Post by Rich on Oct 14, 2007 19:34:48 GMT -5
After the Vong War, chaos reigned—but it was the kind of chaos that the underworld could, and did, take gleeful advantage of. With no unified governments, and no discernable “front” on which to combat the tides of corruption, various underworld princes and factions effectively ran the galaxy for years. Their constant infighting and frequent assassinations of rivals did nothing to upset the grip that the underworld maintained on nearly everything—until, at last, fed-up citizens of mostly Core worlds banded together to found the Merchant Defense Fleet (MDF), and took advantage of the latest coup among the Hutts (in which Jida the Hutt had slain the ruling lord, Batuus), in what came to be known as the Hutt War.
Victorious only with the last-minute aid of a fleet no one had ever seen before, the people of the Core were grateful to the MDF, and to the mysterious fleet’s master—a man claiming to be a Jedi and calling himself Ashton Moonrider. Accolades were heaped upon Moonrider, and public trust and hope swelled as the underworld’s power receded in the light of the orderliness that now seemed possible. The clawed fingers of the Hutts were being defeated; there seemed to be room, at last, for true prosperity and idealism once more. The Jedi Protectorate was formed to sustain and defend that fragile idealism, and it soon included the Core worlds, and many other systems.
The Protectorate was not the only glimmer of hope in the galaxy, however. With Bastion as its capital, the Alliance of Free Systems, an oligarchy, had formed with the guidance of Ith’li Shaon, and the AFS, too, strove to beat back the dark greed and mistrust that had seeped into galactic culture under the Hutts.
Yet, tensions grew between these two great powers, and Moonrider was slowly revealed to be no savior. His plots included the seduction and control of Jedi, the exposure of Ith’li Shaon as a Sith practitioner, and, simultaneously, the funding of experiments to create a sentient creature that could hunt down and destroy Jedi who resisted him. Out of those experiments, carried out by various researchers of renown, one seized his attention more than the others: a sentient machine constructed of nanotech building blocks called “smartcules,” or simply “cules.” The machine was a being, and the being had a name: Mekhetu.
In support of Moonrider’s demand for order, Mekhetu threaded herself through systems and substances, and finally through people as well. Registration with the system became mandatory in Protectorate space, and this guaranteed that Mekhetu’s cules were within most sentient bodies. When war broke out between the Protectorate and the AFS, the armada and all the soldiers and droids within it were overseen (and to a lesser extent controlled) by Moonrider, through Mekhetu.
The HoloNet became untrustworthy as Mekhetu became more and more adept at taking over foreign systems, and a mysteriously safe system appeared from within the AFS, called the Mirrornet, that allowed the independent forces, the Resistance and the AFS forces some ability to communicate.
While the Protectorate forces met heavy resistance in AFS space thanks to the combined efforts of many factions, information began to filter in that Moonrider had become obsessed with a massive, ship-sized Force artifact called the Altar. His intent was unclear, but the amount of resources he was pouring into the project were enough to alarm his enemies, and eventually it became clear that the Altar was a tool that might allow Moonrider, already a Force adept, to interface permanently with Mekhetu, and thus tighten his control to what might have been godlike degrees.
AFS forces, including Shaon himself, combined with Resistance commandos and a significant portion of the Buffton Trade Cartel’s fleet, rushed to assault the Altar. When they arrived, it was being tested by Moonrider himself, and so their forces had to deal, not only with Protectorate ships, but also with erratic fluctuations in the Force once the Altar activated.
Yet a strike force of Jedi, fleet officers, and more, had made it to the heart of the Altar itself, and it was they who fought the enraged, and now quite insane dictator as he struggled to master the alien power coursing through him. The effects of that power were felt not only onboard the Altar, but across the Protectorate, and in every Registered living body, as Mekhetu’s cules and the Force were flexed this way and that in response to Moonrider’s will.
Ith’li Shaon engaged him directly, and slowly, with the eventual help of others, beat his physical form down. Beyond the battle, an unheard of cost of being paid, as vast numbers of beings died in the chaos that had erupted from within their own bodies. Worlds were dying, going dark, going silent as the HoloNet was disrupted and damaged in massive zones.
Within the halls of the Altar, though, there was no surrender, and Moonrider at last fell to his enemies.
The victory wasn’t sweet.
The galaxy was left in a state of desolation, destruction, and despair followed the end of the war... With Trillions dead, hundreds of systems crippled and an almost complete lack of Order, it was not long before the lack of any government forces changed. To step onto the Galactic scale, the Free People's Republic, formed during the Praetorian War in collaboration with the Chiss, lifted their isolationist policy and started to annex planets into its fold. Toward the core, another government rose up, the New Order, rising to power by taking indentured serfs for several years of hard work and no wages to rebuild their broken planets.
Together these governments set to work on helping return the galaxy to a state of order amongst the too numerous pirate and underworld groups. To do this, they started reconstructing Coruscant, a symbolic step hoping to inspire other worlds to rebuild as well. Meanwhile, the Jedi Order, unsure of their place in the galaxy after the Praetorian war, disbanded.
It was a year later that the Jedi found themselves once more on The Forest Moon of Endor, where they once more banded together, electing both a Grand Master and a Council, and scattered to follow the will of the force.
The two governments were not without trouble. Terrorism was at an all time high, side by side with pirating and general discontent. It was quite sudden that a Jedi was captured by the New Order as a terrorist, this Jedi then freed by another Jedi who seemingly just took the first place, would help spark a revolt that freed two planets from the New Order. The second Jedi captured, daringly escaped during which time, the New Order's President was assassinated by an unknown assailant.
It is during this time that a coup takes place in the Free People's Republic, that places a Senator and an unknown man as Prime Minister. With new heads of state in both governments, increased diplomacy has led to a task force being created with the single intent of weeding out terrorist installations where they exist. In response to the rising dissent, the New Order's new leader, freed what she referred to as slaves.
Now two years after the war, most of the Jedi are considered terrorist themselves, a small rebellion is struggling to prove themselves after having sparked a civil uprising on Mytra and Ceara, and pirates are a constant threat to the unstable governments of the galaxy. With new leaders in place, internal strife might just tear apart the either government.
Just a Brief current game summary. A more in depth summary to follow
Victorious only with the last-minute aid of a fleet no one had ever seen before, the people of the Core were grateful to the MDF, and to the mysterious fleet’s master—a man claiming to be a Jedi and calling himself Ashton Moonrider. Accolades were heaped upon Moonrider, and public trust and hope swelled as the underworld’s power receded in the light of the orderliness that now seemed possible. The clawed fingers of the Hutts were being defeated; there seemed to be room, at last, for true prosperity and idealism once more. The Jedi Protectorate was formed to sustain and defend that fragile idealism, and it soon included the Core worlds, and many other systems.
The Protectorate was not the only glimmer of hope in the galaxy, however. With Bastion as its capital, the Alliance of Free Systems, an oligarchy, had formed with the guidance of Ith’li Shaon, and the AFS, too, strove to beat back the dark greed and mistrust that had seeped into galactic culture under the Hutts.
Yet, tensions grew between these two great powers, and Moonrider was slowly revealed to be no savior. His plots included the seduction and control of Jedi, the exposure of Ith’li Shaon as a Sith practitioner, and, simultaneously, the funding of experiments to create a sentient creature that could hunt down and destroy Jedi who resisted him. Out of those experiments, carried out by various researchers of renown, one seized his attention more than the others: a sentient machine constructed of nanotech building blocks called “smartcules,” or simply “cules.” The machine was a being, and the being had a name: Mekhetu.
In support of Moonrider’s demand for order, Mekhetu threaded herself through systems and substances, and finally through people as well. Registration with the system became mandatory in Protectorate space, and this guaranteed that Mekhetu’s cules were within most sentient bodies. When war broke out between the Protectorate and the AFS, the armada and all the soldiers and droids within it were overseen (and to a lesser extent controlled) by Moonrider, through Mekhetu.
The HoloNet became untrustworthy as Mekhetu became more and more adept at taking over foreign systems, and a mysteriously safe system appeared from within the AFS, called the Mirrornet, that allowed the independent forces, the Resistance and the AFS forces some ability to communicate.
While the Protectorate forces met heavy resistance in AFS space thanks to the combined efforts of many factions, information began to filter in that Moonrider had become obsessed with a massive, ship-sized Force artifact called the Altar. His intent was unclear, but the amount of resources he was pouring into the project were enough to alarm his enemies, and eventually it became clear that the Altar was a tool that might allow Moonrider, already a Force adept, to interface permanently with Mekhetu, and thus tighten his control to what might have been godlike degrees.
AFS forces, including Shaon himself, combined with Resistance commandos and a significant portion of the Buffton Trade Cartel’s fleet, rushed to assault the Altar. When they arrived, it was being tested by Moonrider himself, and so their forces had to deal, not only with Protectorate ships, but also with erratic fluctuations in the Force once the Altar activated.
Yet a strike force of Jedi, fleet officers, and more, had made it to the heart of the Altar itself, and it was they who fought the enraged, and now quite insane dictator as he struggled to master the alien power coursing through him. The effects of that power were felt not only onboard the Altar, but across the Protectorate, and in every Registered living body, as Mekhetu’s cules and the Force were flexed this way and that in response to Moonrider’s will.
Ith’li Shaon engaged him directly, and slowly, with the eventual help of others, beat his physical form down. Beyond the battle, an unheard of cost of being paid, as vast numbers of beings died in the chaos that had erupted from within their own bodies. Worlds were dying, going dark, going silent as the HoloNet was disrupted and damaged in massive zones.
Within the halls of the Altar, though, there was no surrender, and Moonrider at last fell to his enemies.
The victory wasn’t sweet.
The galaxy was left in a state of desolation, destruction, and despair followed the end of the war... With Trillions dead, hundreds of systems crippled and an almost complete lack of Order, it was not long before the lack of any government forces changed. To step onto the Galactic scale, the Free People's Republic, formed during the Praetorian War in collaboration with the Chiss, lifted their isolationist policy and started to annex planets into its fold. Toward the core, another government rose up, the New Order, rising to power by taking indentured serfs for several years of hard work and no wages to rebuild their broken planets.
Together these governments set to work on helping return the galaxy to a state of order amongst the too numerous pirate and underworld groups. To do this, they started reconstructing Coruscant, a symbolic step hoping to inspire other worlds to rebuild as well. Meanwhile, the Jedi Order, unsure of their place in the galaxy after the Praetorian war, disbanded.
It was a year later that the Jedi found themselves once more on The Forest Moon of Endor, where they once more banded together, electing both a Grand Master and a Council, and scattered to follow the will of the force.
The two governments were not without trouble. Terrorism was at an all time high, side by side with pirating and general discontent. It was quite sudden that a Jedi was captured by the New Order as a terrorist, this Jedi then freed by another Jedi who seemingly just took the first place, would help spark a revolt that freed two planets from the New Order. The second Jedi captured, daringly escaped during which time, the New Order's President was assassinated by an unknown assailant.
It is during this time that a coup takes place in the Free People's Republic, that places a Senator and an unknown man as Prime Minister. With new heads of state in both governments, increased diplomacy has led to a task force being created with the single intent of weeding out terrorist installations where they exist. In response to the rising dissent, the New Order's new leader, freed what she referred to as slaves.
Now two years after the war, most of the Jedi are considered terrorist themselves, a small rebellion is struggling to prove themselves after having sparked a civil uprising on Mytra and Ceara, and pirates are a constant threat to the unstable governments of the galaxy. With new leaders in place, internal strife might just tear apart the either government.
Just a Brief current game summary. A more in depth summary to follow
