prologue

we called it The Shattering hundreds of years ago the old Alliance centered around earth collapsed into chaos. Old earth nations had funded colony missions and in turn expected taxes. The taxes went first to paying fir the mission then to infrastructure like the jump gates which allowed rapid transit between solar systems. a trip would take a week that would take light many years. Then the tax rate on the colony would drop substantially to help pay for things like warships as piracy which was always a problem and for new colony endeavors.  This system worked for many years until the UN reorganized to be called One Earth came into power organizing the planet under one government. The colonies then began getting taxed heavily and to control the over 300 star systems now getting restless. earth came up with a solution banning independent tech development in the colonies any new hardware had to come from the core earth or the 9 nearest and oldest colonies. This led to even more tension tell the fate full massacre on Rydevan 4. Just one gate away Carthadan 2 was dealing with an outbreak of a deadly pathogen rumored to be on par with the black death. Rydevan 4 was a colony dedicated to medical science and immediately upon hearing about this outbreak began researching and producing a cure and shipping it to the stricken colonist. This did not sit well with earth who felt they were getting cheated out of tax money for the development and delivery of the cure to Carthadan 2. They deployed a small squadron of warships to Rydevan to demand they stop production immediately. The doctors refused on the grounds of the other colony being in imminent need. tensions rose tell the commander of the battle fleet ordered the systematic bombardment of every place that had or produced the cure with konnect kill rounds or KKR's. Spacers refer to them as the Wrath of God. Or "wogs".  These devices were deadly simple, launched from a ship in orbit and are giant metal slugs which fall from the sky and obliterate a city block. Over 200 of these bombarded the planet's surface killing thousands of men, women, and children whose only crime was trying to help those in need. While it is called the massacre of Rydevan 4 the true tragedy was Carthan 2 the little medical supplies that made it before the attack were simply not enough 90% of the planets 2 million souls perished to the bug and chaos. As word spread the colonies became furious and whispered talk of rebellion turned into shouts. Colonist began converting private ships and merchant vessels into makeshift warships. Joined by military vessels of commanders who took protect and server to mean more then orders passed down and even some pirates who were promised a pardon for helping a large dedicated but unprepared fleet headed to earth on a warpath. The fighting was said to have lasted a year but by the end the rebels were in control of earth's orbital and demanding their surrender. Then earth launched its last ditch doomsday weapon a virus designed to break everything earth built in less than a week all across humanity's inhibited world's technology just stopped. In an instant humanity was set back 400 years of development. Some places by luck or design fared better than others and were able to rebuild starships quickly though without the gates they were only good for interplanetary work. Then about 100 years ago the gates began to come back online slowly at first and humanity began to venture out and see how their neighbors fared. Some found friends and allies such as manticore and the commonwealth. manticore being almost communistic and the commonwealth a monarchy had somehow not been a major issue as feared early on and over the year both had learned a little from the other. But just as often as these new gates led to friends they also lead to enemies. factions wanting to take resources from others and give nothing in return. And so it happened that warships began to return to space. And a new era of warfare, discovery, exploration and death began.