The Grand Crusade: An Brief Overview of History

What Has Come Before

There was a time when the planet Earth "rebelled" against Humanity. The exact specifics of what happened are no longer clear. It is known that at this time, it had become very obvious that to remain on Earth was a death sentence for the entirety of the Human Race. When this became obvious, the Great Evacuation began.

One would hope that the nations of the Earth would have joined together in the spirit of cooperation and brotherhood, in a united effort to save all of mankind. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Some nations bound together, others actually conquered their neighbors, as a means to use the resources and manpower of their new "vassal states" in an effort to build, what had come to be called, Arks.

The United States moved quickly, absorbing both Canada and Mexico. Russia expanded, grabbing a number of nations that once belonged to the USSR's Eastern Block. Europe's EU, India, the Middle East, all of these nations and more, bound in unity and separation, to head to the stars. These bundles of desperation were no longer referred to as "nations", but "Factions", each with their desire to not only leave, but to claim as much of the stars as possible.

New technologies were discovered, and stolen. Innovation, spurred by the desire to survive, was at an all time high. The greatest discovery, first developed in the EU, using the Hadron Collider, was that of the "Jump Drive", or "FTL Drive". A method of travel, using "micro-wormholes", to leap light years, in mere hours. Jump Drives were quickly added to the design of every Ark.

In a little over a decade of frantic work, the first of the Arks launched into the heavens. The Great Evacuation had begun.

Over the course of the next century or so, the Factions formed their own little empires. Claiming what they could, and then taking from others as quickly as possible. Some Factions grew to massive sizes, others were conquered and absorbed into the larger Factions. Centuries and centuries have gone by, war has been an almost near constant.

Other races, called Xenos, have been discovered, most were defeated, and either assimilated into their new human "leaders", or pushed out of their home systems, forced to flee, or be obliterated. For a time, it was very much like the Wild West. The end result has made for some very interesting, yet familiar, Factions.

Earth became off limits from the Factions. A quarantine zone was established around the stars and planets that encircled the home world. This region became officially referred to as "The Terran Quarantine Zone", to the common citizen it just was called "The Horizon".

The Current State of the Known Galaxy

There is currently a state or relative calm. It has been over a thousand years since the Great Evacuation. While a number of Factions have conflicts among their borders, a state of Cold War exists between most. In this lull, a new focus has started to rise. A Grand Crusade to reclaim the Earth has taken root.

While the movement behind the Grand Crusade is seeking allies amongst all the Factions, each faction has a similar underlying goal in their support. They all want to be the first to claim their ancestral home planet. "Control the Earth, control the Known Galaxy." While this thought process may not actually be achievable, it is a driving force.

There is one snag to this Crusade. This is actually the third Crusade. The first failed miserably, upon encountering what has been come to be known as the "Horizon Guardians", or "The Defenders of Terra". The Defenders utilized technology unknown to the other Factions. They deployed legions of forces, and obliterated ground troops and fleets alike.

The Second Crusade fared little better. They appear to be able to do something that none of the Factions can do, predict that a "slip" was happening, and where the exit point of that micro-wormhole would appear. This became obvious when one of the Zvezdeye Sihedrion Soyuz's attack fleets attempted to jump directly to the edge of Earth's Solar System. The attack fleet was destroyed in less that five minutes.

Now a Third Grand Crusade begins to gather. The Crusaders are having more difficulty recruiting members, but they make assurances that this time will be different. How they can predict such is unknown, and greatly doubted by the Factions. Still, each Faction doesn't dare not contribute, at least a small force, in hopes that there is success on setting foot on the "sacred" Earth.