, or more properly, a Ho Translational Device. The minimum speed that must be attained before attempting a translation is 900 kph, or 7500 meters per second, which results in a T-velocity of 1 Light Year/Month. Maximum entry speed is 675,000 kph, or 187,500 meters per second which will result in a T-velocity of 10,000 light years/month. T-Space velocity is unchanging in magnitude and direction so a ship must be pointed _precisely_ at its destination. Note that entry velocities are relative to the ships inertial reference frame.

One interesting feature of T-Space translations is the so-called Tau-Shimmer. Most easily described as miniature residual translations due to dimensional 'friction,' Tau-shimmer manifests as a flickering blue aura around objects that have spent an extended period of time in T-Space. Such shimmer bleeds off in a one-to-one ration with acquisition time, so any shimmer accumulated in three hours of time in T-Space is bled off in another three hours in normal space. If the accumulated shimmer passes 725 hours (30 days), the dimensional friction will cause an inversion of the object, generally resulting in total destruction or death in the case of living objects.

T-Doppler

In essence a glorified Tachyon detector, T-Doppler radars are used as early warning devices to detect the Tachyon 'wakes' of objects traveling in T-Space. The wake is proportional to T-velocity as well as the mass/energy of the object.

P-Comm

A Tachyon emitter and detector array can be used to create a long-distance communication device that can transmit at a rate of .46 light-years per minute. Nearly twice the speed of most vessels, P-Comm is an invaluable communication aid. Unfortunately, the signal from a P-Comm will degrade at long range due to unavoidable dispersion of the signal by the emitter.

Gravity Shields and Drives

Modern grav drives were first created in 2210 by Dr. Wayne Marshman. The grav drive on most ground vehicles works by manipulating the local gravity fields to actually repulse the drive. Space vehicles achieve the same effect by amplifying the local microgravity from the vessel itself and warp the gravity well to the desired effect.

Dr. G. Greerson, was investigating the statistics of the use of grav vehicles in combat and noticed a disturbingly low number of hits on the lower hulls of the craft. Intrigued, he investigated the matter, and discovered that the grav drive was also deflecting inbound projectiles at the bottom of the craft. In 2279, he built a modified grav drive that created an intense 'ripple' in the local gravity well. Unfortunately the power drain was tremendous, causing the death of his assistant by literally rippling him to death. Greerson solved the problem by rapidly flickering the shield on and off. Increasing the rate of flicker increase the probability of deflecting the inbound device, but dramatically increases the power required to maintain the ripple.

Laser Weapons

The modern laser cannon is critically dependent on Gennium-Arsenide crystals. Such a crystal forms a highly efficient, reusable lasing core that is ideally suited to military applications. Having the chief advantages of speed, high rates of fire and great penetration, they are the mainstay of almost all naval vessels, and are used in many ground forces as well.

Gennium-Arsenide crystals, however, are extremely difficult to manufacture. Growing crystals of sufficient size (on the order of 30 meters long and 8 cm wide for some of the larger varieties) is nearly impossible to do in an environment that would produce any stress on the crystal, including gravitic stress. Thus, the manufacture of crystals is limited to tremendous orbital factories (though the construction of massive, artificial zero-g facilities has been considered). Needless to say, such factories, also called 'Crystal Gardens' are of enormous tactical value, and often the targets of industrial raids by Special Forces operatives on both sides of the conflict.

Particle Cannons

Most modern particle cannons function by electromagnetically accelerating streams of charged particles to near relativistic speeds and slinging them at the target. Such devices are quite common, and varieties exist for most every kind of charged particle. Electron particle cannons and even neutron cannons exist - the neutrons being charged by bombarding them with Tachyons which cause a quark inversion, giving the neutrons a slight, temporary charge. Proton Particle Cannons have proven dangerously unreliable, but there are rumors that a few see service in various specialized military capacities. Recent advances in plasma research has resulted in several new weapon systems, most notably the Thorium Plasma Projector.

Very Large Communications Array

The technology that made it possible for Trajan to throw off the yoke of Terra's oppressors. Developed from researching some peculiarities of the P-Comm system in 6569 by Prof. Stomtra, it functions by sending the signal through a dimension that was also predicted by Ho's theories. This alternate space has mechanics that are barely understood, but what is known is that in this space time (or distance) have little meaning. Transmission rates are still not certain, but some estimates place the transit time across the galaxy at something less than two seconds. VLCAs don't suffer from the dispersion of signal that P-Comms do, but this is a blessing in disguise because the transmitter must be pointed directly at the receiver. VLCA signals tend to be very weak, thus requiring a transmitting surface on the order of a square kilometer...more for extremely long-distances. Like the Laser- Crystal factories, such facilities must by necessity be in low-G environments if at all possible, and are also choice targets of military raids and terrorist operations. VLCAs, as such, tend to be well defended, and often attacked. The Renegade Underground is waging a swift and deadly campaign which will entirely deafen the TOG front within a decade at the current rate.

Cannons

Even with the advent of bizarre forms of weaponry, the cannon is still a mainstay of ground and naval forces everywhere. Modern cannons accelerate their projectiles electromagnetically. Ground forces use a variant called a Gauss Cannon almost exclusively, whose projectiles are simply too large to be deflected by shield systems. Too large to be mounted on small space-craft, the cannon of choice for fighter craft is the Mass Driver Cannon, which fires small projectiles at speeds applicable to modern dogfighting. The larger capital ships use a Spinal Mount which will hurl several tons of steel (called a crowbar) at their targets, to great effect.

Page design © Kannik, 1996 
Images and Transcription thanks to Edward Pichon
Timeline source © FASA Corporation
The works contained within are © their authors, 1997
Last Updated:  09 03 97