Sci-Fi Fridays! Wanderers of the Outlands Part XII

This is part 2 of the timeline to my sci-fi campaign, if you missed last week’s post; here is the link to part 1.  These past two posts build upon the general history of the campaign that you can read in this post. I Said it last week but it need to be restated, a big thanks to my friends Michael, aka Stargazer, and Sara Ivette (who is a contributor at PR-Gamer), on their help with the timeline. Now on to part 2…

XIV. A timeline of humanity’s conquest of the stars (Part 2)

2227 ME – First Contact with the Cerdiallian Polycracy.  A damaged Cerdiallian ship limps into the Sol system with their non-FTL engines. Cerdiallians are humanoid enough so that their technology and Human first contact protocols bridge the gap, and rudimentary communication is established. After repairs are made and means of future contact arranged, the Cerdiallians leave.

Early 2228 ME – Kerdans destroy the generation ship docks in Neptune and attack the gas mines of Uranus. A hasty alliance between Eire-Indo-Nippon Block, American Alliance, corporate security forces and other smaller blocks and nations with ships deployed in the far Solar System defeats the Kerdans and capture some of their ships.

Late 2228 ME – To avoid an arms race or possible conflict over the new technologies that could come from the captured Kerdan technology, the nations and blocks of old Earth create the Trans-planetary Commission on Galactic Technology, or TCGT, to share these secrets with all parties involved.

2229 ME – The first human ships with Trans-Dimensional Displacement FTL capabilities and gravitic-field generators, reverse engineered from the captured ships, are deployed and anti-Kerdan defenses are deployed in the Kuiper belt.

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2234 ME – Humans enter into an alliance with the Cerdiallian Polycracy. Not long after, the Cerdiallian-Human alliance decisively ends the Kerdan wars after a brutal orbital bombardment of the Kerdan home world.

2235 to 2282 ME – The Human diaspora to the stars… During this period, large numbers of humans leave old Earth and the Sol System to conquer space. The Eire-Indo-Nippon Block takes point on this expansion, followed closely by the American Alliance. Old blocks break down, new political factions emerge, and all sorts of social experiments are attempted in these new colonies.

As the nations and blocks of old Earth abandon the Sol System the Trans-planetary Commission on Galactic Technology fills the void left behind by the blocks expanding into the greater galaxy. They also establish the courier system that facilitates communications in the human diaspora when there is no FTL communication.

Alien ruins are discovered in various uninhabited worlds colonized by humanity. While there is little information to be learned from these ruins, massive complexes are determined to be terra-forming superstructures. Various corporations investigate them and eventually reverse engineer rudimentary terra-forming processes they soon use to turn previously uninhabitable worlds into new colonies.

The rise of the Mega Corporations, or Hyper-Corps, freed from the limitations of the governments of the Sol System these corporations establish their own colonies and militarize, becoming themselves de facto stellar nations organized as large multi-settlement corporations. The Euro-Pacific and GeoHarvest corporations are two of the fastest growing during this period.

2286 ME – The Eire-Indo-Nippon Block reorganizes its colonies, three families consolidate their power and the new stellar nation that emerges is the EIN Triumvirate. This new political body gives up most of its claims to old Earth settlement and the TCGT takes over the administration of most of their territories.

2289 ME – After a series of skirmishes with rival colonists, ambitious settlers and mercenaries from the American Alliance take control of the Alpha Centaury System.

2291 ME – The Council of Betelgeuse establishes the reformations of the Catholic Church that unifies many Christian faiths of old Earth and brings most of the Abrahamic religions closer to one another than they have been in centuries. The Papacy becomes a stellar nation.

2293 ME – Representatives from the colonies of Alpha Centaury travel to old Earth and in Brasilia, capital of the American Alliance demand the dissolution of what they considered an antiquated political organization. After much debating the American Alliance disbands and is reorganized as the Freeholds of Alpha Centaury.

2297 ME – The Eu-Pac, Corporation is a forerunner of terra-forming technology. They deploy the first massive terra-forming enterprises. Despite their best efforts competitors gain access to their patents through corporate espionage and outright combat. Over the next twelve years the Hyper-Corps will build up their security forces to rival the armies of Stellar Nations during a series of conflicts that would much later be called the Corporate Skirmishes.

2300 ME – The Aubaná home world is discovered by a corporate scouting mission. The Aubaná are pacified and forced into indentured servitude as their technology is exploited. Their discovery is kept secret from the greater galaxy until they are liberated by the Rukta Workers Consortium over a hundred years later.

2300 to 2358 ME – The Second Diaspora, with new worlds available due to the wonders of terra-forming and improvements in Trans-Spatial Displacement technology humanity spreads from what will become known as the Core Systems and into the Expansion Region and the Peripheral Systems.

While the corporations grow rich and powerful, the citizens of many stellar nations see their future grow bleak. Mechanization has replaced large numbers of workers; the quality of life of countless inhabitants of the Stellar Nations worsens. Many seek work in the seemingly prosperous worlds of the Hyper Corps, giving up liberties and freedoms for a chance to eek a living in cold heartless space.

2372 ME – Official first contact with the Q’ual Uar. The Q’ual Uar have raided humanity sporadically and are well aware of their capabilities. They establish amicable, if tense, relations with the corporate holdings around them.

2381 ME – A quarter of a million workers die in a terra-forming accident and labor unions all across human space strike. The corporations crack down on what news services term the Labor Union Uprising. One of the most powerful of these labor unions, the Rukta Workers Consortium goes underground and begins a military campaign against various corporations gaining popularity and support among many colonists and citizens of the stellar nations.

2399 ME – After combating the Rukta Workers Consortium guerillas in many of their worlds the Eu-Pac Corporation determines that continuing this war will negatively impact their revenue and abandons the contested sectors. The Rukta Workers Consortium becomes a fledgling Stellar Nation but over the next two decades it will expand its borders swallowing up corporate system after corporate system. While some corporations improve their employee’s working conditions, many respond by cracking down against organized labor in their systems.

2417 ME – Missionaries from the Freeholds of Alpha Centaury make first contact with the Vuluhuan. While it will still be decades before a human identifies their home world, the enigmatic beings establish communication and ties with the Freeholds and soon do the same with most major Stellar Nations. The humans first believe that they are in contact with a single political entity, but after learning of the Vuluhuan’s cultural idiosyncrasies, they realize that they are dealing with different groups and factions within their society. While many Vuluhuan travel human space over the first few years, their numbers dwindle soon and they become a far from common sight.

2419 ME – The Gen-Mod uprising. Genetically modified humans, also known as gen-mods, common in corporate systems where unscrupulous Hyper-Corp experimentations has grossly modified humans to adapt them to different environments; rise up in revolt against their masters. The gen-mods are massacred and most gen-mod programs are terminated. This genocide further strains relations between the Mega Corps and other Stellar Nations. A few gen-mods survive, but their creation is prohibited all across human space.

2422 ME – With growing anti-corporate sentiments and legislation spreading across human colonized space, the Hyper Corps forcibly naturalize citizens of other stellar nations working in their systems. The consequences of this will soon spark all-out war.

2425 ME – The Battle of Leviarius, after ships  and troops of the Bishopric Authority of Leviarius detain and board a GeoHarvest convoy under claims that the corporation is holding their citizens against their will, GeoHarvest and Eu-Pac ships blockaded and bombard the fifth system of the Leviarius system, seat of Bishopric authority. The conflict escalates and soon most of the human stellar nations are at war with the corporate systems. The Great Galactic War has begun.

2425 to 2431 ME – The early war, war spreads across most systems, while the Rukta Workers Consortium spearheads the war effort, the EIN Triumvirate and the Freeholds of Alpha Centaury support the war effort but concentrate on defending their holdings. The brunt of the war is fought by smaller stellar nations and lone colonies in the Peripheral and Border Systems where the majority of the corporate systems are located.

Early 2432 ME – The rout at New Ganymede; after a massive defeat at New Ganymede many of the smaller stellar nations fighting the Hyper Corps are shocked to hear their Rukta advisors calling for a renewed offensive. They meet in secret in the Persephone’s Blight Nebula and they form a Coalition to continue fighting the war on their terms.

2432 to 2457 ME – The late war, the Coalition initially abandons direct attacks against corporate strongholds and instead establishes a strategy of raids and guerilla tactics against corporate holdings, supply lines and depots. Despite initial wins and eventually scaling up to larger conflict the Coalition is outgunned, its citizenry suffering and the Hyper Corps are becoming entrenched in the systems they hold. It seems as if the war will simply simmer out into a stalemate.

2458 ME – The creation of the Union. With the enemy weakened the Rukta Workers Consortium, the EIN Triumvirate and the Freeholds of Alpha Centaury pool their military forces and create a new political alliance, the Union. They enter the war and quickly turn the tide of battle against the Mega Corporations. While many in the Coalition see in the Union their salvation, the fiercely independent members of the Coalition worry about the future of this new power. Their concern would prove to be valid.

Early 2459 ME – With creation of the Union, the former Papal Estates and other religious colonies and stellar nations of Abrahamic origin form the Judeo-Christian-Islamic League, or Abrahamic League, and join the Union.

Mid 2459 ME – The highly militaristic Phalanx political faction take over corporate systems in the coreward Peripheral Systems. Located in key trade routes and with their manufacturing might needed for the war effort, the Phalanx blockades all traffic and trade until they are granted special privileges and liberties within the Union. Privileges they continue to enjoy to the present.

2460 ME / year 0 UC (Union Calendar) – The end of the Great Galactic War. The Hyper Corporations are defeated, their boards dissolved, their corporate structures dismantled. To mark this event a new calendar reckoning is declared, the Union Calendar (UC) and a common currency established.

The Union reorganizes the map of the populated galaxy, divvying up former corporate systems among its members. The Coalition worlds, originally jubilant, soon find themselves forcibly annexed into the Union

2461 ME / 1 UC – The Union Pacification Campaign. The Coalition attempts to negotiate with the Union, trying to reorganize as an autonomous stellar nation within the new political structure, but fiercely independent members soon abandon the Coalition and forcibly resist integration. The Union acts swiftly and puts down the rebellion before it starts. Aid begins to flow into the war ravaged former Coalition worlds and after decades of fighting, the resistance crumbles within a year. The Coalition is disbanded, but the desire for freedom of the former Coalition worlds is not so easily quelled.

2463 ME / 3 UC – War Reconstruction Commissions are established across the Union to rebuild the war torn worlds. The commission also looks into war crimes and reviews accusations against corporate sympathizers. Many, fearing the prosecution of the War Reconstruction Commissions travel to the Outlands, a region mostly controlled by the corporations before the war.

2464 / 4 UC – To help the economic recovery of the Union and to curtail the possibility of corporations retaking power, the Union Customs and Tariffs Authority (UCTA) is created, under the direct control of the Union’s Council Commerce and Trade Commission. The UCTA regulate production, grant patents for construction and manufacturing, normalizes currency values, and reserve certain manufacturing interest for the UCTA and the Union Armed Forces (UAF). In order to facilitate the imposition of UCTA regulations and to keep tabs on the ships travelling the galaxy the Union passes an act placing all Way Station under the jurisdiction of the Union’s Council Commerce and Trade Commission and tagging all ships that dock in Way Stations or spaceports for retrofitting.

2466 / 6 UC – Three Way Stations in the Core Systems explode and seven more nuclear devices are disarmed, the terrorism is blamed on pro-corporate activists. The UAF begins a crackdown of the terrorist cells all across the Union.

2468 / 8 UC – Pro-Coalition demonstrations are forcibly disbanded in the Peripheral and Border systems. These demonstrations are outlawed by authorities, claiming that demonstrators are performing acts of vandalism and terrorism.

2470 / 10 UC – Present day…

And that’s the timeline to when the campaign begins. Next week, some fiction set in the Wanderers of the Outlands universe. Hope to see you then. Have a great weekend!