Timeline

This article references an archived copy of the Hullrot timeline and may not reflect the current canon.

Glossary

ABSC: After Bluespace Collapse
BBSC: Before Bluespace Collapse

Timeline

372 - 275BBSC: Nanotrasen, henceforch abbreviated ‘NT’, invents the core technology of space travel, the High-Frequency Chromatic Abberator. At this point in time, the Abberator is little better than a slingshot into FTL speeds, and is used as such - satellites are thrown into deep space, and information from those satellites is used to artillerise supplies, colonists and habitats into select locations. Between Year 0 and Year 97, this is the primary method of interstellar expansion and interaction. This is sometimes referred to as ‘the Outpost Century’. The ability to establish deep space outposts leads to advancements in slower-than-light technology, SLT, including high efficiency thrusters and the invention of the gyroscope. The HFCA, while the mother of interstellar colonisation, is not its primary patron - the humble thruster, use for everything from asteroid mining to salvage to cargo hauling, is the iconic symbol of this era.

274BBSC: The Stocha-Heuristic Interference Package is invented. Using a similar technology to noise-cancelling headphones and polarised sunglasses, HFCA usage becomes significantly faster. The quantum computer at the core of the SHIP is used to observe simultaneously every possible outcome of a HFCA jump, and through advanced observation all but the most beneficial are eliminated in less than a second. There are still some issues with this, as the positronic brain must use its own judgement to decide the acceptable barrier of the ‘most beneficial outcome’. Flaws and tweaks in this decision making process are the result of randomised bluespace arrivals such as armored vaults and crates, even today.

272BBSC: With the invention of the SHIPs, the personalised HFCA, at this time now called ‘jump drives’, is not far behind. This allows for more exploration across greater distances by more private enterprises. This, unfortunately, leads to what will be known as the ‘Little Kings’ period, as corporations and wealthy explorers with delusions of grandeur begin setting up their own extrasolar fiefdoms across the Milky Way. So it is that while there is something of value to be extracted, the coloniser will rush to bleed it for all its worth.

268BBSC: The great plasma rush of Terra. Plasma is found in the Earth’s mantle near the core, with NanoTrasen it’s lead extractor from the earth’s crust. Plasma is shipped to distant colonies for it’s many applications - primarily fuel, propellant, and even construction. Prospectors from all over Sol rush to humanity’s cradle to work in plasma extraction wells, swelling NanoTrasen’s rank and file and propelling them even higher up the corporate hierarchy.

262BBSC: Frequent failings of the AI within modern jump drives raise many concerns, with victims landing in uncolonized space, inside of asteroids - or in one specific freak incident, inside another ship, resulting in a catastrophic loss of assets and employee life. NanoTrasen is forced to cease it’s production of the SHIP drives, and is almost stripped of it’s trading license in the ensuing legal storm.

260BBSC: Corporations wage war against each other to secure dwindling plasma deposits on Earth. NanoTrasen, having lost it’s hold on the bluespace market, contracts an up-and-coming Gorlex Private Security to safeguard it’s last few operating plasma wells near Alaska. Meanwhile, the nations of old Terra continue to wage war, the larger empires absorbing the small into their borders, The Sol Ascendancy in Europe prepare to battle against their biggest contenders, the East Asian Combine and the American Commonwealth.

259BBSC: The Combine loses a significant amount of ground to the Commonwealth in skirmishes across the Indies, whereas the Ascendancy advances east to meet the Americans in the middle. Above ground, NanoTrasen begins experimenting with stationary HFCA units, ‘gates’, to create the first recorded instances of autonomous FTL lanes, nicknamed ‘bluespace lanes’ by the civilian populace. A corresponding gate is built on Alpha Centauri, connecting an ailing station colony to supplies from Terra.

257BBSC: The Combine suffers embarassing losses across the Indies, eventually challenged on the Japanese archipelago by the Ascendancy and Commonwealth both. Expanding further west, the Ascendancy tests the American borders, causing small naval skirmishes in the former Gulf of Mexico. NanoTrasen expends the last of their plasma wells, using the resources harvested to propel several prospector sattelites into uncharted space.

249BBSC: The far-space probes sent to uncharted parts of the Milkyway come back with shocking results; radio waves - artifical. The probe records a lengthy conversation in a language spoken only in chitters and chirps, presumed by then-scholars to be the stray clipping of a conversation between unknown parties. Not only that, but images of asteroid fields within the uncharted constellation X-901 suggest abundant deposits of solid plasma.

247BBSC: NanoTrasen expands its bluespaces lanes towards the newfound deposits in a mad dash, connecting many lone colony-outposts with jumpgates in their expanding network of lanes. Orbital station habitation becomes widespread across humanity, and easy and fast travel to other systems allows system-wide quasi-governments to form as people become connected.

243BBSC: The darling of the ever-growing war industry, Shinohara Manufacturing, the leading corporation in armaments manufacturing, supplies the Ascendancy with prototype energy weapons, rendering ballistic-based defensive measures ineffective as steel-plate armored infantry carriers and kevlar armor melts under the beams.

238BBSC: The Combine ceases to exist, having ceded it’s territories and cities to the Sol Ascendancy. Formerly tense allies, the remaining two nations declare war on each other as the Ascendancy gains swift ground along Mexico with their newly found energy-based weaponry, cornering the Commonwealth in northern America and Canada. NanoTrasen continues to connect the stars, finally fully expanding their surplus plasma to reach what is now dubbed as the Crescent.

238-219BBSC: The last holdouts of American resistance give in, rendering the Sol Ascendancy the sole inheritor of Earth, humanity’s cradle. Having won the battle planetside, they declare themselves the sovereign and rightful rulers of Humanity, and take to the stars. Their mostly dormant star-side assets are mobilized as the Ascendancy assembles a warfleet with the help of the steadily growing Shinohara Manufacturing - now Shinohara Heavy Industries, while NanoTrasen goes on the public market, the last of their shares bought up by competitors as their patents are acquired by SHI, finally fading into obscure history forever.

216BBSC: Cloning technology founded by Interdyne Pharmaceutics change the military world forever - emergency backups and dead tissue samples of fallen soldiers are used to simply get them back into the field after their demise. Military and mercenary recruitments soar as the risk of percieved permanent death is abated.

217BBSC: Shinohara Heavy Industries is granted funding by the Ascendancy to continue the stargate project of the now-defunct NanoTrasen as they mobilize their fleet for conquest. Reynald Guies, influental fleet commander within the newly founded space navy of the Ascendancy, declares martial law across Sol, taking Ascendancy President Isla Pearson into custody after she wins the election in a landslide. Troops loyal to Guies storm media stations in orbit, preventing the news from reaching Earth.

214BBSC: While Guies wrestles with pockets of loyalist forces within the navy and motions to subdue the President’s personal assets on Earth, SHI spreads the bluespace lanes to much of human-colonized space, finally touching down in Sector Crescent. Initial sample readings of the asteroids reveal a rich condensation of raw plasma, which is enough to start the construction of the Prometheus Shipyards; a megashipyard capable of producing FTL-capable capital-classes.

211BBSC: The Construction of the Prometheus Shipyards ambles along at a slow pace, funding dripfed in by SHI as Guies assumes control of the Ascendancy. Bringing the nation to heel, he makes an appearance on live broadcast alongside five accomplices, the former President in binds. After a quick, summary execution, Guies declares himself Kaiser, and his accomplices Heralds of the Ministry of Earth. Marcus Romaine, the Herald of the War Ministry, announces that a liberation campaign will be launched against the independent outpost-states of the fringe systems connected to the Bluespace network in order to bring them under the newly-formed Divine Sol Mandate’s banner.

211-189BBSC: Kaiser’s Conquest. The Mandate sweeps through human-settled space, stations falling before his warfleets. Behind him, he leaves feudal governors in charge of their colonies that pay him tithes of scrap, vessels, and artillery. Much of the human systems are captured, dominated, and vassalized as the Kaiser gains an almost all-powerful reputation, infallible and invincible.

188BBSC: Protesting and unrest rocks stability in Terra after Minister Romaine himself spearheads a capture operation, locating and subjugating a vessel of foreign make and purpose. The extraterrestrial crew contained within very closely resemble anthromorphic lepidopods and anthropods of Terran fauna, with primarily insectoid features. Their language spoken solely in chirps and clicks, human analysts are unable to make sense of their directive or purpose in human space. The Terran stance on xenofauna is divided: some demand extermination, others offer to delay their execution to learn more about them.

184BBSC: Minister Romaine continues to oversee investigation and interrogation of the extraterrestrial prisoners. Radio transmission received by NanoTrasen all those years are ago revealed to have come from the same source. Their language mostly deciphered, Humanity makes proper first contract with an alien species for the first time. They call themselves Atyrians, having developed to sapience on the same winter planet together and taking to the skies after an extended golden age, the Atyrians travel the stars in nomadic fleets with close familial bonds. These specific Atyrians claim to come from the Thukker tribe, a family of engineers and innovators with particular mastery over energy transportation methods. Serraine Romaine, the Minister of Love and spouse to the Minister of War oversees relations between the three species, though her health seems to be ailing with each day.

184BBSC: Minister Serraine Romaine of the Peace ministry passes after a lengthy battle with an unknown xenopathogen. Imperial Physicians delay her end and prolong her suffering, but the cause is determined to be prolonged contact with the Atyrians. She is canonized as Saint Serraine, the Saint of Peace, posthumously, and orphanages and clinics are opened in her name around the Imperial Core for the year to come.

183BBSC: Pioneers and explorers skirting along the edges of charted human space take note of a physical border of nebula that surrounds the Imperial Supercluster - bluespace warpdrives can’t get a good lock on their end trajectory to make a jump, and gravthrusters mysteriously fail when attempting to thrust into the misty unknown. An expedition crew is assembled and sent into the newly named Nebula Obfuscae on a chemically-propelled vessel named the IRC Fogwalker. The Fogwalker’s communications relay fails after the first three ‘all good’ signals, and the vessel fails to establish a communications link for the next three months. The Fogwalker comes back on the communications network for three seconds three months after it’s disappearance, before going silent for good.

183BBSC: Minister Romaine, in his mourning, declares war on the Atyrians. Raising several of his own fireteams to assail what is projected to be the Thukker fleet of the Atyrian people. The Thukkers are decimated, their surviving numbers brought to the Imperial Core to be put to work. They are not useful in manual labor, but the moths make good researchers, albeit begrudging ones. Those who attempt to flee or are otherwise deemed insubortinate are taken to the Chamber of War, and their dessicated corpses decorate the pikes outside the Ministry the following day. For his period of mourning, Minister Romaine wears an appropriately pitch-colored cloak of moth fur, said to have been harvested from the Thukker Elder.

183-175BBSC: The Empire continues to conquer those in their way - several holdouts of outposts belonging to the long-dissolved American Commonwealth are discovered to occupy the space southeast of the Imperial Supercluster, believing that their nation still exists. They refuse to surrender their systems after repeated diplomatic missions - and thus skirmishes ensue. Another species of xenofauna are discovered to the southwest, two-legged, bipedal reptiloids occupying the arid planet of Isitari. Civilization on the planet consists of various warring city-states, having only recently learned how to work iron, and they are quickly conquered by superior Imperial forces. Imperial explorers are shocked to find that the neighboring system of Tlahui is inhabited by the same species. Even more shocking is that the reptoids in Tlahui are millenia ahead of their primative kin, having developed spacefaring technology and settling the entire system. Attempts at diplomacy fail, and the Kaiser’s armies in the region are nearly overrun until they manage to convince the reptiloids polities confined to the outer stretches of the system to side with them in exchange for FTL technology and a favorable position in the Imperial hierarchy. Two other civilizations of equal sophistication to the one in the Tlahui system are found, warranting the deployment of the Rimward sectorial army. These, alongside other primative reptiloid civilizations are quickly subjugated. It is discovered that the reptiloids hail from a now desolate homeworld, having colonized neighboring systems with colony ships moving at sublight-speeds. The reptiloid nobility are rather familiar with the concept of serving as a vassal, and quickly acclimate to life under the kaiser. Eventually, they conquer all but several pockets of Commonwealth space, and two systems governed by independent merchant-outposts entrenched deep within Nebula X-012.

162BBSC: House Olywir is installed in Sector Crescent, now County of Darkfield. Count Olywir begins construction of his Imperial Palace with help from already-established SHI teams in the area, The five-system County is hereby run by the Olywir family for generations to come, harvesting deposits of plasma from the dense asteroid fields.

162-102BBSC: House Olywir maximizes plasma output in Imperial Tithes, and are afforded great autonomy in how they operate inside the borders of their fief. This unfortunately culminates in almost no rights for the Freeholders working under horrendous conditions in mining colonies and plasma refineries, wherein Olywir will simply ship in more indentured servants as the old ones die off. Tensions between the working class and their Imperial overlords reach a critical boiling point in Sector Crescent as twenty-eight workers die in a mutually-planned suicide after sabotaging their plasma refinery, rigging it to overheat and explode.

101BBSC: The first of many labor unions, Crescent United Worker’s Front, is formed, and demands fair representation in the court of House Olywir. Their demands are laughed off.

100BBSC: Having failed diplomatic attempts to reason, the CUWF manage to overpower a regiment of Imperial knights with jury-rigged plasma miners and retrofitted mining shuttle-turrets, seizing several corvette-sized combat vessels and whatever their armories contained within.

100-82BBSC: The CUWF are joined by the Crescent Proletariat Combine and the Worker’s Union of the Crescent, the joint worker’s parties raid fringe mining outposts and refinery colonies of the Outer Ring system, seizing Imperial troops and vessels as they gain more bargaining chips for their liberation campaign. The Count’s pleas with the Imperial Core to send more Knights are denied as piracy soars in the outskirts, and thus the Count resorts to buying out Gorlex Private Security for a long-term contract. The security contractors are posted up in Chengridz, blockading off the warp-gates in and out of the system.

81BBSC: The CUWF, CPC and WUC combine under one banner, now known as the New Crescent Worker’s League. The NCWL, having caught wind of their mercenary adversaries waiting in Chengridz, strike a deal with mercenary gangs and pirates in the area - at which point had loosely gathered under the banner of the New Crescent Syndicate of Privateers. The NCSP and NCWL prepare to storm Chengridz to seize the central plasma warehouse, where most of Olywir’s plasma is shipped through to the Imperial Core.

81-78BBSC: Battle for Chengridz. The NCSP and NCWL seize Chengridz after an insider sabotages the warehouse’s security systems for the incoming communards. A portion of the Gorlex are pushed back to Taypan, but shockingly, most stay behind to join under the NCSP. Count Olywir appeals to the Ministry of War, where Romaine relents and accepts their request. The Sixth Subjugation Fireteam is dispatched to New Crescent to aid the Count in securing his fief.

78BBSC: The Sixth Subjugation Fireteam lands in Sector Crescent alongside mercenary reinforcements to meet heavy communard resistance in Chengridz. Retreating to Taypan, they prepare to cordon off the area as they probe the communards’ defenses for one last push.

76BBSC: A stalemate ensues as both sides wait for the other to make their move. The NCWL reinforce their hold on Chengridz and the Outer Ring, having blocked the Count off from the starlane network and denying any further reinforcements. Word reaches the Sector that Minister Romaine has passed away of natural causes during rest, finally joining St. Serraine in eternal rest and canonized as St. Romaine posthumously. The Sixth, having outlived their master, opt to withdraw and retreat, but that soon proves impossible as the communards prove far too entrenched to allow the Sixth to pass through and back to the Imperial Core. The Sixth abandon their posts, retreating back further into Domain.

76-52BBSC: The Endwar. With the Sixth out of the way, the NCSP and NCWL are able to push forward, a slow creep of the communard army steadily overtakes Imperial defenses in the system and liberate indentured servants from captured warehouses, mining colonies, and refineries. The capture of the Prometheus Shipyards finally tips the war in the NCWL’s favor as they hijack SHI-built vessels for their own purposes. The Imperial forces in Taypan are decimated, and they prepare for a final stand in Domain. The single remaining Imperial capital-class in Taypan, the Countsman, stations itself between the warpgate to Domain and the rest of the Sector in vigil.

50BBSC: Perhaps unexpectedly, the NCWL does not advance further. Instead, they fortify their position in Chengridz, repurposing the Count’s Imperial palace to their base of operations - much to the NCSP’s dismay. The NCSP opts to stay in Taypan, hunting Imperial remnants and stationing within the abandoned Dochenskaya Outpost.

39BBSC: A long stalemate is broken up by diplomatic relations with SHI - who agree to sign a treaty and foster neutral relations with all sides. The corporation rebuilds Prometheus Shipyards and takes their place back in the manufacturing site.

36BBSC: The NCWL build the Bulwark defense platform against the stargate that leads to Imperial space on their side, wary of being pincered from both sides.

34BBSC: Reports reach the Head of State in Chengridz of the Sixth reappearing in Taypan, calling themselves the ‘Holy Militia’, or ‘St. Romaine’s Hunters’, leading reaving warbands and taking prisoners of war from Atyrian and Reptiloid crews - none of which are ever seen or heard from again.

34-0BBSC: The Last Stand. One last Imperial push from Domain in a desperate attempt to regain the Count’s fief is met with heavy communard and NCSP resistance. Imperial Levymen rush the communard blockade with bomb-strapped corvettes and gunships, gaining momentary purchase to push through Taypan and venture into Chengridz, where the hole in communard defenses is large enough for the Countsman, and the Hunter’s Refuge of the SRM to advance. The Refuge is blasted away by the Bulwark, their smoke-billowing engines puffing behind them as they are cast away to float in the aeternal void. Although the Refuge is eventually stabilized, it’s engines are too damaged to be of any use in the war. The Countsman pushes forward, employing a heavy fighter-based war doctrine to tenderize NCWL warships before opening fire with her broadside cannons, but the NCWL’s smallship-based rearguard fleets eventually whittle down the swarm of fighters, and wound the Countsman, sending her back to Taypan, where the NCSP harasses the capital-class with reaver fleets until it returns to it’s post before Domain, licking her wounds. Word reaches the Imperial Core of the Count’s utter defeat - and rather than face the shame of having lost to a petty rebellion, Imperial forces sever the Sector from the rest of the stargate lanes, condemning all those stuck inside to a lonely death after a rushed evacuation of priority corporate and Imperial assets. This is known as the Great Bluespace Collapse.

0-21ABSC: The Head of State retreats their wounded fleets back to Chengridz, stowing them for repair. A long, uneasy silence follows as the reeling economy, still dependant on the Solarian Dinaari, attempts to recover. The newly-formed Ministry of the Treasury comes up with a solution; Standard Union Credits, backed by solid food and water rations, and electronically-stored. It proves more useful than the Empire’s outdated analogue paper currencies, and allows for the State to compensate their workers efficiently.

25ABSC: The NCWL, having focused on the war effort for too long, turn to the abandoned mining colonies and half-extracted plasma belts still strewn across NCWL-controlled space. The already-flourishing salvaging economy after the war is supported by raw ore extraction from abandoned Imperial colonies, bolstering the struggling economy.

27ABSC: SHI begins accepting Standard Union Credits as legal tender, and recognizes NCWL as an official nation in Sector Crescent. Most of the NCWL’s armaments production relies on the SHI by this point.

32ABSC: Probing for possible exits out of the Sector, the NCWL gather Imperial conscripts. Offering to postpone their execution, the conscripts are placed in an outdated Imperial Probe-class shuttle with chemistry-based propulsion systems and are sent towards the neighboring Fog. The Imperial Probe lasts all of five ‘all good’ pings before going silent - and never resurfaces in the Crescent. The Imperial convicts are presumed dead, and the incident is hidden from the media as to not provoke the citizenry.

47ABSC: Reptiloid war general Mary Sower is appointed as Head of State in Chengridz. She settles into her seat of office with little fanfare and the NCWL resumes, business as usual.

96ABSC: Modern day. Rumors of reaving SRM forces and the Countsman sending harassment parties to fringe outposts stir the NCWL to action. Head of State Mary Sower commission for the construction of Nova Belraska, a large-scale hab-station designed to act as both a station-city and a forward base of operations for the Homeguard in Taypan. The communards entrench themselves for a third round with Imperial forces as it all threatens to come to a head. You live here.