Black Age

The Black Age Wargame Project

The Black Age Wargame Project is an attempt to create a flexible and realistic set of wargaming rules that can be easily modified and used in multiply settings (i.e.: Historic, fantasy, Sci-fi wargames). The rule system will be optimized for small scale engagements with each player controlling 10 to 20 characters. Special Emphasis is being put on the use of customizable war gear and equipment as well as how soldiers will act under stress. The pilot game for this rule system is going to be Black Age, a Science Fiction Game based in a largely dystopian universe.

The Black Age Universe

Summary

Flag of the Second Ramiatic Empire

The Black Age universe will be set in approximately the year 3800. Humanity has spread throughout he stars and now occupies a small portion of the Milky Way Galaxy. Within human space there are two rival factions that are at odd with each other. These factions are the Second Ramiatic Empire and The United Human Confederacy. The Empire retains control of Earth with the Confederacy is situated to the galactic East of the Empire with its home world of Vendetta Prime. There is also an area between the two nations known as the outland which is a largely lawless land filled with criminals and other less an savory characters. This course of history was set in motion by the actions of earth's major power's near the end of the 21st century.

Human History after the year 2050

The Pre Ramiatic era

(2050 - 2360)

The Third World War

United States Marine During the Third World War

During the later half of the 20th century the decline of natural resources as well as a rise in poverty and inflation caused high tensions among the more powerful nations of the world. This is fueled by the general incompetence of the U.N. and isolationist policies of the world's major powers. In the late 2070s China begins an expansionist policy to try and relieve its overpopulation problems and secure newly discovered natural resource deposits in Mongolia and Indochina. The United Nations is slow to respond but eventually a U.S. led NATO coalition is organized to stop Chinese aggression in southern Asia. Eventually the EU and Russia will join the war and will align themselves with the U.S. Although neither Side can gain a major tactical advantage, resource shortages and lack of popular support cause the U.S. and other western block countries to compromise with China. This leads to the Treaty of Beijing in which China gains control of Japan and Most of Southern Asia. While not a particularly long or costly conflict, the Asian American convinced the world's major powers to adopt a mobilization policy that greatly increased the size and strength of the world's militaries and set the stage for an even greater conflict.

This conflict started in 2105 when Russia invaded Mongolia after linking terrorist activity in Russia to cells in China. China moves to protect its new territory and uses the Invasion to declare war on Russia, the U.S., and the EU. Russia's invasion is soon halted at the Battle of Dzavhan. China followed up this victory with a large scale counter invasion that was able to move across the Russian border less than a month later. Meanwhile the U.S. Led Coalition moves to "suppress" Chinese aggression (China used the war with Russia to move troops into Cambodia, the explanation for this invasion was that Russia was using the Land to garrison bombers to hit industrial centers in southern China, this invasion was, however, a violation of the Treaty of Beijing) in southern Asia and managed to gain several victories in Vietnam and Cambodia. In response to this, China convinced the newly formed South American Union to join the war on the its side by sending substantial amounts or capital and material resources to the country. The South American Union moved to invade North America. After destroying the Panama Canal, South American forces moved into Mexico where they engaged Mexican and American forces in a prolonged land war. While the SAU never managed to secure any large amount of land in North America, its action forces The U.S> to abandon most of its gains in Asia to protect its own borders and the war in Asia grinds to a stalemate, which allows china to amount an invasion of India. A terrorist Organization known as the Black Sword takes advantage of the following instability in India to gain control of nuclear missile silos and is able to launch nuclear missiles against what it calls "lesser nations", namely the United States. The U.S., believing the missiles to be Chinese, fires its Nuclear arsenal against China. This leads China to fire its missile against coalition forces which leads the other nuclear powers of the world to fire their missiles against their enemies. An estimated 98% of national governments are wiped out or irreparably crippled. 68% of the earth's population is wiped with another 24% dying in the coming months. This effectively ends the now named third world war.

The Ramiatic Era

(2360 - 2542)

The Reuniting of Humanity

After the third world and the following nuclear holocaust the surviving humans organized themselves into small tribal cultures that have little contact with one another for almost 200 years. It was not until a man known as Joseph Ramian came to power in the Tariman tribe that this system was challenged. The Tariman tribe was a large band of semi-nomadic peoples that was characterized by its brutal hit and run tactics and large use of vehicles. The Tarimans had waged almost constant war with the larger Anahal tribe over territory and hunting rights. One of the more successful Tariman Leaders was Joseph Ramian. He was a master at outmaneuvering his enemies and had the uncanny ability to predict his adversaries tactics and strategies. Later it will be suggested that Ramian was one of the first fully developed human psychic. This theory, however, was never proven. Ramian eventually became leader of Tavian chapter. The largest subgroup of the Tariman tribe. It is at this time that it is believed Ramian discovered the ruins of Washington D.C. and more importantly the Smithsonian institutes. Awed by the former glory of humanity, Ramian set out to unite humanity and return it to its former glory. His first order of business was to gain control of the Tariman tribe. Traditionally the Tariman were ruled by a council consisting of the leaders of each of the subgroups of the tribe and did not contain an executive officer. Tariman law stated that an executive could only be appointed in times of war. However, this was not to happen for another 3 year until the Anahal tribe discovered the ruins of Washington. The Anahal, declared that the area was religiously significant and began attacking Tariman settlements in the area. Ramian sensed the opportunity and launched a series of counterattacks on the Anahal which removed them from the area. Declaring the Anahal Actions an act of war, Ramian was able to secure for himself executive authority in the Tariman Tribe and preceded to wage an all out war on the Anahal. The Anahal, not accustomed to such large engagements, were slow to respond to the aggression and were conquered in less than four months.

With The Anahal out of the way the Tariman quickly expanded. They set up permanent settlement and controlled most of the east coast of the former United States in five years. Over the next ten years the Tariman Tribe continued to conquer and expand until they control almost all of North America and parts of South America. It is at this point that Ramian faced his next major challenge. This challenge was the Ana-Sav and Gal-Morov tribes. The Ana-Sav controlled most of the western coast of the former United States and Canada while the Gal-Morov held northern former Canada and former Greenland. The Ana-Sav joined the Tariman peacefully under the condition that its representatives be given a say in the government and that they would be able to continue to have a measure of self-rule. The Gal-Morov were less cooperative and began to gather their military forces along their border with the Tariman. In response, Ramian orders the mobilization of his own forces and situated them along the border. Hostilities began a few weeks later when the leader of a Tariman scouting party is killed by an enemy sniper. Ramian took the initiative and Moved his troops into Gal-Morov territory. Consequently, the officer that was killed was one of relatively few Ana-Savs in the military, this helped to galvanize the Ana-Sav against the Gal-Morov and helped Ramian to end the conflict quickly. This happened two months later when Ramian's troops marched unopposed into the Gal-Morov capital of Malerick. After his defeat of the Gal-Morov, Ramian sought to consolidate his holdings into a more unified and defendable state. He called this new state the United Terran Affiliate and divided it into twenty regions. He also replaced the old tribal council with a newer and more powerful senate (although many of the former councilmen will be senators in their respective regions). Each region was given the power to elect 5 senators to serve in the senate. The senate in the Affiliate had the power to create and enforce laws. Ramian also appointed himself the new executive of the Affiliate. As leader, or Premiere, he became the leader of the senate and maintained control of the Army. Ramian also set up a court system with the help of Samir Marshall.

With his new State secure, Ramian attempted to open up communication with Europe and Asia. It is at this time that we find out about the Merengetti Empire, a Large Human state that controls most of Europe and Asia. The Merengetti refuse to recognize the Affiliate as a sovereign power and refused to negotiate with Affiliate Representatives. In response to this, Ramian Set up Strong holds in Alaska, Hawaii and Greenland to help defend against a Merengetti Attack.

The First Merengetti War

This attack came less than a year later when the Merengetti launched a full scale invasion of Alaska. Instead of leading from the front as he previously did, Ramian took a more political role in this conflict. It was actually Ramian's son, Alexander Ramian, who led the defense of Affiliate territory. While he lacked the political prowess of his father, Alexander was an unmatched military commander. Instead of engaging the much larger Merengetti force directly, Alexander began a slow tactical retreat with periodic hit and run attacks on the enemy. Using this technique he forced the invaders to over-extend themselves. This went on until the Battle of Mt. St. Elias where Alexander had prepared strong defensive fortifications. It was that this point that Alexander put his plans into action. He sent word to troops which had been hiding behind the Merengetti advance to attack the poorly defended supply lines and steal of destroy Merengetti Fuel and Ammunition stockpiles. This plan also involved a high risk attacks on several Merengetti held ports including Seldovia, Wales, and Nome. The most dangerous by far of these attacks wahttp://bluwiki.com/index.php?title=Black_Age&action=edit&section=9 Editing Black Age (section)s the attack on Nome, which was well supplied and heavily defended. This attack was to be led by General George Hendrick. Hendrick's Guerrilla fighters had been staging hit and run attacks behind enemy lines since the beginning of the Merengetti invasion and were some of the most experienced soldiers in the Affiliate. Hendrick was also a brilliant tactician and a close friend of Alexander. These attacks began as the Merengetti were making their assault on Mt. St. Elias, this made sure that the bulk of the enemy was focused on Alexander, giving the raiders a higher chance of success. The Gambit of surprisingly successful, with all of the intended targets captured, with the exception of the port at wales. The Merengetti saw themselves being surrounded. They could not break Alexander's defense and advance but not have the supplies to retreat back to former Russia. After a 40 day siege of St. Elias Alexander went on the offensive, Staging a massive flank of the Merengetti army while it was focused on the St. Elias Defenses. Alexander led the attack personally. Clandestinely smuggling his elite troop out of their defenses and around to the Merengetti's left. The Attack lasted only seven hours and all but destroyed the Merengetti force. Unable to maneuver and short on supplies, the leader of the Merengetti force, Luther Von Rictoven, surrendered to Alexander. Alexander moved quickly to secure the Alaskan coastline line and eliminate any remnant of the invaders. A month Later, After receiving additional men and supplies, Alexander mounted his own invasion.

The invasion of the Merengetti Empire of a textbook example of the type of lightning war that had characterized the Tavian tribe of old. Using newly constructed tanks and other armored vehicles, Alexander was able to again outflank the Merengetti army by destroying its ability to maneuver. The invasion was also helped by the Merengetti's own pride, which led them to often refuse to destroy their supplies dumps when being routed by the enemy. The affiliate also found other human nations which were more than willing to help overthrow the Merengetti, which they saw as an unjust oppressor. The most notable of these nations were the Si-Chame Confederacy and Jesuit Alliance. The Si-Chame confederacy held lands in southern Asia including former Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and parts of former India. The Si-Chame were most notable for their Naval Prowess, A factor which allowed them to stay independent from the Merengetti and a strength that greatly aided the Affiliate Cause. The Jesuit Alliance consisted of a band of city states in former Italy and other area of southern Europe. Although not active until the later stages of the conflict, The Jesuit's proved invaluable in that they supplied several regiments of elite shock troops to the army and in that they gave the affiliate a staging area for their invasion of Europe. The Invasion of Asia went surprisingly well. According to local information, Asia consisted of several conquered states and was only lightly defended. The local populous also aided the Invasion by providing intel and forming a resistance. It was not until Alexander reached Former Belarus and Ukraine that he faced serious opposition. After this point Alexander's advance slowed to a crawl. The Invasion's dominance of the sea and the underground's constant attacks of Merengetti supply lined prevented them from mounting a serious counterattack. After two years with littler progress Alexander disparately needed to find a gap in the Merengetti defenses and began looking for an alternate plan of attack. This led him to find the Jesuit Alliance, which allowed him to use their lands as a staging area. The Jesuit also had an unintended effect on the Invasion army. The Jesuit's practiced an ancient religion known as Christianity. The fact that the Alliance had survived this long so close to the Merengetti homeland, along with the active evangelization efforts of the Jesuit's caused a large number of the Invasion army to convert to Christianity, Alexander himself is said to have embraced the old religion (whether this was sincere or to promote unity among his forces is still unknown). In any case, this new sense of unity among the Invasion forces help to raise moral while they prepared to invade the most heavily defended portions of the Merengetti Empire. The Invasion's codename was operation leviathan, and it was planned in the utmost of secrecy. A fake invasion, codenamed operation endgame, was even staged to fool the Merengetti into misallocating resources, this fake invasion alleged that Alexander would move his troops into former Sweden and stage an amphibious landing to former Denmark. To further the ruse Alexander spent most of the pre-invasion time in Sweden, relying secret orders to his men by radio and courier. During this time the Three-powers conference was held (also in absolute secrecy) near Former Milan. During this Meeting the leader's of The United Human Affiliate, Si-Chame Confederacy, and Jesuit Alliance met and drafted the articles of cooperation. This document was more or less a military alliance that cemented the alliance between the powers and stated their goal of eliminating the Merengetti Empire. This also marked the first time the Ramian set foot on European soil, late stating "it wasn't near as pretty as the Merengetti POWs made it out to be." One of the major problems that Alexander faced before the invasion was a way to play the Affiliate's strengths against the Merengetti. The Affiliate army was trained, and excelled, as fast paced vehicular warfare supported be infantry raided and hit and run attacks. The Affiliate was not equipped or trained for direct large scale assaults and often floundered when faced with long term trench warfare. The Affiliate's lighting war worked well in Asia where Merengetti had only small defenses and were often under supplied, The Merengetti homeland, however, contained and myriad of solid defensive fortifications including walls, bunker complexes, and defended cities. They also contained several of the most feared form of Merengetti Defense, the ominous Flak Towers. Only two such Fortifications existed in Asia and both had caused major problems for the invasion. The Meregetti Homeland contained no less than 23 flak towers, 4 of which surrounded the Merengetti capital of Tarsus, which was located near former Berlin. Alexander finally resolved to try and bypass the bulk of the Menengetti Defenses by pushing his invasion force through former France where the Merengetti had substantially less defenses. This would be a much longer route than going directly into former Germany but Alexander hoped that the speed of his army, mixed with the relatively show moving Merengetti army, would allow him to retain the upper hand.

The invasion began on July 12, 2383. The initial invasion went well. with over 4 million invasion troops moving into Merengetti territory. The first major battle of the campaign took place a week later at St. Etienne. Affiliate troops gained the upper hand after 3 days of fighting as forced the Merengetti into retreat to the defenses of Lyon. While his advisory urged his to bypass Lyon, Alexander saw it as a way to give his troops a major victory and deal a major blow to the Merengetti army. Lyon, However, was one of the most heavily defended area in southern France and its defenses included one of the seemingly unbreakable Merengetti Flak towers. It was the Jesuit Alliance that purposed a solution to this Problem. The alliance proposed that they could land paratrooper on the flak tower and try and take it from the inside. This was thought to be impossible because the Flak tower had a copious array of anti air defenses. The alliance, however, pointed out that the week after next there would be extensive cloud cover over Lyon that could cover an airborne landing force. This however would make accurately dropping paratroopers next to impossible. Alexander eventually agreed to the plan but wrote in his log that "it was a gambit that I did not think I could spare". The Alliance sent its elite troops, the Seraphim corps, the make the landing. The Seraphim were considered to be among the best assault troops in the invasion force and some of the most experienced troopers in the Invasion force. They were so effective that they are still studied by modern Imperial assault troop. The Seraphim specialized in HALOs (High Altitude Low Opening) that made them stay in the air as little as possible. The Assault took place on schedule, with the Seraphim dropping into the city while Alexander assaulted it form the outside. Despite heavy casualties the Seraphim were able to take the tower and secure it. They then turn the tower's guns on the Merengetti, causing confusing and allowing Alexander to take the city in only four days. The Merengetti never fully recovered from their loss at Lyon, and Alexander pushed his advantage, overtaking retreating Merengetties and scoring major victories at Besançon, Strasbourg, and Luxembourg. Alexander's push into former Germany was aided by the large underground that had been brooding since the end of the war. The war had also placed the Merengetti in a financial crisis and Merengetti citizens often welcomed invasion troops and gave them aid. Alexander lay siege to the Merengetti capital of tarsus in late 2384. Following 80 days of shelling and bombing Alexander mounted his final assault on the capital. The attack of victorious, but Alexander, who, as alway, led from the front, was killed on the steps of the Menengetti palace.

With the Merengetti broken, Ramian quickly moved in too bring the former Merengetti citizens into his alliance. During the Tarsus conference, the leaders of the three powers agreed on the act of union. This document was the culmination of Ramian's efforts to unite the human race. It formed the three powers, as well as the former Merengetti empire, into a single state known as the New Terran Republic. The Terran council in also formed which serves as the legislative body of the new nation. Ramian is elected President of the new nation. While the council members were elected democratically, Ramian was given (or obtained) a life term and hereditary succession.

The Reformation of the New Terran Republic

In the wake of 2nd Merengetti war, the fledging Terran Republic, although victorious against the Merengetti, was floundering in its attempts to control its own dominion. In the wake of the war several dissident factions, including some from the former directorate army, began to question and even challenge the right of the republic to govern them. This predicament was worsened by the fact that the new Terran Council took unacceptable long amounts of time to pass any sort of legislation. The infrastructure of the new republic was also less than adequate. With many former war zones still unfit for human inhabitation. This created a large number refugee camps. These camps boosted little more in the way of sanitation than the Merengetti ruins. The camps were rife with disease and civil unrest of every kind. They were also prime recruiting areas for the political dissidents that continued to try and spread disorder throughout the Republic.

This unrest reached a peak during the 10 bay of anarchy. This consisted of coordinated attacks by several of the largest rebel factions in an attempt to cripple the military and governing power of the Republic. There was even an attempt made on the Life of Ramian. The event started when terrorists managed to shoot down a plane carrying Ramian and several of his top advisors. The plane crashed into the ocean near the coast of Former Portugal. With Ramian, the symbol and controlling force in the government, out of the way, the rebels made their attack. The bulk of the attacks took place in Europe and Asia, but some even took place in the North American. The rebellion was eventually put down, but it left thousands of soldiers and over hundred thousand civilians dead in its wake. A large number of councilmen were also assassinated, leaving the new legislative body largely inoperable. Ramian, who managed to survive the crash, emerged in the capital a week later and took personal control of the forces defending the city. After to conclusion of the 10 days Ramian, aware that massive change was needed, Took full control of the Republic and, with the help of his personal advisors and a few able councilmen, set out on a massive reform project in the hopes of stabilizing the Republic and solidifying his work of uniting the human race. The first thing that was issued by this new governmental body was the Declaration of rights of citizens of the republic. This act enacted large numbers of social reforms that helped to stabilize the Republic and pull support away from the dissident factions. In the wake of the Merengetti war, several citizens of the alliance moved into Merengetti territory in the hopes of getting rich quick or making a new lives for themselves and their families. These new settlers often clashed with the current formerly Merengetti inhabitants. This led to such things as vigilante police forces, lynching, and discrimination on a massive scale. The Declaration sought to stop this by making it a crime to discriminate against anyone because of race, or former allegiance. It also made every human currently living in Republic territory a citizen which was entitled to all of the rights granted a citizen of the republic. The declaration also strengthened the power of domestic security forces, giving them more power to arrest and hold possible suspects while making it illegal for any private citizen �to take the law into their own hands.� The act also reformed the court system, making the legal process faster and, to an extent, less corrupt and bureaucratic. Finally, the Declaration set up a bill of rights that helped to guarantee the rights and safety of Republic citizens.

The second act of the body, now known as the temporal council, was to reform legislative process and powers of the Terran council so that crises such as the ten days of anarchy never occurred again. It also want to reform the government. The reforms were eventually gathered in Declaration of Proper Governmental Order. It reorganized the Republic into provinces. Each province had a limited amount of self-government so that it could attend to itself and maintain order within its own borders. The Central Government was also given more power so that it could quickly respond to problems that arose. The New Terran council, now called the House of Order, was established. Each of the 200 Republic provinces was to send five delegates to the House, making a total of 1000 representative present in the new legislative body. Ramian was also sure to make an allowance for an Executive department of the new government that could act as a symbol of strength and security for the citizens of the Republic. This new executive would be the head of the House of Order as well as the commander and chief of the Military. This executive would also be given a life term as well as the right of hereditary succession. However, the position would not put the individual in it above the law, and this leader would have in all respects the same rights and duties of everyday private citizens.

With this act in place elections were held to elect the new representative of the council. With the formation of the New legislature Ramian dissolved the temporal council. However, Ramian kept most of the former temporal council in his newly formed cabinet, including such positions as the minister of war, the minister of finances, and the minister of order.

The final act of the Temporal council was to commission a massive building project to restore the battlefields of the 1st Merengetti war sos they could move the refugees out of their abominable camps. This project was spearheaded by former Alliance leader Gonzollas, who knew that for order to be restored the camps must be vacated and destroyed. The main success of the project was that it created job for the people in the camps and gave them a chance to move out and back into their former homes. Although the initial rebuilding would not be completed for another ten years, the jobs and new sense of worth experienced by the refugees allowed for order in the camps to be easily maintained. The largest portion of the project focused on the new republic capital. Ramian was well aware that humanity required a symbol that could strike fear into its enemies and respect into its citizens. For this reason the location of the capital was placed on the ruins of former Tarsus (the Merengetti capital) literally crushing the old Merengetti empire. The capital was named Alexandria after Ramian's son, who was instrumental in the downfall of the Merengetti and personally took the city for the republic.

With the reformation completed Ramian was able to rest easily knowing that his goal of reuniting the human race was complete. Ramian would Die three years later and was laid to rest in a tomb in the center of the capital of Alexandria.

The Great revival

After Ramian's Death the new Republic faced yet another time of uncertainty. The succession of Ramian second son, Thomas Ramian, was not entirely well received. While intelligent and good willed, Thomas was not near as charismatic or inspiring as his father, which left his open the scrutiny of other who wished to take the throne for themselves. Political dissidents and rivals for the seat of power pushed for elected leadership or even usurping Thomas and placing themselves on the throne. However, one talent the Thomas received from his father was that he was a good judge of people. Using this, Thomas appointed former army general and tactician Arthur Wellington to be the prime minister of the Republic. Through political skill Thomas was able to get the approval of the council, which lent even more weight to his appointment. While Thomas was quiet and calculating, Wellington was heroic and inspiring. Wellington was able to give new respect to the Position of Executive of the republic and struck fear into those who might challenge it. With the immediate threat of dissension out the way, Thomas was able to focus his attention on other matters. Unlike the time in which his father ruled, the Republic during the reign of Thomas was largely peaceful. with was out of the way, Thomas set about restoring the technological advance of humanity. After the Third World War the technological advance of the human race completely stopped and in many area declined. To begin this project Thomas commissioned the excavation of known knowledge archives such as the Smithsonian in former Washington as well as other sights in former London, China, France, and Germany. Thomas also ordered the requisition of all documents formerly belonging to the Merengetti Empire. Using this knowledge Thomas set up the College of Engineering to act as a center for the newfound knowledge and train potential that might help develop and advance the technology. The Republic Academy was also established to school military officers.

Education seemed to be a common theme throughout the reign of Thomas. He set up a public schooling system that gave Republic citizens an education equivalent to that of a high school education in the Pre-World War Three west. Multiple colleges were also established by the government as well as private institutions. With the establishment of there school Thomas turn the college of engineers into a sort of research facility rather than a direct school. He also expanded it to include the college of technology, the college of medicine, and the college of Exploration. The college of exploration was of particular importance to Ramian because he wished to establish a republic space program. Using the college of exploration, Republic scientist commandeered many of the satellites that were still in orbit around the earth and were able to send the first Republic humans into space within eight years. The college of exploration was also tasked with the recolonization of South America and Africa. These area had been largely thought of as uninhabitable because of the substantial amount of radiation received during the Third world war. Speculation about these areas were also high, with many thinking that they were infested with every sort of abominable creature, from zombie like humanoid groups to massive flesh eating plants. These rumors were fueled by the fact that almost all patrols into the area had been lost and the large number of crashes that occurred when planes overflew the area. There were even an disproportionately large number of lost vessels that had been sailing off their coasts. Thomas, wishing to take the land for colonization sent a large military detachment into Africa to determine the nature of the land there. Thomas also issued the commanders of the force special radiation absorbing equipment to help clear the land for colonization. What the army found there was appalling. There was no sign of any human survivors in the area. however, the land was by no mean lifeless. The expedition reported that the initial search area was inhabited by "massive insect-like organisms, and well as dangerously large carnivorous plants. The source of these mutations would eventually be linked bio-warheads used by Russia in the final stages of the Third world war (the weapons were not used against Asia because they were still experimental, and their potency was "questionable"). The greatest threat, however, came when the expedition teams made their way into former Sudan. Their the expedition found the first confirmed sighting of what would be eventually known as Alouatta Novus. The Alouatta Novus, more commonly known as Screamers, are thought to be highly evolved or mutated monkeys of the Pre-World War Three era (the "screamer" nickname comes from the high pitched sounds they make, supposedly to communicate, similar to that of howler monkeys). The bio-toxins in the Russian warheads had caused these monkeys to develop symptoms similar to rabies, but on a more severe level, it also caused the monkeys greatly increased size and body structure. Another side effect of the toxins was that it caused the monkeys to become carnivorous (was caused this is unknown but some speculate that it could be caused by the large amount of protein that the animals had to take in to support themselves). The first specimens that the expedition found were corpses. The remains suggested that groups of the monkeys were fighting each other, which meant that the animals had some sense of community and possibly intelligence. The first encounter with live Alouatta Novus came two weeks later when a group of about 28 Alouatta attacked an expedition camp. The animals were repelled, but not before 12 soldiers and 2 scientists were killed. This attack convinced the republic government to send addition aid to the expedition, In the of two armored divisions and 10,000 men. As a force moved deeper they found even more signs of the intelligence of the Alouatta, including basic shelters and weapons. This movement also caused more Alouatta attacks, with the expedition, now a full fledged invasion force, making attacks of their own. With the new men and material, the expedition was able to clear some areas for habitation. however, most of these were slow to come into being, and mostly consisted of fortified towns close to existing military bases. With the successful clearing of Sudan, Thomas himself ordered a dwelling built for himself in the area to help encourage colonization (this dwelling was, ironically enough, more of a compound than a home, consisting of twenty foot defensible wall and multiple defense installations).

Meanwhile the Invasion forces moved further south into Kenya and Tanzania. It was there that they encountered the Homo Novus, Similar to the Alouatta Novus, these creatures are thought to have evolved from humans that were infected with the Russian bio-toxins. These creature were often seen acting as leaders of groups of Alouatta and often led attacks against the expedition. Although more intelligent than the Alouatta, the Homo Novus were in most cases were little more than rabid animals they led. Such abominations convinced the Republic to start massive bombing campaign against the creatures. Massive amounts of incendiary and conventional ordinance were dropped in an attempt to eradicate any threat of human habitation. Thousands of acres were also burned in an attempt to drive out the Alouatta. The "liberation" of Africa would continue for another 4 years before the entire continent was considered safe. Meanwhile, Researchers at the Republic colleges had made great technological advances were brought humanity back to the state that it had been before the third world was and quickly beyond it. The Republic was soon able to land on the moon and would set up permanent habitats there. The Republic space program was also able to land on mars, and were surprised to discover that several of the former American habitats were still functional, and populated. American scientists told the Republic that their descendants had lost contact with their superiors but were aware that some form of cataclysmic event has taken place (this being the primary reason that they did not attempt to make the return journey to earth.) The scientist were also able to give knowledge to the Republic in the form of advanced power cells and atmosphere creation systems. However, not all of the Martian inhabitants were friendly. A groups of these former Americans refused to pledge allegiance to the Republic, claiming that they were still, and forever would be, Americans. These Rebels were successful at repelling the initial Republic action because of the lack of weaponry of the Republic forces. In response The Republic sent a task force of 2000 army personnel to pacify what it saw as open revolt. After 8 months of conflict the "rebellion" was put down, but the rebels continued to wage a guerrilla war that would last another 8 years.

Overall the great revival would last over most of Thomas' 45 year reign. During this period Mankind reestablished itself as a technological power and set up its first colonies. Making was also able to rediscover the arts, since life was no longer an everyday battle for survival. When Thomas Died he was buried on mars facing outward away from the sun so that, in a way, he would always represent looking toward the future.

The First Xeno-Terran War

Thomas was succeeded by his son Isaac. Isaac seemed to be content to maintain the status quo rather than make strides like his predecessors, and in many ways this was accepted since the Republic was in a state of general welfare at the time. One of the things that Isaac did do, however, was to greatly expand the Republic space program. He commissioned the construction of several Permanent orbiting facilities as well as creating larger settlements on mars and the moon. It is also under him that new artificial gravity machines and Faster propulsion systems were developed, allowing humanity to send humans as far as the asteroid field in less than a year. However, these new colonies brought new unrest, and a new flare up of terrorist activity occurred on mars. Isaac sent republic forces to quell the activity and began construction on a the first human military space vessels. Current human space transports offered very little protection from hostiles. This became painfully obvious when rebel took control of 4 Martian rail guns (these devices were meant to be a way to send cargo and mineral to earth quickly, but could easily be weaponized by loading the guns with explosives and aiming them at hostile targets) and used the weapons to decimate a group of Martian security force vessel, destroy 8 and crippling 7 others. The new vessels, built specifically for military purposes, would offer some protection against these types of attacks as well as bring such weapons to bear on the enemy. The first of these vessels, the RSV (Republic Sailing Vessel) Alexander, left its port in orbit around the earth in early 2461. It was less than a year later that a research outpost picked up 3 unidentified craft entering space approximately 230 miles from the Martian surface heading toward earth. The report made by the research team said that the craft were "of unknown make of origin" and "were traveling far faster than any made vessel could." The report also said that one of the craft seemed to have "extensive structural damage" The craft passed near earth 4 days later, with the lead (the one that was noted for structural damage) entering the earth�s atmosphere and landing in southern Africa near a republic military outpost. The other two ships made 180 turn in their course and the solar system almost immediately. Isaac immediately dispatched troops to secure the area. When republic troop reached the crash they found that the ship had sustained tremendous structural damage that only one of the crew was alive, with the other two dying in the crash. This alien, the first confirmed extraterrestrial, surrendered to republic forces and was afterwards transported to an undisclosed facility for decontamination and study. Isaac himself went to observe the alien, who, surprising, spoke English. The told the humans that he was a defector, fleeing his native land because of the tyranny that controlled its administration. He then provided the humans with data that he had stored in his ship in an attempt to win over the trust of his new masters. The data that the alien provided contained a wealth of information on advanced technologies that humans had previously only dreamed of. The Alien, identifying himself as Naxium, was given an honorary republic citizenship. However, the alien also warned Isaac that his race was at war with another alien race known as the Ami-Akais, and that the war was moving in the direction of the solar system. He also told the human that earth would be a prime target for either race because of its high oxygen content and natural resources. This prompted one of the most massive military building project ever undertaken in human history as Isaac attempted to prepare for an inevitable alien invasion. Armed with the advanced knowledge of Naxium (who was also able to give the humans intelligence on the military capabilities of each alien race) the humans began to building several newer and more capable space combat vessels as well creating advanced armor and weaponry for the Republic infantry. This preparation would be put to the test 3 years later when colonies on mars detected a massive amount of unidentified alien craft heading in their direction. However, before it could reach human space it was intercepted by another large group of alien craft that engaged the other craft in battle. In the wake of the battle the victors, which appeared to be the Ami-Akais, continued their route towards mars, intent on an easily overtaking any defenses that the planet might have to offer. However, the human forces were determined to make such a victory as costly as possible for the invaders, and a force of 23 human capital ship engaged the invasion force (which consisted of 11 ships) the humans were able to gain an early advance by taking out two alien ships at the start of the engagement. The tide of battle quickly turned against the human as the larger, more advanced, alien ships forced the human into a retreat. The battle was not a complete loss however, with the humans able to retreat and only losing three vessels (with the Ami-Akais losing four). The 5th fighter group, a force of one man fighter craft, also distinguished itself by covering the retreating attack force from enemy fighters. The Ami-Akais eventually gave up their chase and the humans were spared, for the moment. However, a week later a massive Ami-Akais attack force hit the Human defenses on mar, wiping out almost all of the defenses. The human defenders were able to hold out for three days but were eventually overrun. After it lost contact with its Martian colonies the Humans on Earth began preparing for the inevitable invasion. This came 4 days later at during what is now known as the battle for South America. Ami-Akais and Aeriam Electorate engaged in a major naval battle in Earth upper atmosphere over former South America. About two hour into the battle the Electorate Forces released a substantial amount of Landing craft that entered the earth atmosphere and made landfall in former Argentina. The Ami-Akais soon followed suit with a landing force of their own and the rival forces soon engaged each other in a massive ground war in the Jungles. The humans bided their time, hoping for the alien forces to weaken each other. This was also the first time that the human government witnessed the alien forces ground combat capabilities. The aliens would continue to engage each other and would send even more troops to earth�s surface. The conflict spread to the South American coastline and north into former Brazil.

It was here that the finally made a stand to try and ward off the Alien advance. Near the ruin of former Manaus the humans made their stand against an Aeriam attack force. The battle lasted eight hours, with the humans forced into a fighting retreat. The human forces continued their retreat until they reached fortified position near the newly constructed Panama Canal. The Aeriam forces were able to breech the human defenses yet again and the Human forces were forced to retreat into North America. By this time the both alien faction were landing forces on other parts of earth and actively trying to exterminate any human resistance. The Aliens would be successful at this for more than a year until the Ami-Akais were attacking the Republic capital of Alexandria and the Aeriam were assaulting former Washington, Ramian�s homeland. This seemed to be humanity most desperate hour, for if the aliens managed to take either city they would severely cripple the humanity�s ability to govern themselves or to mount any type of coordinated defense. With this in mind the human forces refused to abandon their posts and resolved to fight to the death rather than continue to retreat. The battle, coincidentally, happened at almost the same time. At Washington, the Aeriam forces breached the outer defenses and enemy forces streamed into the city; there the human forces waged a guerrilla war on the aliens as they tried to gain ground outside the city. The battle for Washington lasted for more than a month, with the Aeriam forces unable to take control of the city and forced to retreat. With the retreat of the Aeriam forces the human continued to mount hit and run attacks on the enemy supply trains and were able to severely cripple the Aeriam war machine in North America. The humans were also able to capture several Aeriam weapons and war machines, allowing them to reverse engineer the technology and so it to advance their own technologies. At Alexandria, the Ami-Akais laid siege the Republic city and cut off all supply routes into or out of the city. After two months the human supplies began to dwindle and Republic tacticians agreed that something had to be done to stop the siege or the human defenders would have no choice but to surrender. To this effect the human commander, Franco Romanov, organized a commando raid that would attempt to try and destroy Ami-Akais material assets as well as attempt to cripple the invader command and control. Romanov led 40 of the best human defenders out of the ramparts under the cover of darkness and infiltrated the Ami-Akais defenses. The human raiders split into 3 groups. The first group moved toward the ammunition stockpiles while the other two moved toward the officer�s quarters and the command and control center. The first group managed to evade defection and placed timed explosives in most of the Ami-Akais heavy artillery and sabotaged several of the enemy�s ammunition stockpiles. The second group moved into the Ami-Akais communication facility and was able to disable the enemy�s power generators. The final group moved to where the Ami-Akais Leadership was staying in an attempt to kill the officers and other important personnel. Using a potent nerve gas that was innocuous to humans but lethal to the Ami-Akais (this was developed with information Naxium provided) the human contaminated the Barracks ventilation systems and proceeded to attempt to storm the Ami-Akais officer lodge. At this point the Humans were discovered when the nerve agents began to affect the enemy; however, little effective resistance could be organized because of the lack of power and communication. Even so, all of the raider groups are forced into pitched close range gun fights cannot as planned. The third group is able to assassinate The Ami-Akain leader but is soon after trapped in his stateroom by enemy defenders. While the Enemy�s attention is focus on the Ami-Akais, Romanov is able to communicate with his subordinates in Tarsus and the rest of the human defense soon descends upon the alien camp in hopes of overrunning the invaders. The Ami-Akais try to focus their power on this new threat but are caught between the raiders and the rest of the human defenders. The battle last only two hours with almost all of the Alien forces killed of captured.

These battles will represent a turning point in what is now known as the 1st Xeno-Terran war. Both alien races are unable to fight the humans and each other and, within the next three year, are forced off the planet. The Ami-Akais soon left earth, leaving nothing behind. The Aeriam Electorate however, will eventually seek peace negotiations with the republic. This represents one of the few times in known history that humans and Aliens have come to any type of compromise. The document, known as the treaty of Washington (the site of the negotiations), sets up a military ceasefire between the nations and states that the Aeriam recognize the Republic and an independent and sovereign state. This truce will last almost five hundred years and set the course of future human expansion.

The Second Renaissance

In the wake of the First Xeno-Terran war a wave of nationalism swept through the Republic. An outcry for public works soon went out and everything from monuments to murals to museums was erected in most major Republic cities. In Alexandria, The monument to the army of the Republic was commission where it still stands today. Along with beautification of the Republics, the want of learning and advancement were rekindles, and the republic colleges were soon bursting at the seams with learners and visionaries alike. The witnessing of advance alien technology during the war had fed the imagination and curiosity of human scientists and would lead to great discoveries over the next 20 years. This period of art and advancement would come to be called the second renaissance. Another thing that came about in the wake of the war the thirst for expansion, although interstellar human colonization was thought to be impossible, a new discovery would soon prove that statement false. This discovery, considered to be one the most important in Human history, was the discovery of Theta waves, whose unique properties would revolutionize human technology.

Theta waves are similar to radiation, but are different in many ways. Theta waves are released by most super high energy bodies such and stars and black holes, but they are also given off by the brains of most living organism though thought and when they perform synapses. Until the second renaissance, humanity had no device capable of detecting theta particles, whose wavelength was even shorter than that of gamma particles. The first theta particles were discovered by Roy McGoffin, who was trying to perfect a new type of x-ray device. Theta particle have several unique properties that make them useful of humanity. The first of these is can be converted into particle (albeit unstable) and can be manipulated as such. These particles contain enormous amounts of energy and when triggered, they can do anything from power spacecraft engines to detonate explosives. Another things that was discovered about theta particles is that they were the cause of a common disease at the time, currently known as PNSS (Post nuclear stress syndrome), which often cause insanity in its victims. This disease was first discovered by a doctor Mitchell Hues, who notice that several of the patients that suffered that they called "a perpetual static sound in their heads" had an enlarged section of their brain, which was later termed the novel lobe. What was not known at the time was that the people that suffered from PNSS were actually the first human psychics. However, their novel lobes were not fully developed and therefore, instead of being able read and control "hearing" the thoughts of others, all they received was constant static sound when in the presence of other sentient beings. By this time there were several fully developed psychics in the Republic (the Republic military had even formed a psychic corps that trained psychics to use there powers for military purposes). From this it was discovered that theta particle were actually the source of a psychic powers. The most basic of these was telepathy. When a person thought something, the theta particles that his/her brain released would carry energy spikes and sag that would act as a sort of Morse code that advanced psychics could translate and understand (note, while most psychics and pick up these signals, very few can actually interpret them.) Other psychics would use theta particles to trigger synapses in animal and even humans, which resulted in a form of mind control over the target. Another common psychic ability was the ability to convert theta waves into theta particles without the help of special machines used by non psychic humans. After converting the particles, advanced psychics could �trigger� the particles, seemingly creating explosions from thin air, other could �ignite the particle, creating fire balls. Some could even wrap the particles around an object and manipulate, forming the basis of telekinesis. Apart from the knowledge of the origin of psychic potential in human, scientist began using this knowledge to try and manipulate theta particles using technological means. One of the first inventions that used theta particles successfully was the theta drive. This was a propulsion system that was than ten time as potent as the current human drive systems. Another groundbreaking discovery about theta particles was act they hindered man�s ability to observe the universe. The affect of theta particles on human telescopes was similar to that of Earth�s atmosphere, but more severe. After republic scientists managed to fix this problem, they found that the celestial bodies that they had observed before were actually far closer than originally thought, with star such as Alfa-Centari being less than half a light-year away. This completely changed human thought as far as the concept of inter-stellar colonization, and people as high up as the Isaac Ramian himself began to encourage research on the possibility of human interstellar colonization. The first unmanned probes are sent to Alfa-Centari two years later, and reached Alfa-Centari in another two years using the theta drive system. Probes were also sent to other planetary systems to search for possible planets would support intelligent life.

Noticing this new technology, the alien races of the Aeriam Electorate and the Ami-Akais began to watch the young race once again. The Aeriam, seeing the humans thought of manifest destiny as a way to weaken its own enemies, invited a group of human scientist and diplomats to an Ameriam planet. Once there, the human witnessed the true scope of the Aeriam domain, which consisted of over one hundred fully populated and civilized worlds and growing. They also were given secrets to basic faster than light travel and galactic maps detailing worlds that would support human life. This form of faster than light travel involved "catapulting" a ship off of a high gravity body (like a star) of a specially manufactured synthetic equivalent. This act of catapulting, along with a use of theta warps, which used theta particles to temporarely open up a wormhole in a certain direction and distance. This method, while common and refined by the Aeriam, was difficult for the humans to master, and many early explorers were sent millions of miles off their intended targets. The objective of this was to bring the human, who seemed to have uncanny abilities on the battlefield, into conflict with the Ami-Akais. With new good will towards their alien neighbors and the continued agreement of cease-fire, the Republic government agreed to stay away from all Aeriam claims, which of most of the space to the galactic southwest of earth. Using the technological secrets of the Aeriam, human scientist built the first ships capable of faster that light travel. These ships, known as explorers, were able to carry a small human along with ample supplies and equipment, they were also equipped with an early form of corrective warp, which had the limited ability to direct the wormhole opening to get human colonists closer to their intended targets.. The first planet to be colonized by humans was called Venture Prime, and was located approximately two light-years galactic west of earth. The planet's climate was slightly cooler than earth, with most of the planet's landmass covered with deciduous forests. The humans were quickly able to make a foothold on the world and establish their basic prefab shelter and communication equipment. The colony would continue to grow over the next several years as more colonists were sent to the planet. Human scientists on the world would document everything they could about the alien environment. The ecosystem of venture prime was largely the same as earth. however, the atmosphere of the planet absorbed the light and heat of the planet's star and spread it evenly throughout the entire surface of the planet. This meant that almost all of the planet was the same temperature and that the planet contained little diversity as far as environments. The life on the planet consisted of mostly large grazing deer like animals and a plethora of small sized mammals. The primary predators on the planet resembled the timber wolves of earth. There was also a large predator which the colonists described as a large furry carnivorous pig. The colony would continue to grow at a modest rate until the invention of "hyper gates" as they were know at the time made the act of colonizing a planet much easier. Hyper gates took advantage of already naturally occurring wormholes to create "portals' from one planet to another. The problem with these wormholes was that they only stayed open for a period of nanoseconds. They were also unpredictable. Hyper gate used theta particles to open, and keep open, wormholes so that they could be used by humans. In order to connect the opening of the wormhole the correct exit, human scientist created a "projection' mechanism into the gate which made sure that the wormhole would open in a certain direction, and connect to an "exit" gate on the other side, making faster than light travel much less risky. Using precise calculation they could project the wormholes at each side of the gate onto each other, causing them to create an open pathway to the desired destination. This technology was not perfected until almost a year and a half after the wormholes were developed, meaning that there were several instances of cargo, and even humans, being sent to still unknown locations.

On Earth, the renaissance continued to thrive. There was also for the first time a large middle class population in the republic that began to have time for more than simply surviving. This gave way to a larger intellectual populations and Republic universities swelled with new and potential learners. Even the death of Isaac Ramian could not stop the new fervor for learning. Isaac was succeeded by his son Christopher. Christopher moved to focus the power of renaissance toward the further colonization of humanity. The new executive also worked to strengthening the human military, knowing that his expansionist policy would eventually bring him into conflict with the Ami-Akais and possible other unknown enemies.

The Great Expansion

During the end of the second renaissance, the republic began a period of rapid colonization. This would also bring about about a series of small conflicts with other nations such as the Ami-Akis and Raadium Alliance. The first planet colonized during the period known as the great expansion was known as Bastion prime. This Planet would play a pivotal role in the future of the human colonization as it would serve as a hub for the multiple hyper-gates that were used to ferry men and supplies throughout the galaxy. It was also one of the few Planets that supported a hyper-gate large enough to accommodate capital class warships. This ability would make the planet a key strategic world for the human as well as a center for the Republic military. From Bastion, the humans continued to expand westward, settling the planet's Alexander prime and Oasis. The third planet to be taken was Hyperion prime, this world, unlike the others, was already colonized by the Ami-Akais, who had a modest number of colonists and settlers present on the world. The humans first tried to land on the world without alerting the aliens to their presence, but it failed to last as soon colonist from both parties were waging small scale border war on the opposing faction. In response, both nations responded in sending large naval armadas to the planet in hopes of taking the world for themselves. The fleets would meet in high orbit above the planet in what is now known as the battle of calypso (a moon that was near to where the battle was taking place.) The Human forces in the battle used the newer and stronger guardian-class heavy cruisers as well as a small number of even larger Vulcan-class Battle ships. These ships, however, were still small in comparison to the Ami-Akis, who primarily used their Battleships and destroyer, both of which were more than a mile long. While bigger, the Ami-Akais ships were slower and more suited the firing from a stationary position at a stationary target as had been done in battles with the Aeriam Electorate. The humans had no intention of doing this, as their warships were equipped to fire and move at the same time. The human ships were also more maneuverable than their Ami-Akais counterparts. The final advantage that the humans held in combat was the superiority of their small fighter craft, which were faster and more powerful than the Ami-Akais equivalent. The battle of Calypso lasted 2 hours and went surprisingly well for the humans. The Ami-Akais were so surprised at the speed and tactics of the humans that most were not even able to retreat before being overtaken. This battle convinced the aliens to give up their claims to Hyperion and retreat to better defended outposts. This battle also established the superiority of the Republic navy in battle. The Republic navy would continue to dominate space warfare for the next twenty years and would greatly aide human interests during the remainder of the Great Expansion. Over the next 3 years the humans would take several more planets. They would also developed newer and better methods of interstellar travels such as the Theta-gate, which was able to create and connect two wormholes using only one gate, meaning that humans could instantly transport themselves to potential planets for surveying and initial exploration. The problem with theta gates was that they took an enormous amount of power to operate, limiting their size and frequency of use. To address this human scientist developed the Spencer method of planetary colonization. Using this method, a small group of colonists would use a theta gate to warp to a potential planet. Once there the colonist would assemble a pre-constructed hyper-gate about 4 meters in diameter. Using this hyper-gate the human could send a large stream of personnel and supplies to the world. The second wave of colonist would bring the materials to construct a standard sized hyper-gate (about 40 meters in diameter) or even larger if the situation demanded. Using this method, a new planet could be colonized in less than a week, greatly expediting the act of traveling to and scoping out new worlds for possible inhabitation.

However, the rapid expansion had the effect of spreading humanity faster than it could secure its new domain, and with humanity venturing farther and farther into unknown territory, it became clear that the alien nations were not going to sit idle while humans encroached upon their territory. This became apparent when a team of human explorers came into contact with the Raadium Alliance. The humans were intcepted and detained. When news of this reached the Republic Government they dispatched an envoy of 20 warships to "Investigate" and determine the cause of the action. Unfortunately, the only Raadium officials present when the human fleet arrived were non-senior military commanders, and no one on either side could communicate in the each other's language. Consequently, communication between the factions quickly broke down and one side or the other (who shot first was never determined) opened fire and a full scale naval engagement ensued. What was interesting about this particular battle was its brevity as well as its brutality. The fighting lasted only 45 minutes. However, both sides lost 90% percent of their air power and the survivors were forced to make landfall on the planet's surface. Here, it was the humans that claimed the initiative, with a lieutenant Anderson leading a group of about 200 human survivors in an attack on the enemy's supposed land site. Here the fighting lasted longer, most of the combatants on either side were navy personnel with little or no experience with ground warfare. The humans eventually prevailed, but when the fighting was over only 23 humans and no Raadians had survived the engagement. It also became known that all of the humans the envoy had been sent to rescue had died in the confrontation. The entire operation was a disaster, and destroyed any chance of friendly relations between the humans and the Raadium Alliance in the near future. Both sides only raised tensions by massing military forces along their respective borders in what was thought to be an inevitable confrontations. The conflict opened with the battle of the Gellog Pass, in which the human were able to gain a narrow victory and push the Raadium forces into a retreat, the humans continued their advance until they reached the Solomon Divide. The Solomon Divide was a massive asteroid field. Almost 2 Light years long and one half long and tall, it one one of the largest asteroid clusters in the known galaxy, it also presented a natural barrier for space travel as the asteroid were to dangerous navigate at any type of substantial speed. Here the war ground to a stalemate, the Raadium were also in a war with the Ami-Akais at the time, so to try and negotiate a truce with the Humans they organized the Solomon conference, with produced the Solomon nonaggression pact. This document stated that the Republic would halt its expansion at the Solomon belt. It also said the Raadium alliance would respect the current human gains and recognize The Republic as a sovereign state. Although this pact would help the human in the years to come it was met with resentment by some who wished for humanity to conquer the entirety of the galaxy. To try and unite humanity Christopher himself went to oversee the final signing of the treaty. This proved to be a fatal mistake, and the Hyper gate Christopher used to travel to the conference malfunctioned and the wormhole collapsed with the leader of humanity still inside. Christopher's death was made even worse in that he left no heir, leaving the position of leader of the Republic open. Although the peace agreement with the Raadium was completed, the future of humanity was still uncertain. Rival factions in the Council and otherwise came from everywhere with claims to the throne. Added to this was the fact that many considered the "malfunction" an assassination. This rose to the point of almost anarchy and the Council eventually wrote and passes resolution 274. This stated that in the event that the executive of the Republic should die and leave no heir, then the Viable provinces will vote on the new executive. The Republic at that time contained 850 provinces (these included the original 200 provinces from earth as well as 650 new provinces that had been added for off world colonies that met the minimum population requirements). The election process was a massive undertaking for humanity at the time and no one will ever know how accurate the final outcome was. Nevertheless, General Karl Von Metternich, a hero of the Republican-Raadium War, was elected to the position of executive. This represented the end of an era for the Republic and the beginning of something completely different.

The Imperial Era

(2543 - 2977)

The Birth of the Ramiatic Empire

The Reign of Metternich cam under fire as soon as the man took office. Unlike the previous executives who could trace their lineage back to the Legendary Joseph Ramian, Metternich had only his military record and a questionable election upon which to base his authority. Rival parties still made claims to the throne. The loudest of these malcontents was Admiral Davin West. West was another hero of the Raadium war. While Metternich was in command of the Republic ground forces, West commanded the Republic Navy. Supposedly, West was told by a Republic Councilman that he had actually won the election and was the rightful successor to the throne. West set up his base of operations on the planet Alexander III where he enjoyed a large amount of popular support. At first Metternich did little to stop these dissidents. However, he mobilized the Republic military and made sure that none of the various dissidents could spread their ideas to other worlds. He also stationed army units on larger worlds to make sure that order was maintained. This was relatively simple to do since the army was already mobilized because of the Raadium war. While this was going on Metternich called the council into a special 6 month session. This session, Known as the Ramiantic conference, would set the course of human history from then forward. Before revealing the results of the conference Metternich made sure that he showed his authority to the dissidents to still questioned his reign. He began by taking part in a formal coronation of sorts where he was officially installed as chief executive or humanity. It was here that the Council officially extended its support, declaring him the true leader of humanity. The very next day, as foreseen by Metternich and his advisers, many dissident faction spoke out and began to threaten secession in their respective territories. The New leader had suspected, and even hoped for, such action. These threats gave him just cause to silence the factions on account that they "threatened the stability and continued existence of the Republic". Massive military raids were staged on the rebel strongholds. With the tactical knowledge gained by commanders during the Raadium war and through the use of overwhelming force, the republic army was able to crush any sort of resistance these rebels could muster to defend themselves. The speed with which these attacks were planned and carried out was astonishing, and enough to deter any new groups from challenging the Republic. In truth these attacks had been planned months ago as the second step in Metternich cementing his claim as leader. The orchestrator of the attacks was one of Metternich most trusted subordinates, General Benedicto Rictoven, who himself lead the attack of Alexander III. The third and final stage of this plan was carried out a week later when the leaders of the rebellions (who had all been condemned to death) were brought to Earth to be executed. The executions were set to take place at the gates of the city, and a massive crowd had gathered to watch the events unfold. In all, 68 gallows were constructed for the event, and a grave site had already been prepared at the edge of the city wall with a coffin set up by each gallows to carry the corpse to the site. The men were marched to the gallows and a noose placed around each man's neck. However, as the final order was about to be announced a messenger emerged at the site announcing an official pardon from Metternich himself. In the end, only one man would hang that day. This man would by Davin West, who had led the largest of the rebel groups and the one who had garnered the most popular support. This elaborate pre-planned scheme was to, and largely succeeded at, showing that Metternich was a strong leader, and also a compassionate one. In fact, Metternich plan was so successful that he never received any viable threats to his leadership during the remainder of his reign, even during the massive reform effort that he was about to begin.

It was now that Metternich announced the results of the Ramiantic Conference. The first act of the conference was a massive reorganization of the Republic land holding to try and take into account the past and future expansion of humanity. It drastically reduced the number of provinces on earth, lowering the number to two. every other planet in the republic that met the population requirement counted as a single province. Under this new organization each province could send one delegate for every 500 million Republic citizens that it had living within its borders. New rules were also put in place that stated how current for future Republic territories could become provinces. The second part of the this act reworked the powers given to each province, allowing them more authority to govern and defend themselves in case of attack. These new powers included the right raise a defense force to defend the province from attack as well as the ability to tax citizens within its territory.

The final result of this conference was meant to cement to authority of the government and try and foster nationalism within the republic. This came in the from of changing the name of the old Republic into the more appropriate empire. The official new name was the Ramiatic Empire, named after the founder of the republic. With this done Metternich declared himself emperor of the New Empire. While this change brought about minor opposition, the fact that the new emperor gained no new powers made the change merely an cosmetic one for most imperial citizens. With his power and realm momentarily secure, Metternich moved to fortify the frontier planets of the empire so that they could ward off alien attack. This was also done to encourage colonization on these rim worlds. For the project, Metternich employed Loyd Hemingway, a high ranking Imperial Army Engineer, to design the new defenses. Hemingway was well respected and he did not disappoint his new emperor. In fact, Hemingway's designs and structures were so effective that many still exist today and modern Imperial architects still study his writings. For the defenses, Hemingway worked to make the defenses a "visual deterrent" as well as an actual one. He proposed that if the Fornication looked strong they would discourage an attacker so that they would not ever try to mount an attack. One of the most common sights in a Hemingway style fortification was the flak tower. These structures were often the centerpiece of the defenses, serving a control towers and anti air defenses. The building project would last over two decades and cause billions of imperial citizen to move to the outer worlds. In all 28 planets were set up as "border worlds". Six of these worlds would make up an even larger defensive net known as Metternich's wall. The "wall" of sorts was a sting of space born defensive stations set up on asteroids at the edge of the Solomon belt with the planets acting as hubs for the smaller space born bases.

Metternich would rule for another 23 years, slowly strengthening the Imperial Economy as well as instituting a powerful set of reforms that gave more civil rights to the people as well as strengthened the army. The work done by the "first" emperor of mankind would help to preserve humanity in the future as well as secure it from future alien attack.

The First Imperial Golden Age

After the death of Metternich his son Carlos Metternich, rose to the Imperial throne in 2566. While Carlos was in office he worked to erase the racial and social division still present in humanity as well as make the Empire more friendly toward free enterprise. One of the Most important pieces of legislation worked on by the Emperor was the "Right of the Common Man" Declaration. This document worked to reform the laws to the Imperial so that would not favor any social of political group. It also reformed the legal system so that it would the fair for all people. The final, and arguably most important, part of the declaration was an amendment to the imperial constitution that guaranteed people with psychic potential the same rights as all other citizens in the Empire. Before this time psychic individuals were often discriminated against or imprisoned without cause. This fear of psychics was fueled by the destructive power of psychic that used their powers for destructive purposes. The amendment was received with mixed support but would gradually gain acceptance in the Empire. Carlos' social reforms along with Metternich's Fiscal and defense reforms would create a time of general peace and prosperity that would last almost three hundred years. During this time humanity would experience few major wars and most of humanity would live comfortably within the imperial borders. Art and Science flourished during this time and humanity made several scientific advanced that would help it in the years to come. There were also am increasingly large number was romantic philosophers and writers during the period.

When Carlos Died in 2704 he was succeeded by Farlow Metternich, who continued to maintain the expand the principles of his predecessors. He used to first few years of his term attempted to allow the average imperial citizen to become more educated. With the passage of the Imperial Education act 23, all imperial citizen became entitled to the ancient equivalent of a high school education. This new found mass education led to several "back room inventors" such as Yangzy Torkarev, who invented the first cost effective theta powered electric generator. Humans also push forward into the eastern portions of the known galaxy. In the year 2795, the Imperial explorer Gabriel Endalbi reached the "edge" and of the home arm of the galaxy (which had been recently renamed to Ramiatic Arm by Emperor Metternich III). The space between the Ramiatic arm and the Perseus arm were named the Endalbi rift in his honor. Farlow, showing the ambition of an inexperienced leader, ordered an expedition to be sent to the Perseus arm so that colonies could be set up there. Five ships to part of this effort, known as the Mariana Voyage. The ships were launched from a station orbiting Endalbi Prime (the imperial planet that was closet to the Perseus arm at the time) The voyage went well, but as the ships reached to the Perseus arm electrical failures within the ships cut them off from the Imperial and the ships were never heard from again and presumed lost. The loss sobered the new leader, an only limited colonization of the space between the to arm would take place during his reign. When Metternich III died he was a barren scepter, meaning that a new leader had to be voted upon to lead humanity. In the past, former military leaders had been the greatest candidates, but with no major war occurring within the lifetime of the current generation, humanity had to look elsewhere. The candidates that were eventually chosen for the election were a navy admiral, Joseph Leppsom, an Imperial marshal, Ramsy Al Govan, who currently commanded the forces that occupied the Metternich Wall, and William Ellesworth, a business leader from the imperial south. The election proved strangely uneventful, and the imperial people, content with the peace that they had given, chose Ellesworth for the position of emperor. Ellesworth would rule for 22 years, during which he would give businesses in the Empire even more free reign. He also expanded the previously pass Education act twenty three, setting up numerous programs that provided financial aid so that people could attend higher education facilities. However, in the process of enacting these programs he drastically cut military spending, which led to a decreased imperial defensive presence along the imperial border. When Ellesworth died he also left no heir, meaning imperial elections would again have to take place.

The Merengetti Era

(2978 - 3112)

The Second Imperial Era

(3113 - 3468)

The Revolution Era

(3469 - 3580)

The End of the Second Imperial Era

Under the Camalev Dynasty the empire had finally been able to regain the respect of the aliens that shared its borders. The Veranati Patriarch, while still a constant threat, was largely quarantined within their own borders. The Bavin Illumate had retreated back into tis domain after the second Alluman War and did not threaten the empire, at least for the moment. The Greeze were also being successfully deterred from attacking the Imperial border by the heavy fortified Imperial Bases on Cain prime, Isaac IV, and Metternich II. Within the Empire the economy as well as the infrastructure of the Empire was stable enough for the citizens of the Empire to experience relative tranquility within its borders. However, The Death of the Emperor would soon throw this age of stability into an age of revolution

The Death of Emperor Augustus Camalev could not have come at a worse time. Augustus was the last of the Camalev emperors in the fact that he had no heir to succeed him to the throne. Augustus had also not appointed an successor as the previously heirless emperors had done, leaving the Empire effectively leaderless. During his reign Augustus had worked tirelessly to maintain the "golden age of the Camalev Dynasty" that had been started by his forefathers. Upon Camalev's death there was a squabble for the position to imperial throne. Although the position of emperor during the days of the First Ramiatic Empire had been decided be popular vote, there was no system for selecting a new emperor in the constitution of the Second Ramiatic Empire. Politicians took full advantage of this loophole and several faction arose from the imperial senate, each with a candidate that they believed was the most qualified for the imperial throne. Some of these candidate laid their claim for power on the fact that they were in some way related to Augustus (One man even claimed to be his long lost some, however the validity of the claims of these convenient relatives were hardly ever proven. The strongest parties that emerged from this squabble with the Industrialists, and Liberals, and the Imperialists. The Industrialist were known as such because the politicians that formed the group had strong ties to the Business leaders of the empire and enjoyed the most popular support on the industrial world in the southern parts of the Empire. The leader of the Industrialist was a man called Nickolaus Yemian. Yemian was a self made billionaire whose family owned the company galactic Resources inc. This company was the largest natural resource mining company in the Empire and one of the largest and most powerful businesses the known galaxy. Yemian's claim to the throne was that his grandmother was a sister of Augustus' grandfather's brother. Yemian was also a well known and respected senator that was known for his hard line conservative and moral attitude on government issues. The Liberals were a group of the mostly younger politicians that wanted to "increase the civil liberties of the people and make life easier for the common man" The Liberal held relatively little popular support in comparison to the Other two major factions. The candidate, however, held what was possibly the strongest claim to the throne in fact it was proven that he was the son of Augustus father's sister. This man, Hiero Sullivan, was also a senator in the Imperial senate and known for his simple, and highly un-corrupt, values and actions involving imperial policy. The third party, with called themselves the imperialist, stated that they wanted to expand humanity even further and "create an even brighter extension of the Camalev golden age". Thing that the Imperialist stated they wanted to accomplish included subjugating the Veranati, the Greeze, and the Bavin Illumate so that they would "no longer be of any threat to the empire" they also wanted to expand the border of the Second Ramiatic Empire by conquering and colonizing alien worlds. The man that the imperialist nominated as their candidate was supposedly had a Grandfather who was the cousin of Augustus' Grandfather's brother. This man, Yusef Romanov, was the Governor of the province of Medinia, and was feared and respected for his uncompromising style of leadership. Although there were initially over a hundred factions that laid claim to the Imperial throne it was these three that would eventually lay serious serious claim to the position of Emperor. These lesser factions were slowly weeded out in every way from underhanded dealing to outright violence. Not since the 10 days of anarchy had the center of humanity grown so unstable. After 3 months of unending debate the three factions moved ever closer to violence. Rather than maintain stability, the leadership of the imperial military took sides, and both the Industrialist and the Imperialists, and to a lesser extent the liberals, had small armies that were willing to back up their claims for the position of emperor. However, with the exception of a few isolated incidents there were large scale violent encounters in between the three faction. Even so, the threat of violence loomed ever closer as the Empire went even longer without an emperor. To make matter worse, the Veranati, seeing the emperor-less empire as weakened, Attacked the Imperial border world of Metternich VI. The Imperial Senate, wanting to resolve the matter. Ordered that popular elections be held and that all three of the candidates were ordered to stay on Terra Prime until the election ad been decided. The Senate set the election date one month after the candidate arrived on Terra Prime. While seemingly ending the crisis, this decision would lead to some of the most controversial events of the revolutionary era. While on his way to a rally, the limousine in which Yemian was riding was hit by another vehicle. Yemian's vehicle spun out of control and hit a nearby building. Yemian was mortally wounded in the accident, and died two hours later at a nearby hospital. Two days later, Sullivan dropped out of the race and retook his place in the Imperial Senate.

The Reign of Yusef Romanov

This meant that the only viable candidate left was Romanov, who declared himself emperor 4 days after Sullivan's withdrawal. Although many stipulated that Romanov had orchestrated the "removal" of both candidates there voices were quickly silenced, forcibly or otherwise. The first act by Romanov was to dissolve the Industrialist and Liberal faction, declaring them unnecessary and dangerous to the stability of the Empire. Romanov also moved to crush the Veranati invasion tactics, encouraging his commanders to use "every means necessary to ensure that the Veranati were thoroughly expelled from the imperial borders". The Veranati, unprepared for the shear number of troops Romanov committed to the counter-invasion, were quickly forced into retreat. The Imperial forces removed the Veranati forces from the Empire, and soon after mounted an invasion of their own. The Veranati, however, were less willing to give up their own worlds than they had been with their conquered imperial planets, and the war quickly degraded into a war of attrition.

At home, Romanov cemented his power by violently suppressing those that wished to oppose him. Using these brutal tactics Romanov was able to return the Empire to relative stability and rid his new domain of any threats to his power. After initial stability was restored Romanov set out to enact a number of "reforms' that he stated were necessary to the continued strength of the Empire. The first of these was a general strengthening of the Imperial Army. This came in the form of swelling the ranks of the army through conscription, but was largely accepted. Romanov also secured a declaration of was against the Bavin Illumate, hoping to gain the territory the Illumate had conquered over three hundred years ago. Another early act of Romanov was to put new restrictions of businesses in the Empire. The set limits on how much companies could charge the government for their services. These prices were, predictably enough, much lower than what had previously been charged and often not even enough to allow manufacturers to break even. Many businesses refused to follow the ordinance. Other larger companies simply suspended their contracts to the Empire and turned to strictly selling to civilians. Romanov viewed this as nothing sort of treason. And did not hesitate to call in the Imperial army to quell what he saw as "outright rebellion" Again, tensions between the former industrialist and the current emperor ran high. One company, Imperial Steel, even called in mercenaries to defend its interests. Although most companies were subjugated without violence, two companies, standard steel and Galvan Motors, refused to comply. They argued, and not without premise, that there right to run a free business was protected in the constitution. To make matters worse, the companies held the popular support of the Nebulan Province in which they were located. Negotiations between the company and the government broke down six week after the new laws were past and Imperial troops were sent in. The company, who had hired a mercenary of about 8,000. Were able to fend off the initial imperial assault, which was poorly planned and shoddily carried out. This emboldened the companies, who began to try and rally even more to their cause. The leader of the this movement was Carlos Venzetti, a former industrialist and a CEO of Imperial Steel. In addition to the initial mercenary force, several thousand employees volunteered to join scratch companies that would help to defend the interests of the company. These "irregulars" were quickly armed and received basic training from the mercenaries. In addition to this the Nebulan Province began mobilizing its interior guard units, although who they would fight for was uncertain. Romanov, furious that his officers had been unable to quell the revolt, sent a massive force of 40,000 men to "crush" any resistance to his new decrees. The Neblulan government argued against the massive invasion force, calling it a violation of their rights for imperial forces to mount an invasion of a peaceful imperial world. Romanov dismissed the claims, stating the world in question was in rebellion against the Empire. The Imperial mounted their offensive 4 weeks after the initial attacks. The Imperial were successful at storming the primary rebel defenses, but many of the rebels retreated into the factory complexes. Rather than destroying the complexes from orbit the Military decided to storm the factories using the infantry. This was done because Romanov wanted the rebel leaders captured alive. The emperor also planned on using the factories for government use and did not want to spend the time and money rebuilding the complexes. Although outnumbered, the rebels were able to use the environment of the factory to their advantage. The imperial infantry was also not prepared for combat at such close quarters, being armed with weaponry made for open combat at long range. On the other hand, the rebels were armed mostly with carbines and submachineguns that were ideally suited to the type of close combat that the factory provided. However, the Imperials were eventually able to overwhelm the rebels, but only after suffering extremely high casualties and 3 days of bloody close quarters room to room fighting. The rebels leader, Venzetti, was also able to escape the planet with a number of his supporters. The battle itself of a long and bloody example of the new emperor uncompromising will. Even so, Romanov sought to make further examples of the rebels. He had all of the captured rebel soldiers and leaders executed on Terra Prime. Along with the rebels Romanov ordered the execution of several Nebulon officials, who Romanov stated resisted the authority of the Imperial government. The final people to meet their death in the incident were the imperial officers that had led the first failed assault on the factory complex. These were the first in a long line of the Imperial official to be executed because "they failed to do their duty in doing so fail the Empire as a whole". The companies, or what was left of them, were reorganized and restarted under the direct control of the Imperial government. Over the next several year, most of the major companies in Empire were "nationalized" in this way.

The Great Purge

The next 20 years of Romanov's rule would be characterized by almost constant wars with the Veranati and the Illumate, as well as the slow decrease in the amount of civil liberties of the citizens and businesses in the Empire. It was during this time, in the twenty third year of Romanov 's rule, that the emperor performed one of his largest, and most controversial, actions. As Romanov had worked to increase his powers on Earth, there were several that spoke out against his violent and often unprovoked actions. The loudest of the voices came from the Catholic church in the Empire, and almost all of the religious institutions in the empire had in some way stated that they were against Romanov increasingly tyrannical policies. This came to a head when Romanov published imperial Decree number 428. This decree stated that all institutions that operated within imperial borders were under the control of the Imperial government. The decree also said that all people that were part of a religious order had to swear allegiance to the Emperor. The final part of the decree restricted religious leaders freedom of assembly and contained a list of things that these religious leaders could not talk about or say in public. Among the things forbidden was anything that criticized the Empire or any government official. Pope Pius XVIII, the current leader of the church responded by issuing papal decree number 28. This decree stated that religious institutions are not be to part of or controlled by any secular party. He also stated that catholic priests pledge their highest allegiance to god and not to any worldly leader. lastly the decree said that any attempt to control of subjugate the word of god would be ignored and if necessary resisted. The church of Islam responded by forming the order of Mohamed, a large council of Ayatollahs that agreed to resist any attempt by the government to control or alter their religious practices. True to form, Romanov viewed these act as a threat to his power and therefore the Empire in General. After a brief ultimatum for the churches to comply, Romanov passed Decree 431. This decree stated, in no uncertain terms, that any religion that spoke out against the emperor would be outlawed and any minister who resisted imperial authority would be summarily executed. This decrees caused a massive uproar throughout the Empire. Religion in the Empire had been accepted since the days of Ramian himself and even the Camalevs had been professed Catholics. In all, no church agreed to Romanovs terms, and consequently religion was banned in the Empire overnight. However, enforcing such a decree proved nearly impossible for many people in the Imperial Government and the Military had religious sympathies. From Rome, the pope called for all Catholics to resist this "unjust and oppressive" decree and to hold fast to their beliefs. An unexpected consequence was an alliance between the churches of Catholicism and Islam. While never truly at odds, the two churched had never held any type of relations with each other. However, in the face of this great threat the churches found in very appealing to work together. Five weeks after the publishing of decree 431, pope Pius XVIII and Grand Ayatollah Ramsey Al Hafar agreed to support each other in case of an imperial attack. These attacks started less than a week later when Romanov ordered the Provinces to mobilize their interior guard forces to arrest and detain church ministers and destroy church buildings. Many guard commanders, however, refused to comply and entire units resigned or deserted in protest. While a setback, this did not deter the Emperor, the dispatched special "Imperial Enforcers" to carry out his orders. The enforcers were all former imperialist and almost blindly loyal to the emperor. Enforcer platoons began landing without warning on imperial worlds and started burning places of worship. It wasn't long before believers started resisting these brutal assaults. Many priests replaced their hymnals with rifles and, often with the support of their congregation, confronted the enforcers as they enter the church buildings. However, these skirmishes did little to deter the Emperor and only strengthened his claim that the church wished to overthrow the Empire. The first organized restistance to the enforcers came on the world Placid III, where a catholic cardinal had gained the support of several companies of Interior guard and a few hundred untrained rebels. The cardinal was also assisted by an ayatollah and several hundred Islamic worshipers. This was also the first time a joint Islamic/catholic force fought side by side. 12,000 enforcers landed on placid III but were repelled by determined restistance. Before the enforcers had arrived the rebels had gained control of an imperial arsenal, meaning that most of the rebels were armed when the conflict began. The enforcers counterattacked the next day, slaughtering the rebels to a man. This grim scenario was repeated on several other worlds. While these attacks were taking place the Emperor planned to eliminate the church stronghold on earth by destroying Jerusalem and Rome. 40,000 imperial troops attacked Jerusalem and the city was quickly destroyed and burned to the ground. Romanov employed a similar strategy in the attack on Rome. However, Rome, being the former capital of the ancient Jesuit Alliance, and was therefore heavily defended. These defenses, although extremely old, were well maintain and had been recently reinforced because of the attacks on religious sights. The city was also a refugee center for Christians and Muslims alike and almost 300,000 people volunteered to help defend the city. Romanov raised an army of almost 500,000 and laid siege to the city. After two months Romanov grew impatient and order his commanders to storm the city and bring him the religious leaders' to him. The attack on the city lasted almost nine hours, although they were able to breach the gates the imperials became bogged down in the street fighting that followed. This delay allowed several of the religious leaders to escape the city. Although he initially refused to leave the holy city, Pope Pius was eventually convinced to evacuate. The fleeing aircraft were able to make it a waiting hyper-gate that had been set up on the far side of the moon. Although the exact destination of the hyper gate is still unknown, many speculate that it was somewhere in the Outlands. From here the Pope set up a temporary base of operation where he continued to speak out against the emperor.

After the escape of the pope Romanov again tried to assert his authority, this time on the planets that made up the Outlands. The Outlands, up until this point, were largely lawless border worlds and often thought of as not being worth stabilizing. Planets in the Outlands were much farther apart than planets in other parts of the galaxy, making the task of enforcing law and order even more difficult. The reason for this action was probably the fact that the Outlands acted as a haven for those who spoke out against Romanov. While the purging of the church was probably his most unpopular act, the crusade against the Outlands probably did the most to hurt his administration. Since the Imperial Army was already occupied with the Both the Veranati and The Illumate, few troops could be spared for the "war" on the Outlands. Although initial attempts to conquer the Outlands took place, none had lasting success. In fact, these attacks would cause many in the Outlands to be openly violent toward any imperial citizen, which would greatly hurt Romanov in the years to come.

The Road to the Confederate Revolution

During the Reign of Augustus, the Imperial Colonies on the Perseus arm of the galaxy had grown and flourished. In fact, many of these colony worlds were cleaner and more well run than imperial home worlds. Romanov cared little for the colonies and allowed them to continue to have a measure of self-rule. However, as Romanov continued to wage war on the Empire's neighbors, the imperial treasury began running dangerously low. One way that Romanov to increase the capital intake of the Empire was to use the colonies. The Colonies, official known as the Camalev sector colonies, were known for having many planets with an abundance of natural resources. Romanov slowly tightened his grip on the colonies by passing imperial tariff act 233, which set price limits on natural resources and other goods that came from the colonies. It also instituted a high tariff on goods shipped to and from the colonies. This act was met with opposition on both in the colonies and a home. Imperial merchants complained that the high tariff would impede the growth of the economy and further the now apparent economic recession that that the empire was now experiencing. Mining firms in the colonies complained the price limits made gaining profits, or even breaking even, nearly impossible. However, these complaints, as always, fell on death ears. In fact, Romanov further crippled the colonies economy when it passed laws stating that no raw minerals or ore could be processed or refined within the colonies and had to be sent to the Imperial homeland to refining purposes. This act was meant to strengthen the Imperial economy and the expense of the Colonies, but all it really accomplished was a deepening resentment of the Empire in the colonies. The First person to speak out against the actions of the Imperial government in the colonies was a man called Samuel Garibaldi. Garibaldi was a member of the colonial legislature and a business owner of some renown. Apart from vocally criticizing Romanov, Garibaldi published two pamphlets. These pamphlets were "The Imperial Constitution and how it is being violated" and "the rights of the imperial citizen". Both of these pamphlets used the Imperial Constitution as a base for their claims that the emperor did not have the authority to tax any goods, and that that power lied solely with the imperial senate. Romanov first dismissed these claims as "Meaningless rabble from a backwater world". However, Garibaldi gained many supported, and their cries justice soon became too much for Romanov to bear. Unwilling to come to any sort of compromise with the colonist Romanov secretly ordered that Garibaldi be assassinated. This was carried out two weeks lated be an elite group of enforcers. Garibaldi's body was found the next day hanging from the roof of the Colonial legislative building. While this silenced the members of the legislature, it strengthened the already festering underground present in the colonies, with cells forming on almost all major colonial worlds, this as of yet relatively silent resistance was starting to become a major problem. Worse, these often isolated pockets of resistance were starting to organize and communicate with each other. In response Romanov dispatched several divisions, including two entirely made up of the hated enforcers, to make sure that these resistance movements remained weak and isolated. While initially successful, these measures caused resentment within the colonists and furthered the bitterness already present between the Empire and its colonies. All of these would eventually led to the workers revolt of 3518. The source of this revolt originated on the planet New Hope, a major industrial world that was mostly owned Colonial Resources Inc.. Colonial Resources was the colonial counterpart to Galactic Resources Inc. and was currently headed by Alek Yemmian, who was the brother Nickolaus Yemmian and secretly a financial backer of the resistant movement. While he had little to do with the workers revolt it should be noted that he did very little to discourage or prevent it. The revolt was organized by Renault Chevalier, A refinery manager on the planet who was also the local resistance cell leader. The thing that brought about such decisive action from the cell was Imperial Commerce Act 58. This act was an attempt by Romanov to give the Empire even more natural resources that little to no cost. The Act created the company Imperial Standard Co. This company, which was owned by the imperial government, was set up to mine and refine resources in the colonies. Imperial standard was also exempt from the tariff and regulations that governed the other companies in the colonies, making it extremely hard for the independently owned companies to compete. While this only had a marginal effect on the base workers of the companies, it was amendment 2 that was deemed intolerable by the resistant. Amendment two was the brainchild of Carlos Arvonov, Romanov's newly appointed finance minister; it was meant to give Imperial Standard yet another edge over other companies in the area. The main problem that Imperial standard faces was that most of the prime mineral rich land in the colonies was taken, and surveying new area or mining was an expensive and potentially dangerous venture. A second problem that faced the company was finding enough workers to fill its positions. Amendment 2 gave Imperial Standard the right to "appropriate" land owned by other companies for its own use. While the companies were "compensated" the compensation was almost always marginal and inadequate to say the least. The second part of the amendment, which was by far the most hated, gave Imperial standard the right to impress workers from other companies into service. While not bad in theory, impressed workers often received less benefits and lower pay than they did at their previous positions. The fact that imperial standard was exempt from many government regulations meant that the working environment of Imperial standard facilities was much more dangerous than in other privately owned companies. These measures were particularly abhorral to Colonial Resources Inc. because they enjoyed several benefits as a result of Yemian's progressive and caring attitude toward his workers. When word was leaked that Imperial standard had set its sights on New Hope the resistance made plans to act if they were impressed. It wasn't long before the cell's fears were realized and Imperial Standard announced that it was control of plant thirty one, one of the larger mining facilities on the planet, and impressing all of its current workers and staff. Although Yemian protested the take over he was ignored and pushed aside, and it is said that he gave the compensation check directly to Chevalier saying "make them pay for it in blood". Resistance members ambushed an Imperial supply convoy a few bays after the take over and were able to push the imperials out of out of plant 31, turning plant 31 and the surrounded area into a fortress zone. entire factories were abandoned as workers flocked to the banner of revolution. When Imperial officials told Yemian to control his workers the CEO stated "You started the fire, and deal with it". When imperial forces tried to retake the plant they found not unarmed belligerents, but well trained and equipped revolutionaries. Most of the rebels were armed and many had attained combat armor. The rebels even controlled a decent complement of artillery and vehicles. This well preparedness was attributed to clandestine funding and the fact that many imperial commanders that had deserted during the great purge were now aiding the resistance. The initial landing was easily repulsed and the Imperials were forced to set up a staging area 20 miles outside the factory city. The Imperial naval forces in orbit began a week long bombardment. However, the mining complex was built to last and largely unaffected by the bombardment. The rebels themselves went underground in massive pre-constructed tunnel and bunker complexes. When Imperial forces tried to take the complex and second time they made only small gains and took heavy casualties. A third push from a reinforced imperial force was able to push to rebels back the actual factory complex but the Imperials could not successfully storm the plant. By this time news of the revolt and the failure of the military to quell it had reached the Emperor. Romanov, furious that such a revolt could be allowed to happens, gave orders to the Imperial commander to "glass" the planet. The imperial commander, Lucien Ulverick, protested the orders and was relieved of his command. The Naval Commander, who was a known imperialist, carried out the ordered and the surface of New hope was reduced to radioactive glass by the heats of over 2000 titan class nuclear warheads. The Attacks destroyed all life on the planet and made the surface of the world all but uninhabitable. While the attack put down the rebellion it caused increased tension between the Empire and the colonies. It also caused even more hatred among the colonist and the attack was viewed as a massacre. The attack also shook up the loyalties of several Imperial soldiers and officers that had been sent to enforce order. The final act of the rebellion took place when the Emperor ordered that all of Yemian's assets be seized and that all of Colonial Resources inc. would be incorporated into Imperial Standard co. The revolt on New Hope convinced Romanov that even more decisive action had to be taken in the Colonies to make that any future revolt would be impossible. The colonial legislature was dissolved and replaced by the Imperial directory. The Nationalization of companies that was now common in the Empire now spread to the colonies, and it wasn't long before most colonial citizens were working for government owned corporations. There was also a disarmament policy set in place that stated that all imperial citizens living in the colonies could not own or bear arms. These decrees, known as the November resolutions, would lead to what would then be called the December Revolution, and later the Confederate Revolution.

James Ryan, The man who would lead the Revolution

The Man who would the lead the Revolution, James Ryan, was currently on the run from confederate authorities. Ryan was a Captain in the Imperial. His Company had taken part in the New hope massacre, but after the General of Ryan's division had refused to fire on fleeing civilians the entire division had been detained. The General, Mason Greene, was executed and the Division XO Terrance Guillory, had led a massive escape attempt. However, most of the division had been destroyed in the act and only Ryan's company, along with a few other, managed to escape the imperial forces. To try and evade the imperial dragnet Ryan crossed the Imperial border into uncharted space but had to eventually land on an as of yet uncharted forest planet because of lack of fuel. Although a seemingly bleak situation Ryan was able to maintain moral among his troops and set up basic shelters and locate decent food and water sources. However, one week after landing on the planet Ryan made a discovery that quite possibly changed the course of human history. When scouting for another fresh water source Ryan and a small party of imperial troopers discovered and settlement occupied by what seemed to be Humans. The meeting was far from congenial with Ryan and his party being taken prisoner as soon as they were discovered. Though Ryan initially assumed their captors to be humanoid Aliens, they bore a stark resemblance to Human in their appearance and technology. This question of the creatures lineage was answered when the Captors spoke to Ryan. The language bore a remarkable resemblance to old imperial standard that was used in the Empire during the first Imperial Golden age. Luckily for Ryan, one of the members of the party, a Lieutenant Andrew Simmons, had taken classes on old imperial and was able to communicate with the Humans. Simmons was able to secure the release of the search party and confirms that these creatures were indeed human, being descendants of the members the thought lost Mariana Voyage that had been an attempt to send humans to the Perseus arm of the galaxy during the Reign of Metternich III. Although Ryan was able to assure the Humans, who Identified themselves as the Tavians, that they were peaceful, the Tavian still regarded the imperials with suspicion and refused to let them into the Tavian city. From what he learned from Simmons translations, the Tavians were an isolationist warrior based culture and that thought anything outside of themselves, especially other humans, as "soft". Although they never threatened Ryan after their initial

James Ryan during the second battle for Naxium.

meeting, the Empire would soon become a threat to the Tavians.

Imperial forces looking for Ryan and his deserters descended on the planet. The search party was headed by Hans Von Stolavich, particularly brutal Imperial commander, when they first contacted the Tavians the meeting ended violently, with 4 Tavians and 22 imperial dead in the confrontation. Ryan, you felt responsible for the attack met with the Tavians offered to help fend off the attack, but the Tavians rejected his offer, saying that "they could deal with their own problems, no matter their source." The Tavians proved that were indeed a warrior culture, and continued to stop imperial attempts to encroach upon their land. Although not a part of his mission" Stolavich resolved to crush this new threat in the name of the Empire. He ordered 6 divisions, the entirety of his ground forces, to move on a southern Tavian settlement and wipe out any resistance. Although heavily outnumbered, the Tavians gathered their forces to try and stop the Imperial juggernaut. The battle took place outside a Tavian city known as Com Staunch Lumous (the unending light). Unwilling to stand by, Ryan lead his company to support the Tavians, who, after 8 hours of fighting, were finally giving way the vastly superior Imperial forces. Ryan was able to work his way behind the imperial forces and attack from the rear. Being formally part of an elite assault division, Ryan's forces were able to cause massive damage to the Imperials at close range. Regaining their moral, the Tavians renewed their resistance and the impromptu pincer move was sufficient to defeat the confused imperial forces. Ryan's actions during the battle impressed the Tavian commander and Ryan and his men were brought to the capital of the world and granted honorary Tavian citizenship. Ryan also discovered that the Tavian electorate as it was known, was much larger than originally thought and that this world was only a small border world, which explained the small population. The Electorate actually consisted to 28 inhabited worlds. The powers of the Tavian electorate was shown soon afterward when a Tavian war fleet emerged and crushed Stolavich's relatively small imperial force in a short naval engagement. Upon Ryan's request, he was brought the Tavian capital world to try and explain his situation to the Primarch, the leader of the Tavian people. Ryan was granted an audience and, this the help of Simmons, explained the plight of the colonies and tried to garner support to push the Empire out of the colonies once and for all. The Primarch, Jamal Hanover, was skeptical was Ryan's cause and put the issue to a vote in the Tavian senate. The senate voted in favor of isolation and refused to officially help Ryan.

This opinion was soon to change. Stolaviche had somehow managed to escape the Tavian onslaught and had returned with a massive imperial invasion force. Romanov saw this as an opportunity of gain a major victory for the Empire to try and raise public moral in the Empire. The Imperial forces attacked the Tavian world of Besiegian (invincible). eight million Imperial troops landed on the planet and quickly slaughtered the outnumbered Tavian defenders. The Tavian Army moved and confronted the Imperial forces on Aumersam (Steadfast), the second planet that the Imperial forces invaded. While Tavian technology was slightly behind that of the Imperial, the Tavians were able to stop the imperial advance and engage the Imperial fleet in Orbit. After six weeks of fighting the Imperial were forced into retreat. However, the Imperial fleet had been defeated so the Imperial forces were marooned on the planet. Almost 200,000 imperial personnel were forced to surrender, and sent to prisoners camps on the Tavian core worlds. This attack by the empire convinced Hanover that the Empire was a dishonorable institution and dispatched a war group (approximately 500,000 men) to assist Ryan in his endeavors. With a complement of Tavian Spacecraft and a small army behind him, Ryan returned to the colonies to try and liberate the oppressed colonies

The Confederate Revolution

After the Dissolution of the Colonial legislature in June 3527 the Imperial Directory took swift measures to weed out resistance cells. Meanwhile, former diplomats circulated documents throughout colonial populace encouraging the colonists to resist Imperial authority. One of the these pamphlets, why Garibaldi died, became so popular that so much having one was punishable by death. No one was so active as Yemian. The displaced businessman opened up contacts with the exiled business leaders in the Outlands and began producing weapons of war. In the relative safety of the Outlands, weapons factories went up over night to mass-produce weapons for the rebels. One of these weapons, CR-27 Belligerent, was so popular that it continued to be produced in one form of another until present day. Yemmian also began converting many of the transport craft formally used by his company into warships. In several secret factories, mining trucks were converted to APC, cargo haulers were made into gunships, and Inter-planetary merchant ships were retrofitted with guns and armor. The most famous of these impromptu warships was the Alexander, originally intended to be the personal flagship of Yemian where he could meet clients and diplomats, the ship was a massive vessel. At almost 2 miles long, it was only outclassed by the Imperial Dreadnought class super heavy destroyers. The Alexander had been in the initial construction phases during the New Hope Massacre and Yemmian hired the fames architect Renalt Write, the redesign the ship, which was little more than a frame at the time, and turn it into a warship. Write exceeded all expectations, and the Alexander would become the most dangerous ship in the rebel navy and the bane of Imperial ships in the colonies. The Imperial army during this time was also plagued with deserters who refused to follows the brutal orders handed out by the Imperialist commanders. These renegades were quick to join the resistance and gave the rebels crucial training that helped them to prepare to combat the Imperial army. This building tension finally boiled over in October of 3527 when an Imperial enforcer division committed what would later be known as the October Massacre. After an Imperial Lieutenant in charge of a colonial settlement on the world of Explorer II was shot by a revolutionary, the entire population of the settlement, about 10,000 civilians, were marched out of the town and shot by the imperial enforcers. The revolutionary cell on the planet took up arms against the imperial forces on the world and engaged the enforcer division. The rebels on the planet were soon joined by the newly formed colonial army under the command of Yemian, who proved to be a surprisingly effective commanding officer. The rebel navy also engaged the imperial navy in orbit around the planet and was able to capture 4 of the imperial vessels and destroy 2 more while only losing one of its own. Meanwhile, in the imperial center, Ryan returned to the colonies with his Tavian war group, which was under the command of Bollus Gallagier. While slower than imperial vessels, the Tavian warship left a much smaller "warp print" when traveling at faster than light speeds, allowing them to sneak into the center of the colonies without being detected. Ryan's company, now known as Ryan's Rebs, spearheaded the attack on Hyglaf VII, which was a relatively soft target at the time, in September of 3527. After two weeks of fighting, the three imperial divisions on the planet (two of which deserted and joined the Rebellion, the one remaining division being an enforcer division) were neutralized and Ryan declared Hyglaf VII Independent from the Empire and renamed the planet Vendetta Prime. After the Battle, Ryan was promoted the Genrard (the Relative equivalent to Marshall in the imperial army) and both the defecting Imperial divisions pledged their loyalty to him. There were also 200,000 rebels and 48,000 imperial citizens that pledged. their allegiance to the rebel cause.

While his victory on Vendetta prime gave a massive moral boost to the rebellion, and was a large blow to the pride of the imperial forces in the area, it did little to weaken the Imperials and meant that Ryan was effectively surrounded. The Imperial Commander in the colonies, Bolith Lossenger, dispatched Imperial forces to try and trap the rebel on the world and destroy any Military capabilities that they might have gained. However, Lossenger was almost too cautious dealing with the situation and by the time Imperial forces made landfall in March of 3528 the rebels were well prepared, having set up a vast and complex system of bunkers, safe houses, and tunnels within Vendetta's major cities with which to fight the enemy. Ryan allowed the Imperial forces to enter the capital of the planet unopposed. After the Imperials had spread throughout the city and were about to storm the capitol building the rebels attacked from all angles, causing heavy casualties within the ranks of the unprepared attackers. However, instead of engaging the Imperial army in a prolonged engagement, Ryan, along with most of his make shift army, retreated to their waiting transport ships, many of which were converted cargo haulers, and fled into deep space. The only rebels still on the world were the members of the 4023rd Metternich Division, which had volunteered to stay on the world and do as much as possible to "hinder" Imperial activities on the world. Disorganization among naval and army personnel on the world and a general lack of respect of the military capabilities of the rebellion allowed Ryan's forces to escape the world almost unopposed, with only five ship fighter group dispatched to destroy his fleeing transports. Meanwhile, Imperial forces moved to secure the city, but the 4023rd continued to harass them, destroying supply convoys and taking out officers at every opportunity. The 4023rd would continue to wage a guerrilla war on the imperial forces on Vendetta for the remainder of the war. When Romanov received word of the actions on Vendetta, now renamed Hyglaf, he was furious. He removed Lossenger from command and recalled him to the colonies.

In his place, Romanov appointed Imperial Steward Jacob Lawrence. Lawrence was a veteran of the war with the Bavin Illumate and was known to have Enforcer sympathies. However, Romanov may have done more harm than good in that Lawrence was easily painted as a "Hound of the Emperor" by rebel propaganda. Lossenger, on the other hand, while being to cautious at the onset of rebellion, had actually gone to great lengths to prevent a rebellion in the colonies, and was generally well liked in the colonies. He was also a strong opponent of the Imperial policy of "nationalization" of businesses in the colonies. Lossenger had also gone to great lengths to limit enforcer activity in the colonies and worked to retrain them in several instances. However, with the dissolution of the colonial Legislature Lossenger could do little to prevent the opposed territories from taking up arms against him. Even so, Lossenger's command of imperial forces had left it in good working order, and when Lawrence arrived in the colonies he took control of a well disciplined and organized military force. Lawrence moved to try and engage the Imperial in large decisive battle, where he was fairly certain Imperial armor superiority could defeat the rebels with relatively few casualties. Ryan, however, had no intention of letting the Imperial engage him in a large set piece engagement. Ryan led his forces to Gammian, a moon that orbited the planet Issac XII. Gammian had recently been nationalized and the populace of ripe for revolution. Ryan met little resistance on the surface as he was able to catch the defending forces in a pincer between his own rebels and resistance fighters from among the moon's populace. From the planet, Ryan was able to recruit soldiers and equipment. Most importantly he was able to pull from the moon's massive fuel reserves, but the Imperial army quickly moved to surround the world and Ryan was again forced to retreat or risk being surrounded and destroyed by the much larger Imperial force. Ryan headed north, trying to link up with a purported rebel army that was massing in the galactic north of the colonies.

By this time, Ryan's make shift army was beginning to have its doubts in its largely self-appointed commander. With no true victory to speak of and in constant retreat, this was a far cry from the kind of war that the bulk of the resistance fighters expected to be fighting. The army was also running low on supplies, and almost none of the soldiers were given much reason to stay with Ryan. Ryan knew that the most important thing he had to do was hold the army together and maintain it as an effective military force. As long as the rebellion had a standing army, the empire could not claim victory. However, he also knew that he needed a victory for the sake of morale. He choose his target, Camalev IV. The world was an enforcer strong hold, and was well stocked and manned. Many of Ryan subordinates tried to advise him against the move. Ryan, however, was not to be dissuaded. He planned to play on the pride of the enforcers and use it against them. He also needed a place that could be defended from inevitable Imperial counter-attack. Since the rebellion lacked the time and resources to construct its own defenses, they needed to capture and commandeer imperial ones, which meant attacking a "hard" target. Ryan's strategy was to play on the over-confidence of the enforcers. The fact the Romanov's birthday was two weeks away gave Ryan the opening he needed. The commander figured the Imperial personnel, who thought themselves safe within their fortresses, would use the event as an excuse to party and drink quite a bit more than usual. Ryan plan was to try and use the Planet's largely abandoned factory complexes, which his men would be familiar with and that also happened to be incorporated into several of the imperial defense systems. On November 14, 3528 Ramian infiltrated the bulk of his force onto the world the electro magnetic "shadow" of the planet's metal laden moon to cover his approach. Ryan's force consisted of approximately 1.3 million personnel, all of which were being risked in the operation. The bulk of the population, military and otherwise, on the world were situated on the continent of Razus, which was located within the planet's temperate zone. There were four major fortresses on the continent that Ryan had to take to make the operation a success. To help his chances Ryan split his forces. About 500,000 of his men, which included a large portion of the Tavian warrior contingent and part of the elite of the deserted imperial divisions, would move into the upper provinces of the planet and try and divert imperial forces away from the south of the continent, where the fortresses, and Ryan primary objective lay. He hoped to catch the Imperial garrison forces by surprise and control the major imperial fortresses on the world before the main Imperial force could, that way he could use the defensive might of the fortresses against the enforcers. Ryan further subdivided his units, a move any commanders disagreed with, into four raid groups to take each of the fortresses simultaneously. Using infiltrator units of about company size, Ryan and about 2000 of the infiltrator groups snuck into the areas surrounding the primary fortress on the world while raid groups of slightly smaller size moved in around the other imperial strongholds. Meanwhile, the first rebel group began to cause chaos in the northern regions of the continent and most of the enforcers occupying the imperial strongholds left their fortification to silence the rebels. The enforcers left that the base celebrated their emperor's birthday with much revelry and drinking, as Ryan had hoped and planned on. on the 16th of November Ryan's forces simultaneously storm their respective targets. After a five hour struggle, Ryan's forces took the imperial fortress 1, while rebel forces were able storm fortresses 2 and 4 with little efforts, taking several high ranking prisoners and sustaining few casualties. As Fortress 3, however, rebel forces met steadfast resistance and were only able to take the fortress after 12 hours of continuous fighting and over 70% casualties. Even so, Ryan massive gambit had payed off, and amazingly, all four of the target were in Rebel hand within 24 hours. When they learned that the targets had been successfully taken, the first rebel group headed toward the fortresses to get protection from the overwhelming imperial forces. The imperials, not knowing that the fortresses had been compromised, allowed them to escape, thinking that could catch the rebels in a cross-fire and destroy them with little effort. When the imperial reached the fortification two (the most northern of the installations), they were surprised and unprepared for the onslaught that awaited them. This, and the refusal of their commander to wait for reinforcement, led to high casualties and little progress on the Imperial side while the rebel suffered relatively few casualties.

When Lawrence learned of the Insurrection on Camalev IV he sent his army to trap and destroy Ryan and his amry. But they met an unexpected quagmire in the form of Yemian's space fleet. Yemian was able to use massive Gravity well generators (made of heavily modified theta gates) to pull the imperial fleet out of light speed and ambush them near the Angellies system asteroid belt. This hit and run attack caused a tremendous amount of damage among the imperial fleet and, more importantly, gave Ryan the time he needed to cement his gains on Camalev IV. It also convinced Lawrence that the two rebel leaders and contacted each other and were working together (this wasn't actually true, Yemian was simply attacking a large and vulnerable target, Ryan, again, received a lucky break). Even so, Lawrence diverted a substantial amount of his forces to pursue Yemian, meaning he would have less men when he attacked Ryan. This attack came two weeks later when the imperial fleet attacked Imperial fortress Three, which intelligence said was the least defended. In fact, the fortress had been abandoned in the week preceding the imperial attack. However, the Fortress was not completely undefended. Rebels had laced the entire structure with high explosives, and when the imperial had started moving men and supplies into the base rebel sappers set off the weapons, bring the structure down on top of the unsuspecting Imperials. This attack killed 14,000 men and would almost 200,000 more. In spite of such terrible losses, Lawrence pushed on with his attack, mounting an assault of Fortress one. This assault last 8 hours, and end the end the Imperials were not able to break the Rebel defenses. Although the current imperial force was beaten, Ryan knew that it represented only a small portion of the forces that Lawrence controlled, and that the commander would use reinforcements. With the moral of his army secure, Ryan had to find a way to get his troops decent armor supports as well as a viable navy that would allow his to engage hard imperial targets and fight his revolution on his own terms rather than the enemy's. With this in mind Ryan left Camalev to try and make contact with rebel army he knew was operating in the area. Leaving General Vladimir Petrov in charge of his forces, Ryan and a small contingent of 200 men broke past the imperial blockade around the world. Ryan had informants that had told him about Mr. Big, an alias Yemian had used in performing business transactions for the resistance, led this rebellion. He also knew this Mr. Big was well supplied and was the person most likely to be able to equip his forces with adequate weaponry and vehicles.

After four weeks of probing Ryan's group was able to make contact with Yemian's forces. However, Yemian was still leery of this "rebel commander" and proposed Ryan help his with a proposed attack on the Bromon Mining facility. After pledging his support, Ryan was able to meet with Mr. Big in person for the first time. When he was brought aboard the Alexander he was surprised at the shear number was recourses that Yemian had at his disposal, and simultaneously confused by the lack of any professional military personnel. When the leaders met Ryan also learned that a third faction, led by the brothers Luther and Joseph Ulverrick, which consisted of about 10,000 Imperial deserters and about 50,000 armed civilians. The Bromon Facility was a massive man-made ring that was situated around the gas Giant Bromon II. The facility had been used to mine and refine Petrol gas, but had been turned into a massive shipyard by Imperial forces in the initial weeks of the rebellion. Yemian's objective for the raid was to secure Imperial tanks, aircraft, and capital ships so that could continue to wage war on the rebellion. Ryan, knowing the raid would involve savage close quarters combat. Got into contact with his forces on Camalev and a called 4000 of the Tavian elite of his army to take part in the raid, among the force was Genrard Bollus Gallagier, the leader of the Tavian war group and one of the most deadly and efficient soldiers Ryan had at his command. Since he was the ranking military officer in the group, and the only one of the rebel leaders to have experience with assault operations, Ryan was given command of the ground forces for the operation while Yemian took command of the Naval forces. For the attack, Yemian had amassed a staggering number of powerful EMB weapons which he hoped would be able to disable the Imperial defenses and Naval vessels while still keeping them in attack. The Attack took place on February 4, 2529, With Ryan making landfall on the installation with the first wave on the attack. Joseph Ulverrick was also in the vanguard of the attack force. Unlike Camalev, where Ramian had been able to catch the Imperial forces off guard, The defenders of the Bromon Installation were well prepared for an attack, and the assault turned into a bloody room to room engagement. however, in this type of combat the Tavian raider excelled, and were able to easily best the imperial fighter who were using unwieldy F.O.B. rifles. The Tavians, on the other hand, were armed with a Dragon arm, which was a large shield that could extend in a snake strike style to dismiss enemies at close range. They were also armed with a Dragon tongue, an arm mounted sub machine gun and flame-thrower. Ryan was armed with in signature imperial fazer haze blade, and also used and machete and a custom made shotgun. Still, The conflict was a long and bloody struggle. And after 14 hours of fighting only 20 miles of the almost 500,000 mile lone installation was secure( note that only about 10,000 miles of the installation was actually habitable. However, the imperial had thrown most of their manpower at the initial confrontation and in the second and third day of fighting the rebels were able to secure the rest of the structure. Yemmian was also able to capture much of the Imperial fleet, which was marooned by Yemmian's initial use of EMBs. using raiding party and one man fighter groups, which were led by Luther Ulverrick. This objective was helped by the fact that about 200,000 Imperial navy and army men under the command of Fleet Admiral Vannik Medici defected and were able to cause chaos within the ranks of the imperial defenders. When Lawrence heard of the attack he was occupied with his campaign on Camalev, and made the controversial decision not to retake Bromon until "a later time". With their prize secure. The rebel leaders planned their next move.

The founding of the Camalev Republic

It was Ryan that suggested that the army try to retake Hyglaf VII, while the world had relatively little tactical value except for its production facilities, which could retooled to make weapons relatively easily, it was of great symbolic significance to the rebellion, especially Ryan forces. After lengthy talks it war agreed upon to retake Hyglaf, and turn into the Rebellion's center of operations. This was decided upon because a several stars near the Hera system, or which Hyglaf VII was a part of, were forming, causing a nebula to form around the system. This nebula would wreak havoc on ship sensors and long range communication because it released very large amounts of theta particles, which disrupts most Imperial sensor and communication equipment. This made the nebula a natural defendable region as it would blind imperial ships so that the could be attacked by rebel raiders. The Rebels, on the other hand, began to use Tavian communication equipment, which operated at a lower frequency than imperial transponders and were therefore less effected by the theta-electric disturbances. This nebula had been of little concern when Ryan had originally invaded the world, but it was one of the main thing that Ryan used to convince his allies to help him with his endeavor. The Invasion took place in October of 3529, after the rebel leaders were sure that their gains on Bromon were secure. Ryan commanded the land push with armor support commanded by Joseph Ulverrick. Since the Imperials had a major presence on Hyglaf the rebel command had trouble finding a suitable landing zone, and were in agreement that they lacked sufficient man power to make a "hot landfall". Joseph Ulverrick was the one who eventually came up with a viable solution for the problem. Joseph suggested that they try to make an amphibious landing and then capture a suitable landing zone from the ground. Since most militaries of the day no longer used nautical forces, coastlines were usually not fortified. With a solution found, rebel technicians began retrofitting stolen imperial tanks and APCs to give them amphibious capabilities. The Rebels made landfall off the coast of Hyglaf's primary land mass with 43 battle tanks and 50 APCs. This force was able to storm the coastal town of Narreb with little effort and secure a landing zone. By the time imperial forces reacted to the breach an hour later, the rebel had already offloaded massive amounts of troops and supplies onto the planet surface. An imperial mechanized force consisting of around 300 battle tank and 4,000 men made up the force sent to dislodge the rebel foothold. In an attempt to give the rebels more time, Ulverrick and a force of 250 tanks took to the field to intercept the imperials. Ryan also dispatched rebel infantry into the hills around the supposed battlefield with anti tank weapons to try and give support fire to the rebel armor and keep imperial infantry off the rebel tanks. The two armies engaged in the largest tank battle of the war up the that point, this battle, which would become known as the battle for Narreb Fields, was a testament to rebel ingenuity. Rebel "sniper" were probably the most instrumental in rebel victory, they were able to harass Imperial armor on the field and diverted most of the imperial infantry that could have supported the Imperial armor. The battle lasted only two hours, with the rebel securing victory and cementing their claim to the area. Imperial casualties consisted of 430 killed and 2300 captured, with the rest retreating back into imperial territory. The empire also lost 240 tanks, 180 of which were destroyed with another 60 being captured. Ulverrick only lost 38 tanks and 56 men.

Pressing their advantage, Ryan led the rebel forces in an assault of the Imperial fortifications at Hollenburg. Using a mix heavy armor and unconventional air tactics, Ryan took Hollenburg in only three hours. This egagement proved that rebel forces could meet Imperial forces head on and still be victorious. Meanwhile, Yemian's naval forces had engaged the Imperial naval forces, making sure they couldn't bring orbital fir to bear on the rebel ground forces. These engagements consisted of raids designed to draw out imperial naval forces only to have the enemy move out of range. This type of hit and run warfare was slowly crippling the Imperial navy, but the attacks were become more dangerous as imperial commanders began to adjust their tactics to compensate for the unconventional attacks. After Ryan had secured Hollenburg he set his sights on the capital city of Augustan, where a division of his men were still entrenched against the occupying imperials. The city well well fortified, and Ryan knew a frontal assault on the city would be suicide. In the end, Ryan decided to risk something arguable more dangerous. He committed to elite of his army, the Tavian and his own assault veteran to a para drop on the city while Ulverrick drew away Imperial forces with a tank advance. The place for this mock egagement would be a Great divide, a massive land trench that formed a primary pass in the planet continental mountain range. Ryan hoped this pass would force the numerically superior Imperial forces into a bottleneck so that they couldn't press the advantage. However, it also meant that all of the vehicles on both sides would be very vulnerable to air to ground attacks, and Ryan committed almost half of the entire Rebel air forces to covering the rebel tanks in the canyon. The attacks happened a little over a month after the initial assault on the world. The para-drop came with mixed results. Most of the rebel forces made it to the ground but were badly disorganized. However, Ryan was able to link up with resistance fighters in the city, who gave him and his troops access to the rebel's extensive underground network. When Lawrence learned that Ryan had all but trapped himself on Hyglaf he moved most of the combat forces, which were currently still engaged on Camalev IV, to Hyglaf in an attempt to destroy the leadership of the rebellion in the type of large set piece engagement he was looking for. Meanwhile, Ryan had consolidated his forces and led an assault of the capitol building, which was the current HQ of the Imperial forces in the city. The attack was costly but successful, and the victory allowed Ryan's group to disorganize and isolate Imperial forces in the city so that rebel resistance cells could destroy them in a series of guerrilla strikes. With the fall of the city, imperial forces that were pressing down upon rebel armor forces broke off and headed back toward the city in an attempt to remake their bastion of defense. This gave Ulverrick a chance to consolidate his forces, but they were not in any shape to try and catch the imperial retreat, However, the rebel air force saw the fleeing Imperial tank column and was able to capitalize, inflicting massive amounts of damage on the imperials, which were still trapped in the confines of the great divide. This gave Ryan the time he needed to secure the Capital and when the remains of the imperial attack finally reached Augustan they were surrounded and forced to surrender.

Fitzgerald Arrived two months later with the full force of the Army, with consisted of most of forces stationed on Camalev along with reinforcement from the empire and surrounding area. Augustan was reduced to ashes under the might of the Imperial Orbital Fire while almost six million imperial personnel made landfall in the ruins of the capital city. However, the rebels were safe in prepared bunkers that the resistance had prepared under the city, most of the rebel equipment on the world was hidden in the forests outside of Hollenburg, and the rebel navy had simply vanished into the nebula surrounding the Hyglaf system. Once again, Lawrence had tried to smash a fly with a sledge hammer, and had missed. However, Ryan and his fellow rebel commanders could not find a way to effectively engage such a large military force. Eventually, they would agree on an on deception rather than outright military force. Using long range Tavian coded signals, which imperial communication equipment still couldn't intercept, Ryan communicated with his forces on Camalev IV, which were still holding their ground inside to four imperial fortresses. While the massive exodus of imperial forces from the world had given his forces there a reprieve, there were still imperial hold out on the world which the rebels were trying to dislodge. Ryan got his commander on the world, Vladimir Petrov, the use some of the captured imperial equipment on the world to his advantage. Posing as high ranking imperial officers and using imperial communications equipment and security code, members of the rebel army set a message, along with video proof, to Fitzgerald that they had managed to capture Ryan on Camalev IV as he was leading an attack on an imperial defense base, they even showed a fake Ryan bound and gagged in a captured Imperial command post. This was believable because Ryan always lead from the front. and was made even more concrete because Ryan had launched three Remote control rebel cruisers through the imperial blockade approximately one month before the transmission in an attempt to ruse Lawrence into thinking that Ryan had fled the world. Lawrence, apparently had by the illusion, was furious that Ryan had managed to escape him again, but simultaneously overjoyed that the elusive rebel leader had been apprehended. Lawrence resolved to go to Cavalev IV personally with most of his forces to make sure that Ryan was properly dealt with which using his massive force to finally retake the captured imperial forces on the world. Yet he still had to try and secure Camalev IV, which was proving to be a risky business against a mostly invisible enemy. However, rebel attacks had greatly decreased in the days before the fake transmission was sent, adding the fact that the rebel were becoming disheartened without their charismatic leader. To solve the Problem, Lawrence committed 70% of his forces to return to Camalev and crush the resistance there, while the remainder stayed on Hyglaf to mop up. Ryan waited until the Imperial forces were in the middle of transferring their forces from the planet to their Naval transport vessels. This was a time when the army was very vulnerable, and the imperials had left themselves ever more open by eschewing traditional security measures in favor of speed. This is when the rebels attacked. Ryan committed all his resources into an attack, if successful, could land a crushing blow the "center" of the imperial army. rebel infantry left their shelters to storm sparsely guarded imperial bases while rebel tanks rumbled toward the capital in support. However, the most important element of the rebel attack came from the air. rebel craft of every kind strafed the imperial forces on the ground and in the air in an attempt to bring down important targets, the most important of these were the imperial bulk cargo haulers, with proved to be simply fat bullets magnets because Lawrence had failed to provide them with proper air support. Even the imperial navy was attacked by rebel capital ships. The operation was a disaster for the Empire, and casualties were measured in the hundreds of thousands. Lawrence was forced to flee the system with what was left of his forces and move to his contingency base on Alexander XVIII.

Meanwhile, the rebels went about salvaging the equipment the Empire had lost, which included 18 capital ship, 100s of tanks and vehicles, and almost 1,300,000 prisoners. With this victory, the rebels had for the first time a relatively secure planet on which to build a base of operations. This victory is seen as a signal to many rebel groups on most of the inhabited colonies to begin their final attempts at dislodging imperial forces from their respective worlds, and a rash of rebel offensives stretches the imperial colonial army to the brink. Several new leaders, including many old member of the colonial legislature, emerged as leaders of these resistance cells. Many of the small rebellions are successful, and the Imperial army in by and large pushed out of the western portion of the colonies. With the massive success of what will be eventually be known as the Vendetta Offensive, Ryan and the other primary leaders of the rebellion call together the minor rebellion leaders in an attempt to form as army capable of meeting Lawrence's forces head on, and creating a state that would justify and solidify the rebellion's break from the Empire. In all, 238 leaders came of Hyglaf, now renamed Vendetta Prime, to try and work out a state that would right what they felt was wrong with the Empire. This proved to be no easy task, as all of the delegates wanted their own agendas carried out. After a week of getting nowhere, a caucus was organized that elected 50 of the most influential of the leaders to the New Republic Council. This Council would serve as a type of provisional government while the rebellion continued to try and push the Empire out of the colonies. Meanwhile, Ryan, who had relatively little interest in the political side of the rebellion, went about organizing the influx of new rebel troop and his own force, which was centered around guerrilla tactics, into a fieldable and viable military force. The army, deemed the new republic army, was designed by Ryan himself using a mix of Tavian and Imperial tactical doctrine. Attempts were also made to standardize the uniforms and equipment of the area, but these programs had little lasting effects.

Alexander and Naxium

While the New Republic Council convened the First Vendetta Summit, Ryan and his fellow Rebel commanders moved to try and engage the Remains of Lawrence's forces on Alexander. The Republic invasion army consisted of approximately 2.5 million men divided into 50 divisions. The force Invaded Alexander on July 8 3531 when they made a foothold in the northern tip of the Imperial help city of Istangrad. Istangrad of a massive place, almost one hundred miles long and fifty miles wide. This city was the only major populated area on the planet, and, consequently, the center of the Imperial defense. Even so, defending such as area was a less than desirable task, especially when facing as enemy used to urban environments and well versed in guerrilla and hit and run tactics. By the time the rebel army arrived on the planet the Imperial army under Lawrence had declared marshal law had turned large portions of the city into urban strongholds and defense nests. However, a side effect of this was a great resentment among the citizens of the world, which had until this time been mildly loyalist. Ryan took the initiative as soon as he made land fall. with the help of two companies of imperial deserters and a mob of rebels with in the city, Ryan took control of a manufactory defense post, capture 84 imperial personnel, and taking only two casualties in the process. From there he moved to fortify the Surrounding area while tanks under the command of Joseph Ulverrick repelled an imperial counter-push that was meant to retake the defenses. In preparation for the attack, several of the rebel tanks had been fitter Hyatt-Grumman type 55 200 mm cannons. This cannon was known for its power and accuracy, put also for the fact that when it fired its made almost no muzzle flash. This allowed the rebel tanks to conceal themselves and act a "sniper" within the confines of the urban terrain. The rebel had also retrofitted about 30 ILBT-45 Wellington light tanks with high velocity 80 mm anti tank guns. While small when compared to other weapons of the time, the high velocity of the rail based weapon system allowed to penetrate most imperial tank armor. These light tanks were also faster and more maneuverable than standards tanks and made excellent tank hunters in the tangled urban battles that characterized the war on Alexander.

After the first two weeks of fighting, the war on Alexander became a stalemate. The republic army was unable to take the imperial defenses and was too small to engage the Empire in a large scale engagement. The Imperials, on the other hand, were unable to dislodge the rebel defenders and were constantly harassed by enemy raider and guerrillas. However, Romanov was beginning to doubt his commander, and Lawrence knew he needed to crush the rebellion or he risked being removed command, which usually meant a short trip to the gallows. To try and appease him imperial superiors, Lawrence sent some of his forces, approximately 500,000 men, to try and retake some of the worlds lost in Vendetta Offensive. Names the Bromon push, the plan was divided into three phases. The first involved cutting off the rebel supply lines between the rebel on Alexander and Bromon. The second phase of the plan involved isolating Bromun and the surrounding worlds. The final phase of the plan involved an actual assault on Bronom itself. Lawrence set aside 500,00 men and 50 naval vessels for the operation, which he hoped to cut the rebellion off from its logistics bases so that he could crush the rebel forces on Alexander in a prolonged war of attrition. However, to effectively cut off the Rebel supply lines, Lawrence had to capture the Petrol route. The petrol route (named so because of the large number of fuel tankers that traveled along it), was one of the largest space routes in the Camalev colonies. While easy in theory, capturing the route would require holding a strip of space 100s of light years long. The route was also infested with pirates, and, more recently, rebel raiders and privateers. In the years before the war, the major mining companies had paid off the larger pirate groups to secure safe passage. At the onset of the rebellion, yemian, who still commanded a vast amount of capital resources, continued to buy off the pirate groups, allowing the rebel safe opporation in the area. The imperials, however, enjoyed no such protection, and the pirates, keen on making a quick profit, wasted no time in attacking the Imperial supply convoys and, in some cases, imperial warships. Some of the these groups had open rebel sympathies, and allowed the rebels to commandeer the imperial ships after the pirates had gutted them. Others simply sold the ships, or the bounty of supplies they contained, to rebel buyers. The rebels, under the command of admiral Weyland, also mounted attacks against the thinly stretched imperials, capturing prisoners and supplies in the process. The imperials, in the meantime, managed to capture the 4 planetary systems (occupying the planets Issac XII, Regent III, Merrengeti XVI, Golliver Prime, and Tollin II) surrounding Bromon, and began to prepare to retake Bromon from the Rebels. The Rebels, however, had on intention of giving up without a fight.

Dispatching a fleet consisting of 45 battleships, 30 destroyers, 50 cruisers, and numerous support craft, Fleet Admiral Vannick Medici, who was charged with defending Bromon, hoped to lure the imperials into a large set piece battle where he could destroy the imperial initiative. This was easy to do, as the imperial commanders thought the Imperial navy to easily defeat the rebels in a large set piece engagement. An imperial task force consisting of 50 battleships, 20 destroyers, and 45 cruisers was sent to intercept and destroy the amassing rebel fleet. Using this overconfidence to his advantage, Medici lured the imperials into the nebula surrounding Vendetta (which was still relatively close the petrol route). This hampered the imperials' ability to communicate, but the commander of the force, Ricardo Tokarev, still believed his forces could decimate the rebels and destroy the forces that might otherwise by employed defending Bromon. The first stage of the battle began when rebel fighters, supported by light bomber and gunships, along with a fair number of cooperative pirate forces, attacked the deaf, and partially blind, Imperial capital ships. Using the nebula to their advantage, the raiding party was able to surprise the imperials. Who were unable to launch their own air forces, or mount any amount of capable defense, in time to stop the rebel attack. 4 destroyers and a battleships were completely crippled, with one being completely destroyed after rebel torpedoes ignited its rear munitions magazine. 12 other ships sustained moderate to heavy damage. In the wake of the first wave the rebels again firing upon the imperials with their capital ships. The imperial returned fire and released their own air wing in an attempt to gain air superiority over the rebels. This proved to be disastrous, as most of the imperial targeting systems failed in the nebula. The rebels, which used less advanced systems (which usually consisted of something similar to iron sights and a range finder), or Tavian targeting computers, which would function even in the nebula. This turn in engagement into a turkey shoot for the rebels, who proceeded to reload and engage in another attack run on the imperial capital ships. By then the Imperial and rebel fleet were engaging each other at point blank range (the imperials had moved closer than normal to their adversaries in an attempt to compensate for their lack of advanced targeting equipment. This actually worked in the favor of the rebels, who were able to mount boarding actions on the imperials with less than risk than would be normally associated with the task. The battle only lasted three hours. By this time the imperial force had lost 45 ships, and had lost another 32 to rebel boarders. Luther Hammond, the standing commanding officer of the fleet (Tokarev ship, the Pride of Terra, had been captured and the commander was presumed dead), ordered the remainder of his forces to retreat to imperial held planet of Regent III, but they were overtaken, and Hammond was forced to surrender his remaining vessels to the rebellion. This engagement, which would eventually be known as the Battle of the Crimean Nebula, was probably of the most decisive Naval battles of the war, and second only to the second battle of Naxium in shear scale. It was this battle that convinced Lawrence that any further attempt to control the petrol route would be a waste of manpower. After the battle, Lawrence consolidated his forces on Alexander and Naxium, his last two heavily defended worlds in the colonies, in the hopes that he could break the front, and in doing so the resolve, of the rebellion by expelling them from Alexander once and for all.

By this time, the Battle for Alexander had dragged on for more than a year, and both sides for showing signs of battle fatigue. While both sides had gone to great lengths to "indirectly" dislodge to enemy from the city, such as the ill fated Bromon campaign, or the marginally effective raids on imperial convoys by rebel raid, but these tactics proved largely ineffective. Lawrence, meanwhile, was increasingly pushed by the imperial government at home to crush the rebellion once and for all. With his support at home becoming increasingly nonexistent, Lawrence needed a victory for he would be removed from command, with this in mind, he committed almost the entirety of the imperial force on Alexander to the "July offensive", this plan involved a massive push though the relatively untouched refineries in to northern sections of the city along with unilateral naval raids and bombardment. Meanwhile, Lawrence assigned two imperial assault divisions the task of infiltrating the rebel line by using the paths along the Lombardy canal(note, in contrast with the nautical canal of ancient earth, the Lombardy was a 100 mile route witch cut through the otherwise twisted and convoluted transportation routes of the city. Before the war is was used by massive cargo trains to move supplies from the western mines and quarries to the manufacturing plants in the eastern part of the city), which had ceased to be used when the war on Alexander had begun. The plan was for the assault troops to infiltrate the front two rebel front lines (codenamed objectives imperialist and Romanov) after successful infiltration, the main imperial force would assault the rebel lines from the front while the assault troops attacked from behind. Lawrence hoped that this two pronged attack would pin the rebels in a pincer and break the back of the rebel defense on the planet. Imperial tactician predicted that almost 80 percents of the rebel offensive and defensive capabilities were located within their two front lines, and that if they could be taken the rest of the rebel on the planet would be unable to effectively resist the rebel attacks. The Assault troops began their trek in March of 3533, and reached their destination amazingly undetected. The rebel defensive lines that were to be taken consisted of a bind boggling array and barricades, pill boxes, dunker, dugouts, and hidden sniper nest, while there was no overt wall or fortress to take, the rebel had converted every building and street into a fire zone, and had converted almost 200 miles of sewer into an elaborate tunnel system. in the two weeks preceding the attacks, the imperial navy bombarded these defenses with bombing missions and orbital fire. The rebel used the fact that the imperial navy exposed itself to engage in a series of engagements in the hopes of crippling the imperial navy, which still enjoyed air superiority on Alexander. These egagement, however, in inconclusive. On the ground, the assault vets used the heavy bombing to sneak squad sized units into position to attack the rear rebel line. The Attack began July 11, 3533, with more than 4 million imperial personnel engaging the rebel defenses. The first attacks proved successful, and the imperials were able to breach the outer rebel defense after eight hours of fighting. The next seven days would be some of the most intense fighting of the entire war. As the imperial advance they became bogged down as rebels demolished the city as they retreated. Meanwhile, the rebel engaged the imperials in a slow fighting retreat that often resulted in house and house, room to room warfare. In fact, it was estimated that the average range of engagement burning the July offensive was only 19 meters. Even so, after 6 days of fighting, the imperial had all but destroyed the rebel defensive network. The imperial advance went unchecked after the six in all but one locating. This location was a rebel supply bump that had been heavily fortified prior to the back, and was the last standing rebel defensive position in the area. This base of defended by elements of the 46 and 23 Mcgavin divisions (which had deserted in mass after to October massacre), militia, irregulars, and a group of Tavian linemen. The entire force consisted of 8,000 men (and some women), and was under attack by almost 400,000 imperial personnel. The rebel held off and, consequently, were surrounded and cut off. Nevertheless, the defenders managed to hold out 18 days, and inflict 143,000 casualties before being overrun. The delay inflicted a great toll on the advancing imperial forces, and allowed the rebel to regroup. This came as a surprise to Lawrence, who exspected the rebels who be broken after the attack. In truth, many of the rebels had been able to retreat through their underground networks, and many of the rebel leaders, Ryan included, were not present during the attack, and were therefore unharmed. The imperial forces had also failed to capture the rebel supply bumps or vehicle bepots, which come back to haunt them in the days to come.

In the wake of the attack, rebel tanks advanced over the rubble to engage the advancing imperial. Rebel armor had not participated in the first stages of the offensive because they would have been sitting ducks for imperial aircraft. But now, bad weather, along with smoke from thousands of small fire, had drastically cut the effectiveness of air power, and the rebel tanks were able to inflict heavy casualties on the advancing imperials. Rebel walkers, many of which were converted cargo lifters, hunted imperials in the city ruins. Snipers and hit and run attacks were also a major problems. The Imperial advance finally ground to a halt 34 days after the initial attack. With numbering in the hundreds of thousands, the imperial finally retreated after a final armored push was wiped out in the battle of butler's ridge (named so because of a natural bluff, called butler's ridge, that ran through the city at that location and provided a key tactical advantage to the rebels). The following rebel counter-attack, collectively referred to as the battle of Gamide, resulted in a route of the retreating imperials, and an armored flank attack to the imperial left made sure that the imperials were unable to escape, and over 400,000 imperials, including Lawrence, were taken prisoner. The rest of the imperial forces on the world surrendered 12 days later. However, as proven in the previous campaign, Alexander would prove to be too costly to hold when the inevitable imperial reinforcements arrived, so Ryan resolved to only leave a small garrison on the world and move quickly to Naxium, who's fortress cities would be easier to hold from the impending imperial assault. However, in spite of their commander's capture, the imperial forces on Naxium refused to surrender. This defiance was almost superficial, as there were almost no imperial personnel left on Naxium to defend the otherwise powerful fortresses that were located on the world. Upon hearing the news that Lawrence's forces had been routed, Romanov was furious. However, because of continued hostilities with the Illumate and Veranati, he could not divert a sizable military force to re-take the colonies. After a month in council, Romanov ordered his stewards to take up a defensive posture, which would allow him to send an expeditionary force to stop the rebellion once and for all. To do this, Romanov sent a force of almost 12 million men, and 400 ships, under the command of Steward Von Hess, and a second force of 10 million men, and 340 ships, under the command of Steward William Fitzgerald to destroy to rebellion's forces and capture Ryan for trial and execution. At that time the Rebel forces consisted of approximately 14 million ground personnel and 320 ships. After the victories at Naxium and Alexander to ranks of the rebellion had swelled from 6 million to their current number. However, this led to the problem that most of the newer rebel troopers were untrained and not battle-tested, while the imperial forces were all hardened war veterans. To try and counter this, Ryan set aside two full divisions to train the new recruits. The entire rebel navy had also assembled, it consisted of a nix of commandeered imperial ships, retrofitted civilian craft, and a large number of pirate and mercenary craft. The rebel strategy was to try and make it to where the two imperial forces would arrive at different time so that the rebellion could defeat them one at a time. If the Imperials attacked unilaterally the Rebellion's chance of survival was thin. To that end, the rebellion had managed to convince almost 20,000 imperial personnel that were aboard Fitzgerald's fleet to do what they could to sabotage and slow down Fitzgerald's forces. The choice of which fleet to slow down was chosen because it was known that Von Hess was a staunch Imperialist, and had no respect of the rebellion forces. This, the rebel hoped, would cause him to refuse to wait for Fitzgerald, thinking he could take on the imperial forces alone. Fitzgerald, on the other hand, was well respected and known for his tactical efficiency, meaning that he would rather attack unilaterally than keep to a largely subjective time table. For this plan to succeed, the rebellion also need to make sure that Von Hess had to engage the rebellion immediately and could not disengage to wait for Fitzgerald's forces. To do this, the rebels contacted the exiled business leaders in the Outlands, which had given substantial monetary support to the rebellion, and convinced them to make it hard to impossible for Von Hess to refuel his forces on imperial held worlds in the Outlands, however, this proved unnecessary as Von Hess eschewed refueling so that he could reach the colonies sooner.

This happened in June of 3534. While he had initially planned to bombard the rebel planetary defenses from orbit, Von Hess' lack of fuel meant he had to take the forces in tact so that he could use the fuel reserves that they held. His lack of fuel also meant he had to immediately engage the rebel navy. When the battle started, Fitzgerald's forces were only two weeks away, so Ryan's forces had to move quickly to neutralize Von Hess' ground forces. The imperial forces focused their attacks on the two largest of the planetary fortresses, the capital city of Bardon and the fortress city of New Haven. The imperial also attacked the smaller fortress of Garlandton, which held a large fuel reserve and space port. Ryan commanded Bardon personally, while the Ulverrick brothers were in command at New haven. Gardandton was commanded by the now General Andrew Simmons. The Imperial forces ground to a halt outside the cities and were unable to take to rebel defenses. After two days of fighting the imperial managed to take Garlanton. However, the rebel had managed to send most of the city's fuel supply to the rebel fleet, by this time, and used to rest of collapse the city's fortifications as the imperial entered to city. The remaining rebel fled to Drognan, a rebel stronghold about 200 miles west of Garlandton, where they could continue to harass the imperials with guerrilla attacks and aerial raids. The rebels apparent air superiority proved critical here as well as elsewhere during to first battle of Naxium. Von Hess had reserved most of his air power for fighting the rebel navy, and the imperial infantry were constantly attacked be rebel aircraft. In space, the rebel navy had managed to lure in the imperial navy by hiding half its forces behind Naxiums 3rd moon, using the other craft as bait, this allowed the rebels to catch the numerically superior Imperials in a pincer. however, the battle was still far from decided, and the rebels could not afford to lose too many of their ships, of they would be unable to rebel Fitzgerald's forces when they arrived. In an attempt to cut down on losses, the rebel reverted to the combat boarding tactics used during the battles along the petrol route a year earlier. This involved taking over the Imperial ships and then using it against the enemy, for at least using it as a massive battering ram. The "privateer" forces that the rebellion possessed excelled at this type of warfare, and over 50 ships were captured in this way during the battle. The imperials were also not prepared for the large number of smaller ships in use by the imperials. These ships were large enough to threaten the imperial capital ships, but too small to be effectively targeted by the anti ship guns of the imperial warships. The final advantage of the rebel fleet was the Alexander, which was larger than all of the imperial ships in the area, including Von Hess' flag ship. This dealt a massive moral blow to the imperials, who had been led to believe that the rebel fleet consisted of only militarized cargo haulers and pirate ships. In the end, the Rebel managed to outlast the imperials, who eventually ran out fuel in the sixth day of the engagement. after this the imperial capital ships became large target while their fighter wings were grounded completely. Von Hess, who's ship had been captured during the fourth day of the engagement, was forced to surrender all of his men and material unconditionally to the enemy. This battle actually increased the size of the rebel navy, who lost 80 ships, but gained 96 from the defeated imperials. On the ground, the imperial failure to capture any valuable positions caused them to retreat into the mid continental desert, where they were routed by rebel armor forces. In all, the rebels captured 4 million imperial personnel and large amounts of imperial supplies. Thus the first battle of Naxium ended in a stunningly one sided rebel victory.

Fitzgerald arrived four days later. However, unlike Von Hess, his forces had ample supplies, so the rebel could not simply outlast the imperial, they had to outfight them. Also unlike Von Hess, Fitzgerald had no illusion of pride to speak of, so he simply detroyed the Rebel held fortress cities from orbit, leveling the playing field and taking away a critical advantage from the rebel defenders. However, the rebels had foreseen this and had had most of their supplies and personnel in underground bunkers during the attack, which allowed them to escape the attack relatively unscathed. However, with the destruction of theier bases, there were only to defensible locations left on Naxium, the Rognaugth line, a string of fortifacations which connected New Haven and Drognan, and the Richford line, which consisted of a Rebel trench system which defended the Richford pass, one of the only route through the Hartford mountain which dissected Naxiums only major continent, on which almost all of the human population of associated. Fitzgerald focused all of his forces on the Rognaught line, setting up a defense system in the mid continental deserts about 2 miles away from the rebel lines. Meanwhile, the imperial had engaged the Rebels with two waves of fighter and bomber attacks, but had yet to engage the rebels in a direct confrontation. This would not happen until two days after Fitzgerald's arrival, when the fleets finally met in an all out naval engagement. The tactics that the rebels had used to beat Von Hess were largely ineffective because Fitzgerald had prepared for the rebel tactic by posting extra security personnel on his major vessels. This led to a drawn out two week long battle which proved costly for both sides, however, it was the ground war that would eventually decide the fate of the rebellion. Currently, the two armies were caught in a stalemate. The rebels were still too cautious to attempt a direct assault on the imperials while the imperial had failed to take the rebel defenses through surgical infantry strikes. During the first week and a half of the battle the only large scale confrontations were armor pushes, all of which had only minor effects of the outcome of the battle. on the 15th bay of the battle, the imperial attempted an all out assault on the rebel lines, focused on two locations labed point D and H, where the terrain offered the advancing imperial some cover during their advance, the attack lasted almost 12 hours, with almost 4 hours of desperate hand to hand fighting within the rebel trenches. Eventually, the rebels were able to repel the imperials, but at a great cost on both sides. The rebels had also lost the bulk of their front line fortifacations, meaning that they not weather another attack of similar size. With this in mind, Ryan ordered a massive counter-attack on the Imperial defenses. While probably the best choice, this attack was massive gamble, and several rebel leaders voiced their opposition to such a bold move. In any case, the attack was mounted almost immediately after the imperial attack, taking place in the evening of the following day. Infantry, supported by tanks and artillery, attacked a supposed weak point in the imperial defenses that had been reported by the rebel navy that morning. The attack was long one, but after an hour of combat the rebels managed to enter the Imperial defenses. Meanwhile, the armor forces of each opposing force confronted each other in the no man's land in between the defenses in the larges tank engagement of the war. The infantry fought a long slow war in the imperial trench, with Ryan, who knew the importance of the attack, leading from the front. After almost 10 hours, the Rebels were able to capture the imperial command post, and the remaining imperial forces evacuated into space. With the loss ofa foothold on the planet, Fitzgerald knew that continuing to engage the Rebel navy, which was turning into a stalemate, would be a pointless waste of manpower. With this in mind, the steward gathered him remaining forces and retreated into the embaldi rift, back to imperial space. Although the Empire had naver surrendered to the Rebellion, the lack of imperial personnel in the colonies (the last of the imperials had retreated, surrendered, or deserted soon after Fitzgerald's defeat), and the lack of an incoming attack force allowed the rebel to consolidate and focus on building the state they had worked so hard to create.

The Imperial Civil War

After his forced retreat from Naxium, Steward Fitzgerald returned to the Empire expected to be executed for his failure. This prediction was strengthened by the fact that he was summoned to Terra Prime shortly after his arrival. As Fitzgerald traveled to the heart of the Empire he was appalled at the deplorable condition to which the empire had fallen. The centralization policies had taken away almost all power from the provincial and planetary governments, which severely limited their ability to respond to crises in their respective territories. This had caused poverty and crime to skyrocket, and also contributed to the decline in the general infrastructure of the Empire. The Imperial economy was also in shambles, meaning that several businesses were closing and that unemployment had reached unheard-of levels. When Fitzgerald reached the capital he was detained and publicly rebuked by Romanov. However, Fitzgerald was greatly respected for his heroic actions against the Veranati and retained his popularity even in the wake of his recent failures. So Romanov reasoned that to publicly execute the Steward would add to his already mounting opposition. Instead, Fitzgerald was demoted to trooper and sent the front lines of the Bavin-Imperial war at was still raging in the southern areas of the Empire. Romanov reasoned that Fitzgerald would quickly be killed and that the matter would be finished.

Fitzgerald joined the Alexander 5025 regiment (Fitzgerald was a native of Alexander V) an assault division which was about to take part the in re-conquering of Collis III, which had been recently captured by the Illumate. However, instead of dying as was expected, Fitzgerald lived through the invasion and managed to survive the entirety of the campaign. However, though the course of the campaign Fitzgerald's bitterness towards Romanov grew steadily until it reached the point of outright hatred. the invasion force was under in command of Varl Bassinger, one of many recently appointed imperial stewards that had advanced more because of their unflinching loyalty and connection to Romanov than any leadership ability. Bassinger's leadership of the campaign made what could have been a year long campaign into an eight year quagmire. His poorly planned attacks and often uncoordinated strategies caused the fighting to be particularly costly in terms of imperial material and personnel. Imperial troops in the field were also often under-supplied because of Bassinger's lack of preparation regarding logistics. This proved particularly costly to Fitzgerald, who, after being shot in the arm had to have it amputated because the medical personnel in Fitzgerald's division did not have any tools to extract the round from Fitzgerald's arm. Although he was eventually able to secure a bionic arm by scavenging one off a dead imperial officer and having it attached by a local private doctor, this lack of leadership on the most basic of level cemented for Fitzgerald the fact that Romanov was unfit to rule the Empire. The final event that drove Fitzgerald over the edge happened in October of 3535.

In the wake of the still unquenched rebellion in the colonies, Romanov began taking ever more controversial measures in the Empire to ensure that no planet could rebel against his rule. Alexander V was one such planet where unrest amongst the population had been growing for quite some time. Romanov decided to make an example of the world, and show once and for all that no amount of resistance would be tolerated. Agents of the emperor orchestrated an incident where the Imperial Governor of Alexander V would be assassinated and that the act would be painted as the work of the resistance. The act was carried out and, following the death of the Steward, mass raids were carried out in which suspected rebels were captured and executed without so much as a semblance of a proper trial. The governor, however, was a semi secret supporter of the resistance and many on the planet and abroad called into the question authenticity of the official details of the murders, especially since the Governor had been surrounded by known imperialists at the time of his death. Fitzgerald, now a staff sergeant, was with his regiment at the time. The regiment was off world re-supplying after their victory on Collis III. Fitzgerald knew the steward personally and seriously questioned the fact that he would be murdered by his own people.

It was at this point that Fitzgerald made up his mind to attempt to usurp the tyrannical emperor. Fitzgerald orchestrated a meeting of several key officers that he knew would be sympathetic to his cause. With approximately 4 divisions of men at his back, Alexander commandeered two Imperial Battleships and initiated a bloody civil war. Alexander, instead of trying to build an army or garner support, ordered his ships to move strait for the Imperial capital of terra prime. Before he had left however, Fitzgerald had dispatched saboteurs into the rest of the imperial fleet to make sure that no imperial could follow him or communicate his treachery to the higher authorities. When his ships reached the capital, Fitzgerald and 10,000 of his elite troops stowed aboard cargo haulers and were able to sneak into the imperial capital undetected. This group of would be commandos found that the city itself was practically ready to fall. By this time most of the Imperial military leaders were only marginally loyal to the emperor, with only the fanatical enforcer divisions still unswerving in their devotion to the imperial throne. The populace itself was ripe with those that had been hurt by Romanov's economic policies and few if any still had any love for their tyrannical leader. The senate, which had reduced to a rubber stamp by Romanov's authoritative regime, was eager to regain its lost power. However, since terra was practically a police state, there was still an entire enforcer division guarding the area around the Capitol building.

Fitzgerald launched his attack at approximately 2300 hours on June 6 3537. Fitzgerald's plan was to lead a strike force of 50 raiders into the imperial palace to assassinate Romanov while the remainder of the rebel force caused chaos and made sure that no imperial reinforcement could get into the imperial palace. The Initial attack was largely successful, and Fitzgerald team was able to get into the inner chambers of the palace without being detected. When they reached the Emperor throne they found Romanov surrounded by a platoon strength force of elite enforcer guards. A firefight erupted and Fitzgerald's forces managed to force there way into the Throne room. Romanov, however, had no intension of staying put for his assassins to find him. He tried to flee the scene as the firefight broke out. Fitzgerald saw and, with the help of two other rebels, pushed through the enforcer ranks and made their way to the Emperor as the Other rebels provided cover fire. Both of the other rebels were felled by the enemy, but Fitzgerald managed to get close to the Emperor. However, Fitzgerald's weapon jammed as he tried to complete his mission and he had to charge the Emperor and his two guards with his sword. Fitzgerald killed the first the guard outright and threw the other one away. Even so, before he could land a killing blow the remained body guard shot his several time in the chest and legs, and the Emperor was allowed to escape. While the surviving rebels were able to drag Fitzgerald to safety, their hopes fore survival looked slim at best. They staged a fighting retreat through the palace and, along with the rest of the rebel force, managed to steal several troopships and escape into outer space. The entire force then made a blind warp drive jump in a desperate attempt to outrun the imperial dragnet that was quickly closing around them. All the while, Fitzgerald clung to life while rebel medics tried to stabilize his rapidly deteriorating condition. With his failure to assassinate Romanov, the Empire was plunged into a civil war so costly that the true value is still not known. The enforcers and loyalist imperial forces gathered to protect of imperialist regime while the rebels moved to gain a foothold. However, the imperial military was split over their allegiances. Under Camalev, the Imperial officer corps was highly educated, and many imperial officers were intellectuals al well as military leaders. This didn't fare well with a Romanov's totaltarian regime, and many senior imperial officers deserted, taking their suborinates with them. This mass defected, known as the September Dersertion, meant that both sides of this war were now almost evenly matched. It also questioned Romanovs right to rule, and the mass exodus of officers caused many planetary leaders, who were eager to gain their lost status and authority, to join the rebellion as well. The rebels under Fitzgerald, calling themselves the Camalevs, based themselves on the planet Alexander V. Fitzgerald's forces were soon joined by officers such as Steward Lossenger, who had recently led a prison revolt where he had been detained since the start of the colonial rebellion and Admiral Madison, who had been one of the heroes of the Recent imperial conflicts with the Bavin Illumate. Fitzgerald had also set up contacts with the deposed business leaders in the outlands, and promised them a full pardons and reparitions for their lost property if they supported the rebel cause. The first battle of the revolution took place of Alexander V when the Imperials tried to stop the rebellion defore it could gain any momentum.

This attack consisted of almost 2 million men under the command of Steward Guillory, a staunch imperial loyalist. The imperials made landfall outside Farram, the capital of the planet, and attempted to take the city through the use of an assault air drop while imperial ground troops attacked from the outside. However, bad weather and rebel jamming equipment caused to air drop to descend into chaos, and the assault troops were dropped east of their target area, into the Magellan Ocean. As this was happening the imperial standard infantry assaulted the city defenses and were pushed back after two hours of fighting. The Imperial attacked a second time after four days of inactivity, this time breaching the city wall, which led to a brutal close combat battle on the inside of the city walls. This forced the rebels to flee the world. Fitzgerald and most of his forces evacuated the world before the imperial forces could cut them off. Knowing that the rebellion was not equipped to survive a long war of attrition, Fitzgerald set his course for earth, hoping to throw the Empire into such a state of confusion that the disjointed rebels could defeat to still numerous imperials. When Fitzgerald's forces, which consisted of 78 ships and 4 million men, he completely bypassed the orbital defenses, driving his imperial capital ships into the lower atmosphere of the earth. It was commonly known that most capital ships would be crushed under their own weight when subjected to a gravitational forces of a planet. Because of this, Fitzgerald's supposedly suicidal tactics allowed him to penetrate the imperial capital's outer defenses without suffering any casualties. However, the capital ship could not maintain lift, and stayed in the air just long enough for the rebels to deploy, and to become massive battering rams. Of the 78 ships under Fitzgerald's command, 45 landed in the city, causing untold amounts of damage to the city's defense systems. However, this brass move to penetrate Terra Prime left Fitzgerald with no way to engage the imperial navy, and left his one man fighters with no place to land or refuel. With this in mind the Steward moved his forces in an assault on the Metternich Interplanetary airport, which was located on the edge of Alexandria, the imperial capital city. Fitzgerald's forces met only light and disorganized resistance, and took the airport after two hours on fighting. This is where Fitzgerald set up his base of operations. The airport doubled as a missile launch, and had defensive overt and subterranean defensive network. It took almost two days for the imperial defenders to organize themselves after Fitzgerald's initial shock and awe attack. During this time the leader had expanded into the city, meaning that the city outer defensive shell, which was supposedly impenetrable, was now of little to no use. Meanwhile, the attack on earth had been a signal to a myriad of small resistance cells that rose up to challenge their imperial masters. These cell consisted mostly of commanders that had joined Fitzgerald's cause, but could not link up with him before his daring attack. In all, almost half of the imperial military deserted and took up arms against their former comrades. This lead to a massive general engagement that took place on a 100 inhabited worlds, although both sides knew that the outcome of the war on Terra would decide the ultimate outcome of the war. IN the midst of this the rebel forces managed to sign a non aggression pact with the Bavin Illumate, in which the Illumate agreed to not attack rebel forces. In return the rebel agreed to pull all imperial personnel out of Illumate territory if they were able to overthrow the Romanov regime. Meanwhile, the rebels held their ground on Terra, but failed to make any progress against the entrenched imperials.

The battle of the Emperors Way

After 4 months of stalemate, both sides were looking for a way to break to deadlock that had arisen on Terra. Romanov had taken even more power from the senate because of the imminent treat to his throne. These new powers gave him complete control of the military, and although he had no military experience, he insisted on leading the imperial army personally. Fitzgerald planned on using this chink in the imperials armor to his advantage. He knew that Romanov lacked any appreciation for the advanced tactics of city warfare, and therefore could be easily misled. With this in mind, Fitzgerald after spreading false intelligence that he was planning an attack on the emperor's palace though the imperial memorial park. While the ranking imperial commanders on the world knew this type of attack would lead to heavy casualties, and Fitzgerald was not a man to take the lives of his men lightly. However, Romanov turned a deaf ear to their advice. To him, the imperial memorial park seemed like a great place to advance because it was open and a large number of troops could move down it. In fact, he was so convinced by this ruse, he spent most of his resources and men fortifying the route, defacing 1000 old monuments in the process. This lack of respect for the imperial heroes of old dealt a large moral blow to the imperial defenders, and there was an increasingly high number of defections in the wake of the fortification effort. Meanwhile, the real rebel attack was planned to take on along the Emperors way. This was an old route that Metternich had supposedly taken when he first entered the city when he was a simple Marshall. The route was a narrow winding path. This meant that only a few troops could move through the route at a time, meaning they would be easy targets for ardent defenders and snipers. To mitigate this risk, Fitzgerald would only move his initial spearhead thought the path, the rest of his troops would make their way through the multitude of side routes and alleyways that ran parallel to the pathway. Fitzgerald launched this offensive in February of 3538, with almost all of his forces taking part in the operation. A tank column almost a mile long rolled into Imperial territory, while millions of infantry personnel began to engage imperial forces along a front over two miles long. The imperial defenders were initially unprepared, still thinking the rebels would use the memorial park. In fact, for the first twelve hours of the attack, Romanov refused to divert armored forces to counter the invaders because he thought the Rebel move was simply a diversion to try and divert imperials from the sight of the real attack. This proved to be a major blunder, as the armored spearhead was able to penetrate the imperial front lines after only two hours of the fighting. After the outer Imperial perimeter had been breached, rebel fighter flooded into the ramparts, and hand to hand fighting ensued. Among them was Fitzgerald, who was determined to lead in men in person on the battlefield. Meanwhile, other rebel forces were able to breach the weakened imperial defenses, opening up a mile wide gap in the imperial defense line. The engagement, known as the battle of Sutter's gap (Marshall Darwin Sutter was the commander of the Imperials in the contested area) consisted of a series of engagements within the imperial defenses, with opposing soldiers often less than a grenade throw apart. On the second day of the assault, Imperial armored units under the command of Jarad Burne finally responded to the imperial advance, against the orders of Romanov. This counter push, however, was able to put a halt to the rebel advance as it took away the rebel armor superiority. On the third day, the two opposing tank forces faced off in a large scale engagement in Bismarck square, with high casualties. In the square, Imperial forces were finally able to halt the imperial infantry advance because the square was open enough to create large free fire zone, which made any type of infantry assault almost suicidal. Eventually, after 8 days of combat, the Rebels were forced to withdraw and fall back on previously captured imperial defenses. However, the rebels had held long enough for the rebel engineers to refortify the imperial defenses for use by the rebellion, and Imperial forces were unable to repulse the rebels in a counter push which took place four days later. With such a large breach in his defenses, Romanov was forced to redraw his lines to compensate for the rebel holding.

In the following months, Fitzgerald made several small advances, slowly pushing his entire line up to be even with his forces from the battle of the emperor's way. While he still could not storm in imperial palace. Fitzgerald had managed to capture all of the major star ports in the city, effectively cutting off large scale imperial reinforcement from the planet. However, the Imperial Loyalists continued to fight on from the palace ramparts, meaning that the Imperial civil war all far from over.

The Battle for the Metternich Wall

While Fitzgerald fought on Terra Prime, Steward Lossenger, one of Fitzgerald's confidants, traveled to Hemmingway prime, the center of the so-called Metternich's Wall with 50 divisions of rebel soldiers in hopes of reinforcing the rebels present on the world, in the entirety of human history, the six planets that made up Metternich's wall were the only worlds that had never been conquered. Lossenger Hypothesized that if the rebels could take control of Metternich Wall and Terra Prime they could force the Imperial loyalists to surrender. Currently, the rebels were battling the Loyalists inside the defenses of the wall, and neither side could gain any major strategic advantage over the other. To make matters worse, the Verenati had seized upon the fact that the world's defenses were unmanned and lauched an attack on the world. Lossenger first engaged the Verenati forces on Hemmingway Prime's moon of Furion, in hopes of the using the moon as a staging area from which to send men and supplies to the rebels on the planet.

Lossenger engaged the Verenati Navy in a series of five engagements in orbit around Hemmingway Prime, during the course of the Battle, the rebels lost twelve ships, but captured or destroyed fifty Verenati vessels. With the loss of their air superiority around the planet, and their inability to supply their forces on the ground, the Verenati pulled out, hoping to consolidate their forces elsewhere. The Battle of Furion began during the second naval battle. 20 divisions were dropped onto Furion. Thier objective was to capture two Verenati bases, codenamed shatter point and graveyard. Objective shatter point was a major supply dump, which the Verenati used to supply its forces on the world's southern continent. Objective graveyard served as a primary command and control point for Verenati forces on the world. The capture of these sights, Lossenger hoped, would cripple the Verenati war effort on the world, allowing them to focus on removing the imperial loyalists from Hemmingway Prime. 11 Divisions, approximately 550,000 men, under the command of Gregory Zioman, moved to take Shatter point. After two hours of fighting, Zioman moved the imperial troops into the town of Hindendurg, Thirteen miles from the location of the objective. The Verenati Counter-attacked, moving almost two million troops into the area in an attempt to push back the imperial advance. However, Zioman had moved his troops out of the town almost four hours before the attack was made, taking up a position in the forests to the north of the town. When the bulk of the Verenati had moved into the town, Rebel sappers detonated a complex system of explosives that had been set up in the city sewer, bringing the bulk of the structured in the town down on top of the Verenati soldiers, the ploy was a major success, killing almost 200,000 verenati, and wounding over a million more. The "maneuver" which would later be called the Hindenburg Offensive, allowed the Rebel forces to move around to the left of objective shatter point unopposed, an attack the base before the Verenati army could recover. The attack lasted four hours, and ended with the Imperial army capturing the objective and pushing the Verenati into the grasslands east of the objective. The rebels under Zioman pursued the Verenati, engaging them a week later at the battle of Butler's ridge. After gaining the high ground and surrounding the bulk of the Verenati remnant forces, the rebels called on the verenati, which were led by Kasim Hanir Bravado, to surrender. However, the Kasim refused, and the rebels responded by dropping almost 2,000 tonnes of captured ammunition on the verenati from the air. After three days of bombing, the verenati, how commanded by Kasim Buleen Horaldo, surrendered to the rebels.

Meanwhile, imperial forces under the command of Steward Walter Hudson had been tasked with captured objective graveyard, However, The Rebel force was caught in between verenati forces in the town Baronsville (which was located 10 miles from the objective, and was the only major population center near the objective) and a force of vernati under the of Hasim logar tennian that were fleeing the imperial forces led by Zioman.

Black Age Time-line

Pre-Ramiatic Era

2076- 1st Asian-American war begins when china annexes Vietnam and Korea.

2077- china invades Cambodia and Mongolia, Russia and European union join the U.S./British coalition to fight china

2081- The 1st Asian-American war ends with the signing of the treaty of Beijing. China gains control of most of southern Asia and Japan.

2105- Terrorist activity linked to Chinese activists in Russia cause breakout of Russo-Chinese war. Russia moves troops over the Mongolian border.

2105- china declares war on Russia, America and the EU. China Pushes Russia out of Mongolia and invades one month after the start of the conflict. The U.S. led coalition moves to “suppress” Chinese advances in Asia. The newly formes South American Union joins the war under china after receiving significant “donations” from Asia. Moves to invade the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.

2106- The Panama Canal is destroyed by South American armed forces. Mexican and American soldiers move to south Mexican border to engage invaders. China Takes most of east Russia by the end of the year but must take up a defensive stance at the coming of winter. The U.S. Withdraws Most of its army from Asia to defend its own border.

2107- Chinese Terrorist group called The Black Sword gains control of nuclear silos in India and launches warheads against “lesser nations” Nuclear powers including Russia respond by firing nuclear warheads against China. China retaliates by attacking its enemies with nuclear warheads. The earth descends into chaos. An estimated 98% of national governments are wiped out of irreparably crippled. 68% of the earth’s population is wiped out and another 24% dying in the coming months. This effectively ends the now named third world war.

Ramiantic Era

2365- Most surviving humans have banded together into primitive war tribes. A few have set up permanent settlement but most are nomads. In the Tariman tribe, a man called Joseph Ramian comes to power. Soon after his tribe discovers the remains of the Smithsonian Institute in the ruins of Washington D.C.. Ramian claims to receive visions from what he call the “the first one” (later it was told he also referred to him as the “the oldest one” or “the wisest one”) and sets out to unite all the human tribes of the world and the reinstate the glory that humanity once was.

2368- Ramian conquers the Anahal tribe, who were known to have had anchient text and documents that showed the technology of human kind before the Great War. Ramian will expand his domain to most of former North America and his tribe, now known an the United Terran Affiliate, becomes the dominate power in the western hemisphere.

2377- The Gal-Morov and Ana-Sav tribes join the affiliate, The Gal-Morov were known for their ability to construct flying machines. The Ana-Sav tribes were great Seamen and had unmatched nautical prowess. These technological advances give Ramian the ability to spread his empire to Europe and Asia.

2378- Ramian opens up communications with human civilizations in Europe in the hope of setting up political relations. The humans identify themselves as the Merengetti Empire and refuse to accept the Terran Affiliate as a sovereign nation. Ramian sets up defensive bases in Hawaii, Greenland and Alaska. Ramian also creates the affiliate's first standing army (records show that the previous military arm of the affiliate consisted of militia like volunteers who collectively referred to themselves as the Sons of Ramian)

2379- The Merengetti Empire launches an invasion of Alaska that effectively begins the First Merengetti War. The Invasion, while initially successful, is broken at the battle of Krieg’s Hill and the Meregetti begin a slow retreat back to former Russia.

2380- Affiliate forces under Alexander Ramian (Joseph’s Ramian’s eldest son) drive the Merengetti army from Alaska and push into Siberia. The invasion grinds to a halt on what will be called the Merengetti Line as the Siberian winter halts all military progress. During this period Alexander makes contact with the Si-Chame Confederacy, the collection of states in southern Asia and the Middle East. The Confederacy has been in near constant warfare with the Merengetti Empire for the last 50 years and agrees to join the Affiliate in its war on the Merengetties.

2381- The Confederate and Affiliate forces push into Europe, with Asia securely in friendly hands. The Affiliate forces under Alexander push toward the Imperial capital of Tarsus (located near former Berlin) while Confederate forces invade the industrial regions in the southern portion of the empire. Confederate forces also discover Jesuit Alliance. The Jesuit occupied most of Italy and Greece and practiced an ancient religion called Christianity. Gonzalez, steward of the Alliance, befriended the Confederacy and joined the war effort against the Merengetti Empire.

2384- Tarsus is taken following an 80 day siege. The Affiliate, The confederacy, and the Alliance agree to combine into a single political power. Ramian is appointed leader of this new power which is later named the New Terran Republic. The Terran Council is formed to govern the new power with Ramian acting as the executive officer. Strangely, while the council was elected, Ramian was given (or obtained) a life term and a hereditary succession for his position.

2405- Ramian dies, and is succeeded by his second son Thomas Ramian (His first son, Alexander Ramian, was killed in the assault on Tarsus) Thomas begins programs to accelerate the technological advancement of humanity. He establishes the College of Exploration and the College of engineers to help accomplish these goals. He also launches the first Space program since the third world war.

2438- Humans land on mars, with colonization occurring with the next 15 years. Terra-forming efforts estimate The planet will be habitable within the next 100 years

The Merengetti Era

2895- The Merengetti Triumvirate takes control of earth, imposing control of the remainder the Ramiatic Empire over the next four years. The Veranatus move to the south of the Empire and set up their home world on the now abandoned Epistle VI, renaming the world Galatea. They Vow to reclaim the Empire and will wage almost constant conflict with any human factions that it comes into contact with.

3185- Rebels under the command of Gustavo Camalev retake Earth from the Merengetti Triumvirate. They rename the Planet Terra Prime and Return Alexandria to its former glory and Make it the new capital of what will be called the Second Ramiatic Empire. The Ramiatic Empire will reestablish itself over the next 20 years and start to expand its borders to the Endalbi Rift.

The Relovutionary Era

3527- Rebels under command of Joseph Ryan declare the planet Hyglaf VII independent of the empire. They rename the planet Vendetta Prime. Their rebellion soon spreads to other planets. Ryan is declared the leader of the rebellion, however, other persons such as Alek Yemian, Vannik Medici, Luther and Joseph Ulverrick, and Vladimir Petrov also provide key leadership. Imperial Troops under the command to Jacob Lawrence are sent to quell the rebellion.

3529- After two years of back and forth fighting Lawrence is finally defeated at the battle of Gamide on the planet Alexander XVIII. After the formal surrender of Lawrence. General Luther Von Hess is dispatched with a fleet of over 2000 ships to “Crush” the rebellion. General William Fitzgerald, who was recently victorious in a conflict with the Veranati. Is also dispatched with 3000 ships to assist Von Hess. Ryan, along with the other leaders of the rebellion, decides on an audacious gambit. Knowing that they cannot hope to defeat the combined forces of Von Hess and Fitzgerald, they decide to try and defeat Hess before Fitzgerald can arrive in support. They also are able to convince a few of the Imperial divisions, along with a small number of starship captains, with Fitzgerald’s fleet to defect and secretly slow down the general to buy time for the rebels. To start the plan, the rebels invade Terse III, the planet where Von Hess is expected to dock when he reached contested space. This, the rebels hoped. Will force him into combat since he will need to quickly secure the planet so that he and refuel his ships with the planet’s recourses. The first phase of the attack is successful, and the rebels are able to secure Terse III before Von Hess arrives. From there they erect a series of fortifications around the major industrial centers, centering their defense around Naxium, the capital of the planet and also the world largest fuel depot. Von Hess arrives at Terse VI in December. As the rebels had hoped, Von Hess’ eagerness to arrive led him to bypass the usual imperial refueling posts in favor of a quicker journey. This forces him to engage the rebels as he does not have enough fuel to reroute his forces to another world. Naval forces under the command of Alec Yemian engage Von Hess’ fleet while Hess’ forces invade the planets surface. Although the Imperials are able to gain small victories he is unable to take Naxium. To further complications, defeated rebels forces are able to destroy most of the fuel they are guarding before the imperials can retrieve it. After 8 days of fighting the rebel and Imperial Naval forces fight to a stalemate. However, Von Hess is unable to refuel and re-supply his ships while the rebels can. Eventually Hess is forced to surrender when his command ship is stormed by imperial boarders. By this time most of the imperial fleet is out of fuel and most of the naval commanders cannot even scuttle their ships for lack of fuel and munitions. Rebels quickly commandeer the imperial vessels and await the arrival of Fitzgerald

3530- Fitzgerald arrives at Terse VI with his fleet in disarray; rebel recruiting effort in his fleet caused large amounts of sabotage and even mutiny. When he engages the rebel it is estimated that only 75% of his forces are combat effective. However, Fitzgerald is well supplied and, instead of a ground invasion, decimates Naxium from orbit, destroying most of the rebel supplies stockpiles. This means that the rebels must defeat Fitzgerald at this battle for they will be unable to effectively wage war on the empire. In the wake of his destruction of Naxium, Fitzgerald, believing the rebel ground forces to the broken, sends a massive ground force armed with massive peacemaker artillery unit to support his battle with the Rebel naval forces. Fitzgerald hoped the Peacemakers would be able to fire on the rebel navy from the ground, therefore disrupting the rebels enough so that he can take them easily. The Imperials try to set up their artillery in the ruins of Naxium but are repulsed by Rebels. The supposedly decimated rebel forces were able to weather the shelling of Naxium by hiding in hastily constructed underground bunker complexes. The Imperials instead set up their Base 2 miles outside the city where they construct a heavily defended fire base. Rebel ground forces under Ryan know that for the Imperial navy to be defeated they must cut off the Imperial ground support. Plans are made to attempt to capture the Imperial base. Yemian Engages the Imperial navy to occupy the them so that the Imperial ground forces will not have adequate air support. The attack is made at dawn the next day. over 30 division sized Rebel formations assault the Fire Base and a three and a half hour shelling of the imperial fortifications. During this time the Rebel navy begin to break and Yemian Sends a Message to Ryan that the capture of the Imperial fire Base is "Imperative". Ryans dispatches orders to capture the Imperial heavy artillery so they can use it against the Imperial navy. Although they suffer heavy losses, the rebels are able to take the fire base along with most of the Imperial heavy artillery. With the help of the artillery Yemian is able to overpower the Imperial navy, although the battle will go on for another several hours. Fitzgerald, however, is able to escape and returns to the Empire.

Map of the Milky Way Galaxy in the Black Age Time-Line

Races in the Black Age Universe

Human Factions

The Second Ramiatic Empire

Summary

The Second Ramiatic Empire is the largest and oldest institution of man still in existence. It controls a large portion of territory on the Ramiatic Arm (formerly known as the local arm) of the Milky Way galaxy and is situated to the galactic east in comparison to the other known races of the galaxy. The Empire, as it is more commonly known, is governed by the Imperial Senate, with the emperor and his ministers at the head. The Empire’s capital is located on Terra prime, where the origins of humanity lie.

Imperial Military

Arguable the largest military organization in existence, the Imperial military consists of billion upon billions of men and countless military machines and equipment. The Organization of the Imperial military is divided into two levels, the strategic level and the tactical level. The strategic level of the Imperial Army is any command which is has to do with more than one division. These levels contain the Imperial high command which are, obviously enough, concerned with grand strategy, they will decide the outcomes of entire campaigns where whole galactic regions lie in the balance. The tactical level of Imperial organization, on the other hand, is more concerned with general tactics. Tactical levels of Imperial organization refer to anything having to do with a single division or smaller. The leaders of these levels of organization are concerned with overcoming immediate obstacles such as winning battles or defending positions.

At the tactical level, the Imperial Military is made up of several separate armies that are organized into Divisions (an example being the Carmeth 28th division). A division can be formed in several ways, but will most likely be organized by planet. A division in the Modern Imperial army would be about the size of a corps from ancient Earth. A Division will almost always be lead by a General Major and can consist of more than 50,000 men. Although a division is considered to an effective unit size for most domestic military activities, larger campaigns and invasions will often call for several divisions to be called together into temporary armies known as coalitions (such as the 53 division coalition used to reclaim the eastern Fel-Johan Sector.) These formations will fall under the command of a Marshall or a Steward Militant, depending on the size of the coalition.

The strategic level of the Imperial Military is charged with coordinating the countless divisions of the Emperor in such a way that they can act quickly and effectively. The emperor himself is in charge of the Imperial military. However, most of the actually decision making is delegated to the Ministry of war which is led by the Minister of War. Below this level are the departmental commands. The Departments of the Empire differ from the Provinces in that the Departments are divided into defensible areas rather than political ones. The departments also enjoy a large amount of autonomy within the province (or provinces) in which they operate because they are considered part of the Imperial government. It is the Ministry that controls and sends orders to each of the Departmental Commands with the Department Commands determining the best course of action to carry out those orders. The Department commands can also act independently to some degree to respond to enemy action. When the Department Command had determined the best course of action it will send the order to the planetary commands under its control so that they can muster or deploy Divisions as needed.

The strategy employed when the Empire goes to war is a mix of grinding wars of attrition mixed assaults on a massive scale. The strategy of an imperial Invasion force is often make a massive planetary assault on an enemy fortification (these assaults can include upwards of one million) and commandeer the defenses for themselves. After that they will engage the enemy in a long war of attrition in which they will literally bleed the enemy dry, exhausting its supplies and manpower. This type of warfare is possible because of seemingly infinity production capacity of the Empire and its extremely well organized logistics on the battlefield. The past it had been shown that as long as an Imperial force is well supplied it is hard to stop and almost impossible to push back. This is because the Imperial army fortifies all of the area that it conquers so even if the enemy stops an Imperial advance the Imperials will almost always have defenses to fall back upon. This brings up another strength of the Imperial army, it has one of the most well educated and trained engineer cores in the known galaxy and Imperial defenses are both feared and respected for their overwhelming strength and strategic value. Imperial troop also fight very well from a static defensive position, able to lay down accurate long range fire that can decimate almost any attacking force. So, by the time the Empire is finished conquering a world, the planet will be littered with defensive emplacements and fortifications. This strategy of fortifying a planet while it is being captured is one of the primary factors of the empire’s continued survival in that imperial planets are nearly impossible to take without major loss of life and material.

Notable Imperial Army Units

Imperial Assault Infantry

It is commonly agreed upon that planetary assaults are by far the most dangerous part of any planetary invasion. With this is mind the Imperial Army has trained several divisions and Assault Infantry. These units are the most common type of special forces unit in the Imperial military and are specially trained to handle planetary invasions. They are also usually given special equipment such as commando pattern F.O.B. rifles and special lighter armor suits. Assault Infantry units are often made from veterans of other units, this mean that the soldier in an assault division will usually have previous combat experience, this means that they will be rugged survivalists as well as ruthlessly effective on the battlefield. This, along with the strenuous training involved, means that assault divisions will contain some of the best soldiers in the imperial military

The Endalbi Hellbenders

Endalbi is a world as the very edge of Imperial territory and the last safe refueling between it and confederate territory. It is also a Honeycomb planet, meaning it has on defined core which means that there are multiple centers of gravity on the planet and has the affect of riddling the planet surface with holes and cave complexes. This means that wind storms on the planet are often and severe, making human habitation almost impossible. However, those humans that do manage to survive on the planet become excellent at judging wind currents making them excellent candidates for the most dangerous job in an imperial assault division, jump infantry. Unlike standard assault infantry which is ferried to the planet surface in armored troopships, jump infantry will drop from craft flying in the upper atmosphere of the planet and descend using parachutes or grav-jets. This leaves the troopers completely exposed to ground fire and consequently has a very high casualty rate. However, jump infantry can play a pivotal role in a battle by landing behind enemy defenses and attacking the enemy from the rear. The Endalbi quickly became renowned for their skill in the jump infantry. In fact they became so good at the Imperial military created a number of special jump infantry divisions, calling them the Endalbi Hellbenders. Admission to the hellbenders is open to assault infantrymen that have participated in at least 5 major assault operations. However, to become a hellbender, potentials must endure one of the most intense training programs in the Empire. This ensures that only toughest, smartest, and most cunning ever jump into battle wearing hellbender colors.

The United Human Confederacy

Summary

The United Human Confederacy gained its independence from the 2nd Ramiatic Empire in the year 3531 after rebels under to command of James Ryan repulsed the empire from their land holdings on the Perseus arm of the galaxy. After they gained their independence, the leaders of the rebellion decided to split their gains into smaller United States rather than attempt to govern the entire claim as a whole. This strategy allowed the confederacy to survive its infancy and grow into the power it is today. Today, the confederacy is the second largest institution of man, second in size only to the Empire. Although the Confederacy cannot match the manufacturing capabilities of the empire it is rich with rare natural resources and is known for having more advanced technology than the Empire. On the battlefield the Confederacy just rely of small numbers of more elite troops rather numbers to gain victory in battle. The Confederacy is ruled by the confederate assembly as a legislative body with a President acting as an executive. Each state of the confederacy has its own independent government but all are democratic in nature and uphold the mandatory rights as detailed in the confederate constitution.

The Confederate Military

The confederate military is a massive organization that is often tasked with repulsing alien invasions as well as quelling civil unrest at home. The confederate military in controlled by the Confederate department of war, part of the executive branch of the confederate government. The department of was coordinates with the smaller parts of the confederate in things such as financial and logistics matters, as well as things involving grand strategy and objectives, but it is up to these smaller unit to determine how to get these objectives done. The next step down in organization from the war department is the state command. Each nation state of the confederacy will have one state command, which oversees all confederate national military activity in that state. Each state command will have a sort of capital world within the state which will serve as its base of operations. Theses planets, known as Tactical Command Systems, enjoy complete diplomatic immunity from the state in which they are located and receive orders directly from the confederate federal government. These worlds will have very small populations, with almost all of the inhabitants being stationed there in the employ of the military. Each State command may also control other planets in the state that it operates for training, logistics, or some other tactical importance. Under the state command are the sector commands. The state command will coordinate the sectors under it to make sure that they complete their objectives. The purpose of a sector is to coordinated with commanders on the field and make sure that forces are deployed and supplied in a timely and efficient manner. They are also charged with training and equipping recruits for battle, because to their role in training and maintaining the soldiers of the confederacy, sector commands will control large amounts of land on which to place their many facilities. The smallest part of the Confederate army in strategic terms is the planetary command. These commands will have a presence of every populated confederate world and are in charge of recruiting and processing new recruits. They will also be a link between the political leaders of a world and the commanders of the confederate military.

In tactical terms the confederate army is divided into battle groups, which consist of approximately 100,000 men and is commanded by a field marshal. Each battle group is further divided into two attack groups, which each led by general. These Battle group are raised and organized from men from a single planet, although this rule is hardly concrete. Battle groups are meant to be able to operate independently and, to an extent, can maintain their own logistics, intelligence, and objectives. However, for particularly large scale operation more than one battle group can act in unison. These groups, called tactical groups, can contain upwards of one million men and is usually led by a High marshal. While rarely used, military operation that require even more men than a tactical group can provide will call for multiply tactical groups to act in unison. Forces of this size will fall under the command of commandants or, in even more strenuous conditions, master commandants.

The tactics employed by imperial personnel on the ground vary widely depending on the situation, but will usually consist of outmaneuvering the enemy and crushing flanks with the use of relatively small numbers of highly trained soldiers. Confederate troopers wear power armor, giving them extra strength and speed on the battlefield, and are armed with powerful rail rifles. While not as effective at long range as the empire, the confederates excel when they are able to engage the enemy at medium and close range where their high speed tactics give them the advantage. When taking a planet, confederate rarely use fixed fornications and would much rather retain their ability to move and maneuver rather than receive the extra protection of a static defense. When defending a world the confederates will rely on their powerful navy to repulse enemy forces in space while the army takes care of the forces that manage to make landfall