The First Convergence War

Origins

Well before the first official contact between the Planetary League and the Convergence, there was a latent hostility between the Convergence and humanity. It stemmed from an incident in 1947 when a Convergence scout ship was temporarily disabled in the desert of New Mexico from radio interference. Ever since that time, the Convergence would occasionally send raiders to the unsuspecting Earth to play a series of mean-spirited pranks on the locals.

The direct roots f this conflict, however, began when a colony ship from the Planetary League arrived at New Promise in GSC 130. The human populace, essentially unaware of the Convergence’s very existence started to set up their technology and habitations on New Promise, including items that created the radio interference that disrupts the hive mind of the Convergence. The Convergence, for their part, had set up their own bases near the rogue planet Dogur-dann less than a light-year from New Promise.

When the Convergence realized that the humans were moving in on New Promise, they decided to launch a harassing offensive to drive them off. This is how the first convergence war started in GSC 132.

The Convergence Onslaught

Starting in GSC 132, the inhabitants of the newly settled agricultural colony on New Promise started experiencing a series of strange and terrifying phenomena, many of which were consistent with former reports of UFO sightings from previous eras on Earth. Strange, saucer-shaped craft were sighted in the skies, people were abducted and experimented on, livestock were mutilated. Panic spread through the colony. The local fleet of the PLIN was deployed, and a makeshift planetary defense force was hastily mobilized. Distress calls were sent to Earth, but the time for help to arrive would be measured in years before the development of FTL propulsion and communications.

Turning Point

For three frustrating years, the Planetary Defense Force fought against the convergence, with little to show for their efforts. Then, in GSC 135, a major turning point occurred when a Convergence ship was captured. In a matter of months, human scientists and engineers were able to reverse engineer Spatial Compression, and FTL communication technologies from the captured craft. With these new technologies, the Planetary League was able to mount a meaningful counteroffensive.

The Dogarri

Following retreating Convergence ships to their home base, in late GSC 138, the forces of the Planetary League discovered Dogur-dann, the home-world of the Dogarri nearby. The Convergence had been conducting a predatory series of raids on this planet, designed to gradually break the will of the Dogarri, and subject them to Convergence rule.

In early GSC 139, the Planetary League passed the Alien Assistance Act into law, creating the Alien Assistance Agency, and authorizing assistance to alien beings in need. Quickly, the Planetary League and the Dogarri formed an alliance to fight their mutual foe. After this point, the combined forces of the Planetary League and the Dogarri were able to fight off the Convergence with relative ease.

The End

The final battle of the war was the battle of Key Center in GSC 140. During this battle the Planetary League battleship fired the massive, Dogarri-engineered dispersion gun, destroying the Convergence mother-ship, and carving the 100-Meter Canyon.

Extinction of the Human Race

The shattered, golden husk of the giant crumpled to the floor of the throne-room. Wires and mechanisms spilled out of gaping fissures in armor plates and some kind of oozing organic fluid spilled from some of the joints. Potus Clarke, emperor of the human race was at long last dead.

When the cacophony of battle had died away, the victorious soldiers of the Galactic Republic stood in silence, taking in the gravity of the moment. This war had lasted longer than the entirety of recorded history when the first humans left Earth to explore the stars. For 70000 years the Holy Empire of Man had terrorized the galaxy. A silent sigh of relief for generations long passed spread with the news across the mighty milky way.

What few realized, but became gradually apparent in the aftermath of the war was that it wasn't merely the end of that conflict. It wasn't only the end of an empire. It was the extinction of the human race. Humans, in their heyday, had been the most numerous and arguably the most powerful of the intelligent species in the galaxy, having passed up the Cielioids during the Empire's reign.

Sure there were many descendants of humankind still around, that's why nobody realized it right away. There were clones, cyborgs, mutants, robots, chimeras of every stripe. One group called the Children of the Earth had started out human, but through genetic engineering had hybridized themselves with animals from their home-world to the point where basically no human DNA remained. Many of the artificial intelligences in operation were cobbled together from the brain-scans of humans and other entities. In fact the commanding officer of that final battle had been created from some of the best strategic minds of human history as well as some of the greatest philosophers. Because it turns out that when you know why you are fighting, you have a better chance to succeed.

The Emperor and his final elite were the last beings in the galaxy to claim the name human. Of course they had first destroyed the meaning of the word. The higher one went in imperial society, the more gene-treatments, bio-enhancements and cybernetic implants one was allowed to use while claiming the ancestral name. Most of the lower ranks of civilians in the empire had assimilated into galactic society generations ago and none of their descendants claimed traditional humanity. Those who remained to the end were all ultra-loyalists and universally refused to be taken alive. When the analysis robots went over the shell of the emperor, no signs of organic life were found at all, yet he clung to that name. . . human to the end.

The name human had meant a lot of things to a lot of people over the millennia, not always good, and not always bad, but for a long stretch of history the human race had been the star of its own narrative, but now that was done and life carried on.

Era-2 Overview

Era-2 starts with the birth of Potus Clarke, who would go on to be the god-Emperor of the Holy Empire of Man.  The imperial calendar starts with Clarke's birth, and denotes years as Year of the Emperor (abbreviated YE).  Where dates overlap with Era-1, the Galactic Standard Calendar (GSC) date is also noted. 

The Holy Empire of Man

The Holy Empire of Man (HEM) was the dominant faction of Era-2, conquering most of the galaxy, and ruling with an iron fist.  Founded under the aegis of the Church of God, with its capitol on Gabriel, the Empire was marked by its militarism, fanatical devotion to (and eventually worship of) the Emperor, and strict hierarchical society.  Those who stood in opposition were put down quickly and decisively.

Timeline

YE 0:  The birth of Potus Clarke (GSC 915)

YE 23:  First Contact between the Planetary League and the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns (GSC 938)

YE 43:  Holy Empire of Man founded, coronation of Potus Clarke(GSC 958)

YE 43:  Start of the Great Reckoning (GSC 958)

YE 147:  The Fall of Earth (GSC 1062)

YE 613:  the Ascent from the Flesh (Emperor Clarke's body is henceforth wholly cybernetic)

YE 812:  Start of the War of the Empires

YE 10433:  End of the War of the Empires (Fall of the E1MS)

YE 30516:  The War of the Gods begins with the return of Troniac.

YE 51245:  End of the War of the Gods (Final defeat of Troniac)

YE 65248:  Start of the War of Galactic Unification

YE 70794:  Defeat of the Emperor, end of Era-2

Era-1 Overview

Era-1 starts with the founding of the Planetary League, (year 0 in the Galactic Standard Calendar), and continues until the fall of Earth at the end of the Great Reckoning (GSC 1062).

The Planetary League

Founded with the signing of the Treaty of Kepler in the year 2*** (GSC 0), the Planetary League came to dominate much of the galaxy during Era-1.  It was largely a time of peace and exploration, punctuated by relatively small-scale conflicts.

GSC 3: Founding of the Planetary League Astrophysical Survey(PLAS)

GSC 16:  The Mariner Valley Incident was a major landslide that killed hundreds of colonists, but many more were saved due to the timely actions of the Tardigrades.

GSC 25:  Official founding of the Autonomous Republic of Lindbergh.

GSC 33: The first explorers reach Paradise, one of the first worlds to be colonized beyond the Solar System.

GSC 55: The colony ship Garcia's Hope is lost in deep space, later to crash on New Albuquerque.

GSC 130: The first explorers reach New Promise, an early colony world, important for its complex biosphere and favorable conditions for agriculture.

GSC 132: First Contact (officially) with the Convergence at New Promise, and the beginning of the First Convergence War.

GSC 135:  (re-)Invention of the Spatial Compression Device, allowing FTL spaceflight. (End of the "Early Planetary League")

GSC 136: M.E.D.I.C. founded

GSC 138: The discovery of Dogur-dann leads to the end of the Non-Interference Doctrine with the Alien Assistance Act of GSC 139.

GSC 139: Passage of the Alien Assistance Act, founding of the PLAAA

GSC 140: Battle of Key Center, end of the First Convergence War

GSC 142: First explorers at Aldebaran-2.

GSC 150: University of Aldebaran-2 founded.

GSC 173: Zoe Bonnard is born, she will go on to be one of the greatest explorers of Era-1, and famous throughout the galaxy.

GSC 179: Explorers from the Planetary League arrive on Takara Prime, home-world of the Takarrans. See: Exodus

GSC 184: Beginning of the Second Robot War

GSC 201: The Lucifer System is explored (Zoe Bonnard)

GSC 203:  Shoji discovered by Zoe Bonnard.

GSC 205: First contact with the Jovians (Bonnard).

GSC 208: Planetary League makes first contact with the Nalanda.

GSC 245: Zoe Bonnard dies at Bonnard’s End

GSC 248: The Nalanda join the Planetary League.

GSC 842: Birth of Saint Valgar, a key figure in the spread of the Church of God.

GSC 915: The birth of Potus Clarke who would become a general in the Planetary League armed forces, and then go on to become Emperor of the Holy Empire of Man.

GSC 938:  First contact between the Planetary League and the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns

GSC 958:  Founding of the Holy Empire of Man, and the beginning of the Great Reckoning

GSC 1062:  The Fall of Earth, end of Era-1

Era-0 Overview

Era Zero starts at the beginning of the universe, and continues into the near future. 

Zanath

The first glimmer of life and civilization in the galaxy was fabled Zanath.  Little is known about this ancient civilization beyond hazily recounted legend.  Founded perhaps a million years ago, Zanath was said to be the home of the creators of the mysterious Zanathian Gates, ancient, long deactivated Star-gates found in several star-systems throughout the galaxy.

The Empire of 1,000,000 Suns

Around one hundred thousand years ago, the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns (E1MS) was founded by Cielioids in the region of space known as the Spozak.  This empire spread throughout the Spozak, but stayed within its bounds, being led by a strict, conservative caste system culminating with the Emperor.

Large numbers of Ool-Tyr and Nalorgians formed pirate bands, and eventually became the basis of the dreaded "Nomad Armies".

Kroah Dashan was a prolific inventor who created many of the technologies the E1MS needed to survive and grow.

A group of Greys known as the Convergence left the Empire in search of a place without the radio interference of civilized space that interfered with their hive minds.

The E1MS relied heavily on robotic labor, and when the robots rose in rebellion, led by the mysterious Troniac, the 1,000 Years War shook the Empire to its foundations.  In order to win this epic conflict, the Empire created General Zarlok.  The war was ended when Zarlok banished Troniac to a distant part of the universe through an unstable wormhole, but a large fraction of the Cult of Troniac remained.

During and after the 1,000 Years War, many groups split off from the E1MS to form the Breakaway States. 

After the war, General Zarlok turned on the Empire in a devastating attack on Artanis 4.  As a result, Zarlok's AI was banished from the E1MS, into "uninhabited" space.

In the aftermath of the war, the Empire experienced a major cultural realignment, and became a constitutional monarchy, but continued to expand slowly.

Earth

Human history is the merest blink of an eye in the scale of cosmic time. In the near future, the Earth will undergo a period of turmoil and environmental degradation that will cause many to seek out new places to live.

Gazillion, inc. built several research stations that formed the beginnings of one of the largest of the corporate states.  One of these stations intercepted the AI program of General Zarlok, setting in motion the Robot Wars, and the creation of the Engine of Negation.

Mars will be one of the important early colony worlds.

The Moon had a significant amount of settlement during Era-0.

The massive space station known as New Eden will be operated by the Edenites as a source of food and other agricultural products.

Venus also had a fair amount of colonization in the form of buoyant cities that floated on the planet's dense atmosphere.

Era-0 officially ended when the Earth, the Moon, Mars, and Venus founded the Planetary League with the signing of the Treaty of Kepler.