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Chapter 5: Twilight and Dark
(2458-2577)
5.0: Licking Their Wounds
After the war, the High Colonies began the slow process of
recovery. Re-establishing the factory
complexes on Mars was the first priority.
Assistance from Henrik's Claim, as well as other Extra-Solar colonies,
helped in the recovery.
Over the next 15 years (2458-2473), many changes occurred in
the Sol System. The High colonies
consolidated into a unified government: The United Worlds of Mendoza. The name came from the Hero of the Civil War
that inspired them to persevere. The
UWM's capitol was founded on Mars, in the city of Olympus. The UWM was recognized by most of the
Extra-Solar Colonies - who were re-consolidating at this time as well.
The Extra-Solar colonies nearest to Sol - which were, no
longer, really colonies after the war - continued to develop and grow. These worlds represented the oldest colonies
of humanity; most of them were almost 200 years old. Avalon - with its three habitable worlds -
was developing into the sector's breadbasket.
Barnard's industrial base was coming up to dominate manufacturing and
processing. Henrik's Claim was
developing industry on the lines of mining and military production. These three systems, along with the UWM, were
beginning to dominate Human Space.
5.1: The Camel's Back
On Earth, things were changing a little. On December 17, 2460, certain elements of
high-echelon members staged a coup in the government. These people were still NOPL supporters, but
they were of a slightly-more reasonable nature.
They immediately opened negotiations with the UWM for aid in feeding the
hungry billions who couldn't support themselves even if they wanted to. The UWM arranged an agreement with NOPL that,
in addition to undertaking fairer trade policies between them, that NOPL would,
once again, allow emigration off of Earth for any who were willing to do
so. NOPL complied. Soon, foodstuffs were being shipped again to
Earth and organic-based chemicals as well as new colonists were coming on the
return trips. These colonists, however,
weren't too ideal. They were not
prepared for the trip off-world (many of them were shipped off against their
will) and were untrained and unschooled.
The peoples of the UWM took them anyways. Most of these new colonists didn't make
it. They just weren't motivated to do
anything. Their children, on the other
hand, were trainable and could become great colonials.
Many of these new immigrants to the stars were put on colony
ships run by people who wanted to seek worlds far away from the core. Many of these ships were still using older
.1LY/Day drives, but these ships were inexpensive and many old ship hulls were
re-fitted as colony ships. These ships
set out to the Stars Unknown. It is
these colonists that would make up the earliest Human colonials in the Astra
Incognita Sector.
5.2: The Coming of the Vihm
Sometime, around the year 2480, the Vihm began to make their
presence known.
It is not known exactly where the laboratories were housed
that engineered the Vihm were located.
The records were erased - from the libraries as well as from the Vihm's
minds. It isn't known how deliberate
this action was; nobody was, then or now, around to clarify anything about it.
What is known is that the Vihm started showing up on every
human-habited world in Known Space. They
were particularly prolific in the Avalon system - where there were abundant
surpluses of foodstuffs. The Avalonians
worked hard to deal with them. The Vihm,
though descended from Earth rodents, were still sapient and reasonable. They actually proved to be good farm
workers.
Other colonies weren't so "noble" in their
philosophy. Barnard took a particular
hatred of the Vihm. Around 2500 C.E.,
The citizens of Barnard began a process of genocide against them. No member of that created race was to enter
the Barnard system.
This action was met with contradictory feelings from one
world to the next. Some worlds followed
suit of Barnard, others treated these acts as atrocities. The UWM was particularly vocal about their
opposition to the mistreatment of peoples - Human and Non-Human. The worlds nearest to the UWM agreed. Worlds farther away from the Sol System - and
the UWM - were less sympathetic. Many of
them considered the UWM, being from the same system as Earth, were no better
than NOPL. They rejected any proposed
action from the UWM and the other Core Worlds.
The treatment of the Vihm, however, was just a taste of things to come
from the remote fringes of Human Space.
5.3: Consolidation
On March 15, 2550, representatives from the UWM, Barnard,
Henrik's Claim, Avalon, and
assembled together to
begin arrangements for a more consolidated state. These worlds, in the past decades during and
after the Civil War, grew closer economically as well as politically. Within 3 months, on June 8, 2550, the
delegates finished forging a new constitution that would assemble these worlds
into a more simply-titled state: The United Worlds. Some of the other worlds would petition for
membership in the UW, others had no desire, having plans of their own. These other worlds would found, around this
time, the beginnings of the 4
th Reich and the People's Democratic
Stellar Republic (PDSR). These two interstellar
states would prove to be quite bothersome in the years to come.
5.4: The Barnard Conflict
During this time, another interstellar state started to truly
make its move on the interstellar scene: the Federation of Independent
Colonies.
A group of worlds with extreme anti-unification tendencies,
the FIC launched an offensive in the Barnard System. The reason for the instigation of
hostilities, the FIC claimed, was because of Barnard's treatment of the Vhim. Their true motives, however, would be the
attempted destabilization of an important UWM world.
The conflict lasted about six months. Within the first three months, however,
Barnard removed its sanctions against the Vhim.
The terrorist attacks by the FIC forces on their factories, both on the main
world as well as in orbit, still continued.
The UWM Navy kept the Barnard System from being totally disrupted. Most of the fighting was being fought on the
frigate and corvette level; no major capital ships were brought in by either
side.
In the last month of the fighting, a tragedy occurred. Several transports carrying Vhim refugees
were fired upon and destroyed with all hands, seemingly by two UWM
frigates. Later, they were proved to be
FIC ships in disguise. The FIC hoped
that, if their terrorist action was successful, it would make the UWM's
government lose face - maybe enough to persuade systems to secede from it.
This action instigated a special assembly of the UWM
government. The UWM ordered half of its
available fleets to move into FIC space.
The FIC immediately issued an armistice proposal: a ceasession of all
hostilities between the FIC and the UWM.
Two years later, in 2554, a formal peace treaty would be signed by both
parties.
From here on to the present day, relations between the FIC
and the various Terran governments would continue to be shaky at best.
5.5: The Straw
Towards the end of 2550, Earth was straining to the breaking
point. The population was rapidly
approaching 50 billion. The
infrastructure was run, mostly, by incompetent officials hanging on to
hereditary titles. There were a few
enlightened individuals who saw what was going to happen, and they started
preparing for it.
In secret, these individuals siphoned money and materials to
be used to construct underground complexes that would be sealed from the
outside and contain enough materials to maintain the complexes for decades, if
necessary. The shelters were constructed
then sealed to be used when the time came.
Each shelter could hold up to 200 people comfortably. Any more would tax the complex's resources
too much. The builders then watched and
waited.
They didn't have to wait for too long. The year 2562 saw a new movement on Earth:
The Reckoning. A few of the NOPL high-echelon claimed that they had a
revelation: that, if the people of God's World would renounce all trespasses
upon His Heavenly Realm, the Divine One would reward them with a
Paradise-On-Earth. The near brain-dead
masses believed them, and NOPL moved to cut off all incoming and outgoing
traffic from the planet.
The UW was appalled at this.
They knew what would happen, but they could do nothing about it. The Gha!kuuk'aa tried to open negotiations
with them to re-establish trade, but Earth's defenses opened fire on the
Vi'Krux
when it approached low orbit. The
Gha!kuuk'aa had no desire to return fire.
The incoming inadequate missiles did not have the firepower to penetrate
their defenses. The Gha!kuuk'aa could
have, probably, wiped out Earth's remaining weaponry, but to what end? The attitudes of the people of Earth were too
far "goundhogged." The Gha!kuuk'aa
blamed the UW for this mess on Earth: the High Colonies of the UW could've
attempted to topple the NOPL regime on Earth during the Civil War. The High Colonies tried to explain to the
Gha!kuuk'aa that an Earth invasion was not part of their objective; the goal
was to get Earth to recognize the other worlds and stations' independence. They also told the Gha!kuuk'aa that they were
very hesitant - even hostile - to Earth after what they did to Venus at the end
of the war. They told the Gha!kuuk'aa
that they were, pretty much, done with Earth.
The fact that 80% of the Human population remained on Earth did not
convince them to change their minds.
The Gha!kuuk'aa were extremely upset at the Humans. To just leave the majority of their race to a
probable death was disgusting to them.
The delegates returned to the
Vi'Krux, which departed from the
Sol system, and the corresponding sector, to regions unknown, not to return
until many years later.
5.6: The Straw Is Placed
2565 was the "Year of Reckoning."
The population on Earth was around 53 billion. The Reckoning's advocates had long since
removed all birth control routines. They
claimed that Deity would provide for everyone, so no reproductive discipline
was necessary. The dwelling complexes
that the people lived in were reaching the collapse point. These "Urb-plexes" covered hundreds
of thousands of square kilometers on Earth's surface. Each one was filled to capacity.
One by one, the Urb-plexes' food and waste distributing
infrastructure shut down due to lack of goods or inadequate maintenance. The rioting that followed was fueled by the
belief that the Day of Reckoning failed to materialize. Deity had abandoned them, and their leaders,
as well as anyone involved in technology, were the sole blame.
The people around the world engaged in a mass orgy of murder
and cannibalism. After they killed their
leaders, they turned on each other. The
tech survivors rushed to their underground complexes and sealed themselves
in. In every Urb-plex, on every
continent, this was repeated. After the
main meltdown came the diseases: cholera, typhoid, bubonic and pneumatic
plagues, as well as other newly-formed mutated strains had their way with the
rest of humanity.
When the dust
settled, in 2577, less than 200,000 Humans remained on Earth.
