Future history (to the 9th millennium)

Future history


A new era

Today, we are in the year 9505 A.C. (After Christ)
Or better, in the year 6901 P.A. (Post Antimatter).
In the 26th century Earth scientists were experimenting on large amounts of antimatter in order to provide the ever increasing energy demand. So far antimatter was the only solution to the problem, but they had only been using it in small, controllable amounts, till then. When an antimatter particle encounters a matter-counterparticle, they dissolve each other with a huge burst of energy.
On the 14th of August, 2604, the scientists conducted an experiment with as much as 1 kg antimatter! Nearly a thousand times the recommended amount. As sceptici predicted, they proved unable to keep the experiment under control ... It ended as an unseen disaster in human history. It was seen all over the globe as a micro-sun lit on the North-American surface, consuming everything ... It instantly destroyed most of North-America, sending debris, toxic waste and other polluting substances thrown into the Earth’s atmosphere. Earthquakes and tsunami’s rolled over the globe, like Mother Earth wanted to shake off it’s little parasites. The weather turned mayhem, and natural disasters terrorised the world’s population. After a year, when it finally calmed down, a thick blanket of filth and dust had covered the sky, blocking all heat and sunlight. The Earth’s population decimated, fauna and flora nearly diminished.
2 years later the sky cleared up, a cold bald landscape revealed itself to the few survivors. Even worse! The amount of toxic compounds thrown into the atmosphere was enough to cause irreversable damage: the air had become unbreathable!
A new era was started: the Post Antimatter era, honouring the tragic date of 14 August 2604.
Antimatter has been illegal ever-since.
But to keep it simple we’ll decide to stick to the old era in these stories. 


General History

As you all know the human species is a curious one.
It all started in 1969: the moonlanding. “Was it round?” “How’s it on the other side?”
People started asking questions ... about the moon, about space, about the other planets, about the stars ... The human curiosity was eager to discover. Observation and research stations were placed in space. The ISS, a Lunar base, the first manned flight to Mars.
In 2082 the first human colony was founded on the moon. Govcentral was established as a single government for the Solar system. A year later a permanent base was established on Mars. But the curiosity was not yet satisfied. People started constructing space habitats orbiting Earth, at first. Only encouraged with the invention of the nucleair drive. Soon space was contested with‘em. By 2200 most of the solar system had fallen victim to this ‘human curiosity’. And still it wanted more ... more ...
The answer came in 2260: the antimatter stardrive! It suddenly brought Alpha Centauri in range. It didn’t take Earth long to decide. Humanity was going interstellar! Ten years later the first human interstellar starship arrived at Alpha Centauri, carrying 5000 people and enough equipment to set up a primary base. After the discovery of two habitable planets, Earth’s expansion was unstoppable. Since the journey still lasted ten years, it took ‘till 2300 for the first colonies to be founded. With the colonisation of Alpha Centauri and scientists coming up with improved versions of the antimatter stardrive, new starsystems came in range. Which provided new opportunities. Earth was terrified, afraid to lose her priviliged position among humanity. The first Solar Flight had begun. Millions of people leaving the solar system every decade, and increasing ... It took nearly 2 centuries for humans to satisfy their expansion desires.
The Earth was relieved, since this gave them the chance to tighten their grip upon the human colonies once again. And providing them with a way to solve their population problems. As space in the solar system became more and more crowded, more people were sent away to the colonies. More people require more food, more energy. As scientists were searching for a solution, they began experimenting with more antimatter. In 2604, a large experiment went wrong, rendering the Earth almost inhabitable. What was left was a sad lifeless plane almost devoid of animal life. It did solve the population issue though, only not the way they wanted. And providing a new problem: the rebuilding of the Earth, humanity’s womb. Earth desperatly called upon its colonies for help. It took a century for Earth’s population to recover, and the population grew again. People now lived grouped in large cities, or under agricultural domes supplying the world’s food requirements. The air was no longer breathable!

As the disaster faded, humanity started looking over its borders with renewed curiosity. As the human territorries grew, travelling across became difficult. But science never yields, the solution soon followed. In 3086, Einstein would be terrified! A new faster-than-light travelling method was introduced: the hyperdrive. Interstellar travel became a common thing. This, to Earth’s horror, lead to the second Solar Flight. People leaving the overcrowded solar system in search of a better future. Earth reacted by raising extra taxes on its colonies and discouraging interstellar travelling. This lead to unrest and eventually to a whole series of wars. The 6 strongest starsystems founded the Confederation Of Starsystems in 3712 as primary counterpart for Earth. The Confederation grew fast, because of persisting unease about Earth’s politics. As the Confederation grew larger, the situation slowly stabilised. A fragile peace treaty was signed. Peace had returned to the human territorries for the next few centuries.
In the year 4005, a space mining vessel encountered what later appeared to be an alien spacecraft. Two years later, a Confederacy supply convoy was attacked by rogue pirates. Shortly after the attack begun, two unknown spacecrafts entered the vicinity. The pirates thought them to be reinforcements for the convoy, and attacked them. Thus starting the first interracial war. The following years several remote colonies were destroyed by unknown forces. As reaction the Confederation assembled its fleet and tracked down an enemy colony. They bombed the planet with antimatter projectiles, rendering the planet inhabitable. Four weeks later the aliens besieged Nazravad, the Confederation’s military base. The Confederation called on Earth For help. And help came. Six weeks later, Earth’s fleet attacked the enemy’s rear. The siege was finally broken. There were great losses on either sides. Nazravad was nearly destroyed, Earth’s fleet decimated and only a single alien ship got away.
After studying and questioning some war prisoners, everybody slowly realised how wrong it had gone. It took another 5 years of war to properly understand each other and see how stupid they had been. The war was soon ended. The offended aliens refused to hold contact with the human territories. After a long time they re-established contact and offered peace.
The Confederacy gladly accepted, while Earth remained sceptic. The aliens were calling themselves the ‘Thorgar’. They came from a planet with an atmosphere highly toxic for humans. They breathed a mixture of methane, sulfurdioxide and nitrogen. Their capital was covered with large low-levelled cities due to the high gravity and wind speeds. They were expanding their territorries toward human space, when the incident occured. They had already mastered spaceflight while humans still believed the Earth was flat. As time passed and both races got to know each other better, relations started to improve.
In 4181 the Thorgar joined the Confederacy Of Starsystems. This was a great victory for the Confederacy, since Earth rejected any form of contact with the ‘alien infestation’.
While Earth was ignored, the Confederacy developed new hybrid technologies: improved medicine, faster starships, new crops ... 
In 4259 scientists came up with an improved design of the Thorgar gravity generator. Instead of only using it on a planet to decrease the gravitational pull, it could now be used to ‘project’ artificial gravity in a starship or asteroid. They called the new design the ‘artificial gravity projector’.
The second alien race was discovered in 4923, the Nalin. They were a race of waterbeings who lived in underwater cities and travelled space in flooded starships. They came from the waterworld Najinaz. Since the Nalin were a trusting species, it didn’t took them long to join the Confederacy Of Starsystems. Their strange technologies and insights proved very valuable.
Earth and the rest of the solar system resented any alien presence, and founded the Solar Federation in 5111. Any aliens entering Solar space were instantly killed. Because of the Federation’s attitude, relations with the Confederacy soon went critical. This led to the first interstellar war among human territiories. Earth still had spies everywhere, after all, it was the place of human origin. It was a difficult war. People felt discomforted with attacking Earth. The Thorgar and the Nalin wisely held themselves out of it. It was a human thing, they had no buisiness with it, so they claimed. The war lasted long, crippling the human space forces. In 5430 a fragile peace treatie was signed. The Nalin and Thorgar were to oversee the treatie.
Two years later it goes wrong. Earth launches a surprise attack on Alpha Centauri, the Confederation’s headquarters, and drops antimatter. The planet’s surface became uninhabitable for the next 6 centuries. The outer planets inmediately rejected Earth’s behaviour and separated to found the Union of Border Planets. The Confederation launched an all out assault on Earth and finally annexated it in 5432. Around 5600 the Thorgar left the Confederacy to solve an internal problem. In the mean time resistance groups began to challenge the occupiers on Earth. Recieving assistance from similar cells on Mars and Venus, they started a guerrillia. The entire planet soon changed into a warzone. Confederacy reinforcements only made the guerillia’s more fierce. Twenty-five years later they quonquered their planet back. Seeing this, it didn’t took resistance groups on Mars and Venus long to do the same. After consolidating their positions, they formed the Terran Alliance in 5726. Since it’s past, the alliance’s economy is totally focused on the military. They rapidly developped a considerable army.
In 5884 the Thorgar rejoined the Confederacy, having solved their issues. As the centuries pass, relations between the Confederacy and the Alliance improve. But even the peace treatie signed in 6256 didn’t take away the tension. Still, no aliens were allowed inside Allied habitats nor planet surface. In 6347 the Confederacy raised an embargo against several dubious products coming from Alliance space. While antimatter became illegal in the Confederation, Earth continued producing. This led to a large boost of smuggling and piracy.
In 7202 an unknown vessel suddenly appeared above Nazravad, introducing itself as  represetatives of the Gallinore Coalition. They were invited onto the surface and seemed to be of two unknown alien spiecies. They said they had been watching the Confederation for 600 years and had now decided to make contact. One species was dragonlike, they had big horny wings and a long tale. They came from a place the sun never shined, the dark world of Rajat and called themselves ‘Rajani’ which meant night, darkness. It took a while before they dared venturing out of the comforting darkness of their homeworld. Soon encountering a second species, the ‘Scion’, living on a desert planet in their own system. Even before both of them had mastered spaceflight, they formed an alliance that still existed. The other spiecies was a desert race with formidable navigational skills. They protected themselves from the raging sandstorms on their world with multiple layers of clothing, thus conceiling their true form. It remains a mystery how they really look like.
In 7944 both species joined the Confederation Of Starsystems. But not all of the ex-Gallinore Coalition members were in favour of that decision. A smaller group of Rajani and Scion founded the Anurati Empire. In the centuries that followed, the Union of Border Planets developed a good trade relation with the Empire. In 8301 they placed themselves under jurisdiction of the Anurati Empire. An act that the Terran Alliance would never appreciate. The Anurati Empire now consisted of a majority of Rajani and Scion, and a few humans.
As time passed, the Empire became a haven for all that’s illegal in either the Confederation or the Alliance. As pirate attacks on Confederation convoys increased, they started accusing the Empire of secretly supporting piracy. The Alliance was suffering from such attacks as well. So in 8657 The Alliance and Confederation tightened their security and started hunting down pirates and smugglers. But the Anurati’s secret intelligence agencies managed to convince the Alliance of the involvement of Confederation operatives, reviving an old vendetta. As the Alliance’s relations with the Confederation went sour, the Empire cunningly improved relations with the Alliance. In the mean time the pirates and smugglers were grouping together to withstand the armada’s now pursuing them. They were more and more organising their every move. Until in 8708 they formed the Smugglers Union based on the rogue planet Tortuga. After a few failed attempts to take Tortuga, the Confederation simply let them be. But the Union’s influence increased fast. Soon it supplied most of the underground organisations in known space. Since they secretly had bonds with the Alliance, Empire and Confederation, their position was now secured.
In 8811 a scout discovered the remnants of one of their remote colonies. It was completely wiped out. They found a few pieces of what looked like some unknown alien technology.
Aproximately a year later Confederation HQ recieved three distress calls form border planets, reporting that they were under heavy attack. Holotransmissions showed alien ships landing on the surface and destroying everything. The transmission ended abrubtly ...
The Pentagon, the Confederation’s ruling council, was worried. A Fleet was sent to the planets. They found a few survivors, telling stories of carnivorous aliens landing in massive ships, destroying it all. They claimed the aliens had six eyes and a horny figure. They came out of nowhere and went straight for the planet. After they had murdered everyone and destroyed everything they left the way they came, fast and unexpected.
During the next 3 centuries twelve more colonies were wiped away without apparent reasons. In 9155 a fleet sent out to the regions they suspected the attacks originated simply disappeared. The only information the fleet obtained was that the aliens called themselves the ‘Tanhu’ Collective. The fleet never returned.
9465, a Thorgar closely prevents an outbreak of war.

Today we are in the year 9505. Relations between the Confederation Of Starsystems and the Terran Alliance have once again decreased to an absolute minimum. Peace is barely maintained. The Anurati Empire is holding itself apart form it. And the Smugglers Union only profites from the sudden demand for illegal waponry.
The Tanhu Collective ... no one knows ...


General history: Timeline

1969:                    Moonlanding
2001:                    International Space Station ISS
2016:                    Lunar base
2022:                    Marslanding
2082:                    Foundation of the Lunar colony
                   Establishing of Govcentral
2083:                    Marsian base
2092:                    Venus Space Station VSS
2104:                    1st man on Venus
2120:                    Venus surface base
                   Foundation of the Marsian colony
Start of the Marsian terraforming process
2125:                    Jupiter Space Station JSS
2131:                    Mercurian base
2154:                    Saturn Space Station SSS
                   Foundation of Venus colony
                   Foundation of Jupiter’s 1st space colony
2159:                    Uranus Space Station USS
                   Phobos and Deimos bases
                   Ceres asteroid base
2180:                    Foundation of the Solar Navy, Earth’s military space fleet
2212:                    1st military conflict: asteroid piracy
2260:                    Invention of the antimatter stardrive
2270:                    1st interstellar starship arrives at Alpha Centauri
2300:                    Colonies founded at Alpha Centauri
2305-2512:          1st Solar Flight
2604:                    Antimatter disaster on Earth
3086:                    Invention of the hyperdrive
3092-3467:          2nd Solar Flight
3712:                    Foundation of the Confederation Of Starsystems COS
4005:                    First alien encounter near Procyon
4007:                    Start of the first interracial war
4008:                    Alien siege of Nazravad, Confederation military base
4013:                    End of the alien war
4088:                    The Thorgar first re-establish contact after the war
4181:                    The ‘Thorgar’ join the Confederation Of Starsystems
4259:                    Scientists invent the ‘artificial gravity projector’
4923:                    The Nalin are discovered
4962:                    The Nalin join the Confederation Of Starsystems
5111:                    Earth and the rest of the Sol system found the Solar Federation
5113:                    First interstellar human war
5430:                    Peace treatie overseen by the Nalin and Thorgar
5432:                    Earth drops antimatter above Alpha Centauri, the Confederation’s new HQ
                   The outer planets reject Earth and start the Union of Border Planets
5434:                    Confederation annexates Earth
±5600:                    Thorgar leave Confederation due to internal problems
5726:                    Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars form the Terran Alliance
5884:                    Thorgar rejoin Confederation
6256:                    Peace between Confederation and Terran Alliance
6347:                    Confederation raises antimatter embargo
7202:                    First contact with the ‘Rajani’ and ‘Scion’, forming the Gallinore Coalition,
7944:                    Majority of the Gallinore Coalition joins Confederation
                   Rest of the Coal1ition founds the Anurati Empire
8301:                    The Union of Border Planets places itself under            Anurati jurisdiction
8657:                    Confederation and Alliance start hunting down pirates and smugglers
8708:                    Smugglers and prirates unite and form the Smugglers Union
8811:                    Remnants of remote colony discovered
8812:                    Distress calls from three border planets
9155:                    Fleet discovers Tandu Collective and disappears
9465:                    Thorgar prevent war between Confederation and Alliance
9505:                    Today ...