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Phoenix Nexus  News Subspace Static 210.8 |
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 Historical Perspective Special Edition The History Of Humanity - Part Two. The History of the Confederacy and Human Empire by the Confederate historian Robert William Draper (ooc: As experienced by the player Ewan Jones from the year 198 onwards and collated into a single cohesive storyline between 204 and December 208 Reprinted by The Editor for the SSS because it is considered sufficiently of interest to all players who might have missed it on the Nexus.) Chapter 8 - Post Tau Ceti Convention under Emperor Jasil. Following the exodus of the Confederacy, strict limits were placed on religious organisations by Emperor Jasil. These generally covered their personal control of assets. They were no longer allowed to control starbases within the boundaries of the Empire but had to maintain civilian holdings only. This lack of shipping and starbases effectively cut their power and over time the New Harmony Church lost much of the influence it had prior to the schism with the Brotherhood. The end of the war also meant that the Emperor became increasingly introspective and the Empire became insular. It is fairly certain that if it were not for the pressure placed on the throne by the chartered affiliations to expand to new areas not plagued by radioactive wastelands, the Empire would never have made it to the Peripheries. Almost immediately a tide of entrepreneurs, civilians, corporate divisions of the empire mega-corporations and Imperial Stellar Patrol itself made its way to the Pollux system, the gateway to the new systems and began arriving en masse at the newly created EEM Hypso and other colonies in Capellan. The origins of the AFT date back to around this time and the beginning of human exploration of the Peripheries. The mega-corporations, notably the GTT, gained an early stranglehold on the economic climate of the newly opened systems, and spared no effort to drive small entrepreneurs back into the Inner Empire. Even outright military confrontations were used as tools for eliminating smaller competitors. So, in 177.48, for mutual protection and economic cooperation, several small businessmen banded together to form the AFT. By 185 they had achieved a level of respectability that forced the Empire to take note. Having received a number of accolades for fair trade, they were awarded an official charter. Despite this though, their ties to the Inner Empire remained tenuous at best until with the opening of new markets in alien territory, they totally renounced their charter in 198.10. Over the next few years their assets were relocated into more neutral territory. As it was, the subsequent discovery of the Detinus Republic in the newly found Capellan periphery came as a terrible shock to Jasil. Immediately Jasil feared yet another civil war further draining resources from the Empire. It is believed that this is the primary reason for the gradual closing of the borders between the Periphery and the Inner Empire. The final lynchpin however, even more so than the initial conflict with the highly xenophobic race the Flagritz was the discovery of the Darkfold Periphery and sightings of Confederate vessels and installations. Suddenly it became clear that while space was big, it just was not big enough. As the Imperial Services once again battled the Confederacy and the Detinus Republic, Jasil looked to his own defences. The key system of Pollux was bolstered and Tau Ceti became largely a naval system centred on the moon of Cassiopeia, Ceti 3i. Desperate to ensure that should the old enemies of the Empire return then the required forces would be ready Jasil instigated a policy of higher taxes applied to shipping, largely effecting the corporations. Whilst they paid the taxes,, the grumblings regarding a distant and unseen enemy were muttered and were to have a lasting and growing basis for further dissent to the rule of the Emperor. During this period, Jasil left the Inner Empire only twice, the first time to tour the Peripheries and secondly years later to witness the interment of his father. Jasil hoped that the latter would spell the end of hostilities between the Empire and the Confederacy. This though proved to be his undoing in a most unforeseen way. Chapter 9 - Post Tau Ceti Convention under Lord Samuel. Long before the outbreak of civil war between Samuel and Jasil the Brotherhood had secretly discovered the New Sol system and begun construction of a number of secret bases with which to underpin it's goals and ultimately guarantee Samuels ascension to the Imperial throne. As it was Emperor Paul's days did not last as long as needed and assets within New Sol were still at an early stage of development, albeit the Imperial forces did not appreciate this factor. With the signing of the Tau Ceti convention millions upon millions of colonists and supporters of Samuel began flooding into New Sol and new cities were fast constructed. With scarce few resources times were difficult within the newly formed Confederacy as the pressure to re-establish order and accommodate the newly arrived peoples intensified. Around the time of the final collapse of the RR-Lyrae star Brotherhood scientists discovered new systems linked off New Sol with vast mineral resources and hospitable worlds perfect for colonisation. From the 40 or so noble houses that declared for Samuel during the war, seven large noble houses firmly established themselves in the new lands - House Roswell, House LiQuan, House Drake, House Porter, House Vehrenberg, House Schwarz and House Eaton. The Roswell House dates back to the Mars project prior to the Empire. The company declared the enclosed colony a principality, primarily to avoid the huge taxations on imports to Mars. A secondary effect of this though was that many flocked to the colony in order to gamble. The formation of the Empire meant that the colony suddenly became a minor if irritating thorn in the side of the Emperor. There were only two courses of action, either recognize the sovereignty of the colony or bring it into the fold. The Emperor decided on the latter. Using the New Harmony Church, the colony was suddenly besieged by religion in an attempt the cripple the gambling. This worked better than could be expected. Roswell quickly altered the theme of the colony to accommodate rich pilgrims. The Emperor seeing his plans backfiring offered a lordship to Roswell, granting him local power Roswell graciously accepted and became bound to the fledgling Empire. History books cynically argue that Roswell was in fact purely in it for politics, rather than any religious calling. He saw that it was take the faith or loose his colony to the Emperor; therefore he used the Emperor's tools against him. The house worked alongside a faction of the New Harmony Church. This splinter group, later becoming the Brotherhood caused the events leading to the great Rebellion. Unfortunately, the colony on Mars was one of the first to be destroyed killing virtually all of Roswell's family. Only a few ships survived, taking little more than their name to the Inner Confederacy. The discovery of the Darkfold Periphery was seized on as a chance to make their name again. Originally based in the outlying system of Sparta the LiQuan family was one of the greatest ship builders for the Empire, supplying the warships for the Emperor. They designed the battleship and all the specialist unique designs. Within the new lands the LiQuan looked to their areas of expertise again, building and controlling the largest shipyard in the Fortress system. Without their aid, it is likely that the Confederacy would have fallen completely during the initial war. It is believed that they joined the Confederacy when Samuel promised them he would lift the restrictions on who they could sell ships to and give a fair price for any purchased by the State. Ironically it is the Drake noble house that only gained significant amounts of power since the civil war begun. After the first nuclear weapons were launched against pro Samuel worlds it was the Drake family who were tasked with responding in kind to Jasil backed Imperial aggression. Since the arrival in the new lands the Drakes concentrated on gaining a solid local power base throughout the known systems, controlling much of the bureaucracy which drives the wheels of progress and expansion. The Vehrenberg family are the result of an amalgamation of a number of like minded smaller houses on arrival in New Sol as to maximise their potential. This gave them a lot of power they would not normally have had although the house was to suffer many internal wrangles in the years to follow because of this. Much of the merchant and ground based army fell under the directive of the Vehrenberg family after the initial colonisation of New Sol. Of all the noble houses to declare for Samuel, House Porter was perhaps closest to Samuels side during the civil war. Vehemently loyal to the crown, House Porter developed a reputation for being at the core of all Samuels campaigns and throughout the war built up a core of highly trained veteran crack troops, completely loyal to the crown. House Schwarz excelled in the provision, planning and building of services for newly arrived colonists following the exodus to New Sol. In the first years, House Schwarz were responsible for the building of much of the new cities and infrastructure, gaining and eclipsing the other houses by a massive amount in terms of sheer size and power on the strength of it's assets alone. Fortunately for the competing nobles with crippling loans and debts accounting for some 70% of it's size, the power of House Schwarz has long been kept in check. The Eaton family was, besides that of the emperor himself, one of the oldest families in existence. Their roots date back to the 1700 in the Gregorian Earth calendar. With a traditional for being deeply religious the Eaton's have long since been close to the Brotherhood, Emperor and other noble houses thus excelling in areas of diplomacy and courtly matters. With new CNF forces being commissioned and CIA bases being constructed alongside BHD sites the future began to look brighter as society took shape and a collective set of ideals encompassing superiority, tradition, the True One and other civil beliefs took hold in a new decade of expansion, exploration and rebuilding. In turn this led to the discovery of the Darkfold periphery, a much larger collection of systems known as the outer confederacy. Lord Samuel ordered the Confederate Naval Forces and elements of the Confederate Intelligence Agency, Brotherhood and others to go forward, colonise and explore the periphery. Upon the realisation of the link to the Capellan periphery Lord Samuel, like his brother Jasil, ordered a gradual closing of the border for open travel whilst ordering further forces into the Darkfold increasing the strength and presence of his fighting forces in the form of CNF, CIA and BHD vessels, troops and bases. Thus re-igniting the war within the peripheries. Chapter 10 - War in the Peripheries. With both the Imperial and Confederate expeditionary forces building up assets in the vast new lands of the Capellan and Darkfold periphery the first minor skirmishes were destined to only grow in size and scale, later to almost rival that of the battles which raged during the initial stages of the war many years before. By 193 aliens known as the Flagritz had joined forces with the Detinus rebels sighted in Capellan. Many amongst humanity saw this betrayal as inconceivable to their human estranged relations - the IMP. The DTR colony Blackvoid initially fell and was renamed to FET Windhook but following a combined DTR/FGZ assault was retaken by DTR ground forces, albeit after a sustained bombardment there was little left to take. With new declarations of war being declared by the IMP and chartered affiliations the IMP battled to destroy the DTR as a cohesive fighting force once and for all and ensure they have no more colonies left to threaten the new core systems. Early battles between DTR and IMP forces proved indecisive and the war endured for a number of months until the eventual collapse of the command structure of the DTR following the loss of core DTR installations and a number of high profile defections of DTR generals to IMP forces. Later in 193 Prince Lysander, son of Emperor Jasil, made his first visit to the peripheries just as the remaining DTR assets were taken over by the EEM following the general collapse. Subsequent rumours turned to reality as the remaining DTR forces arranged deals between the EEM, themselves and Confederate Darkfold forces in order to relocate remaining assets to the Darkfold periphery, away from the Imperial base of operations and safer within the confines of their fellow rebels. It was later revealed that an open route between Capellan and Darkfold had been opened through KAS controlled Yank space. The following year saw fresh assaults by the Confederate allies upon the IMP colony St Petersburg, early promising gains turned to nothing with arrival of the Imperial fleet and the campaign stalled. A volatile situation arose also when the CNF were accused of working with pirates to sabotage Imperial shipping, prompting the EEM to issue a statement threatening the freezing of stellar accounts. A similar pattern of assault and counter assault followed for the next few years with Confederate and Imperial forces making use of hit and run tactics to further the war effort, most notably by the CNF Rolling Thunder fleet which wreaked havoc in Capellan over the period of a year or more until eventual corruption took hold with the CNF Supreme Commander leaving to join the pirates and the loss of a significant amount of ships from the Rolling Thunder fleet in a untimely and unsuccessful intervention into the FGZ-IMP/DOM war. By early 199 the patience of Lord Samuel was growing thin with lack of progress being made in the peripheries. A new command team was appointed in the form of House Roswell heir apparent Jordan Roswell (son of Lord Decker Roswell) and Thomas S. Jackson a long time career military commander. Roswell and Jackson moved quickly to repair some of the damage done by internal corruption and repair the tarnished and strained relations with the CIA, BHD and also DTR who had, by this time, upped and left the Darkfold after a bitter internal dispute soured relations and settled anew in the Detinus periphery. A series of successfully executed skirmishes towards the latter part of the year saw a number of assaults on the one time Confederate Commander turned Pirate and the infamous RIP Viper Squad. ****** Contacts: Editor: Simon Field - sss [dot] editor [at] googlemail [replacetoavoidspamdot] com |
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