The small light of distant stars shimmered, cutting through the cold emptiness of space with their tiny bright glow. Still, unwavering beacons, internally raging with an indescribable chaos. Those burning circles, so hot and restless, yet from this distance, so calm. From this place, the war seemed almost as far away... almost.
2200’s / 2300’s: Colonization
Mining operations conducted on asteroid belt within Sol system. Humans undertake colonization and terraforming efforts on the other worlds in the Sol system, including Mars and Venus.
2316: Unification
The Terran Confederation, a loose alliance of colonies, planets and systems, each with their own autonomous government, is formed. Significantly military in nature, Confed is designed to provide economic support and a common defence between inter-stellar outposts of humankind. It replaces the WEC as the Sol system government, and becomes the mediator - and sometimes enforcer - in disagreements and conflicts.
2388: Jump Drive
Superluminal flight / Akwende Drive (the jump drive) technology is discovered, developed, and placed into use.
2400’s / 2500’s: The Great Expansion
Humanity spreads out rapidly into interstellar space.
2629.105: The Iason Incident
Confederation starship Iason encounters a spacecraft of unknown origin. Commander Jedora Andropolos on board Iason transmits a wide-band non-verbal greeting and waits for a response. Barely twenty minutes later, the ship (which confederation deep space tracking computers point to a possible point of origin from a previously unexplored planet, later to be known by it’s native name, Kilrah) opens fire with full lasers, completely destroying the Iason and it’s crew.
2634.168: The Beginning
After repeated assaults on Terran vessels, the Confederation officially declares war on the Empire of Kilrah.
2634 / 2667: War
The Terran Confederation and the Empire of Kilrah continuously wage war with each other, both sides make considerable advances and take considerable losses.
2667 / 2668: Hit and Run Fade Attacks
Terran fleets, spearheaded by new escort carriers, strike hard against Kilrathi forces behind the front lines, eliminating nine carriers under construction and crippling dozens of transports and four shipyards. As front-line assets dwindle, the Kilrathi are forced to retreat.
2668: False Peace
As the pendulum of war swings toward the Terrans, a peace accord is unexpectedly offered by Kilrah. All Terran fleets are withdrawn, even those in the midst of combat. In the following months, several frontier colonies refuse to abide by the armistice rulings, investing both ships and men in an attempt to search out suspected active shipyards on the far side of the Kilrathi Empire. Using captured stealth equipment, private forces intercept a holovid of the rumored facility, along with a message that the Kilrathi forces are embarking to attack Earth directly. The armistice is renounced, and a hastily assembled force of still-intact Confederation ships, bolstered with private vessels, prepare to defend against the imminent attack.
2668: Battle of Terra
With their fleets back up to full strength, bolstered by the first fleet of Hakaga-class supercarriers, the Kilrathi strike deep into Confederation space. Warsaw, Gilead, and Sirius Prime are bombed with radiation warheads as the Kilrathi brush aside the Confederation's hastily assembled defenses and reach Earth. Despite the suicidal bravery of Earth's defenders, the Kilrathi are able to bombard crucial defense centers on the planet - Chicago, Pittsburgh, Boston, Miami, Quebec, Berlin, Paris, Kiev, and others - before they are finally forced to withdraw to friendly space as a result of daring Marines, who land aboard several Kilrathi vessels, including the Kilrathi flagship, and destroy them with thermonuclear mines.
Stardate: 2668.323
Perry Naval Base: Perry System
A middle-aged man sat in the small quarters, and gently leaned back against his chair. The dim lighting of the room seemed to hide his expression as he ran his fingers across the dark skin of his balding head. He exhaled and sat forward, then began to read the display screen on the desk before him.
To: Colonel Derek "Redbird" Jackson
Re: Immediate Transfer
Colonel Jackson,
Due to constraining circumstances Confederate...
He stopped reading. There was nothing in that message that he hadn’t read ten times over, yet still he kept finding himself going back to it. Once again he moved his hands over his smooth head and sighed, listening to the barely audible hum, which quietly filled the quarters.
Stardate: 2668.323
Front Line Retreat: Gwynedd System
Weapons fire ripped through the hull of the badly damaged transport in a fiery display of metal and light. Inside, the frantic crew was thrown as the ship heaved to one side with a deafening moan that resonated throughout it's corridors, even above the commotion.
"Report!" barked a wiry grey-haired man in the command bridge as he climbed to his feet.
"We have a hull breach in section 3," replied a young woman from behind a console, "it's contained for now, but any more of this and we won't be able to hold it together!"
"What's the status of the fleet?" the man asked, his voice strained, desperately trying to hide a growing panic inside.
"It's hard to tell, sir!" a young officer shouted over the confusion, "I think they've mostly all made the jump, the jump out..." he stuttered, "...or been destroyed."
The pair of sleek enemy fighters began to close for another attack run, powering up their main cannons and increasing in velocity.
"They're coming in fast!"
"All hands! Brace for impact!"
They closed in further, in weapons range now. But in a matter of moments, the attackers were blinded by an intense glare and violently rocked out of their formation by a hail of gunfire.
The source of the gunfire, a single confederate fighter, flashed it's afterburner and tore past the transport to engage the enemy... Corsair.
A flight helmet covered most of his face, save for his cold blue eyes under an arched brow, and even that was behind tinted glass. As his fighter manuevered into position on the first enemy's tail, those icy eyes scanned the radar for the other.
Wasting no time Corsair opened up with full guns, and, in a flare of bright white light, his opponent's craft was reduced to pieces of blackened debris, which he narrowly avoided.
"This is Lieutenant Andrew Coyle to TCS Lago, what's your status Lago?" he requested, his voice muffled by the flight helmet. Several seconds passed before a response came.
"Lieutenant Coyle, this is the TCS Lago, we're in pretty bad shape," a woman replied over the comm-link as the disorder in the background leaked through underneath her soft female voice, "but we're alive."
