Star Drive Frontiers Timeline

Zebulon’s Expanse TimeLine

1700-1900s: As the Vrusks expand into space with their own advanced alien technology and star drives, they secretly influence and eventually contact the Dralasite and the Yazirian races. They also discover low-tech human settlements throughout the Expanse, which they also influence and eventually contact. Vrusk attempt to form their own corporate empire, but are met with resistance from all the other races. Not a race that commonly engages in war for conquest, the Vrusks agree to allow the Dralasite and the Yazirian to maintain their own region of space and share technologies openly. Humans, with no apparently world of origin, are given citizenship in whatever region they are found. Humans also take to advanced technology quickly. The “ruling” races – Vrusks, Yazirian and Dralazites begin what will later be their individual realms, although on some worlds, their populations intermix.

During this time all four major races expand out into space. Sporadically, some expeditions and colonies discover ancient alien ruins.

In all this time, no one questions where Vrusks obtained their advanced technologies and why they are so willing to share them.

2001 – 2012: First Sathar War – The Vrusks make first contact with the Sathar. Soon after, the Sathar start of the First Sathar War. Battles include the Invasion of Truane’s Star system (2001), the Battle of Triad (2004), the Dixon’s Star Massacre (2008), and Battle of the Two Fleets (Prenglar, 2012) which ended the way. Admiral Morgaine, a hero of the this war, dies in the final battle and Morgaine’s World in Prenglar is named after him. The Sathar are defeated and beaten back beyond the Xagug Dust Nebula.

2014 – 2015: The Grand Meeting of leaders of the four races takes place on Morgaine’s World. A year later they form the Council of Worlds as the diplomatic governing body, along with the United Planetary Federation (UPF) which acts as a mutual defense organization. All worlds of the Expanse immediately join. Under UPF authority, Spacefleet and Landfleet becomes a permanent defensive forces.

2015 – 2123: The First Age of Expansion is an age of growth, prosperity and unification of the four major races. Many of the current mega-corporation are founded during these years – The Streel Corporation on Pale (Truane’s Star), Cassidine Development Corporation is founded on Triad (Cassidine), Wartech (Gruna Garu) and Pan-Galactic Corporation (Pan-Gal). Star Law is also formed by the UPF as a inter-regional law enforcement agency. Worlds are discovered and terraformed throughout the regions. Corporations establish the Corporate Core – a region near the center of the Expanse where the corporations owned entire worlds.

Major advancement in communication and star drive technology also occur during this time, including drivesat-like technology, cybertechnology and genetic engineering.

2032: Laco’s War. PGC and Streel wage the first Corporate War on Laco. The UPF eventually steps in and empowers an inter-mega-corporate commission to resolve the differences. Other mega-corps study Laco’s War as a possible legal precedent for solving disputes.

2035 – 2045: The Blue Plague – An alien plague ravages the Expanse. The source is traced back to alien ruins of an alien vessel that crashed on Starmist in the Sundown system. It is called the Blue Plague because of its earliest symptoms – large blue welts that appear about the face and extremities. These welts leave horrible black scars even if the victim survives the plague. It is eventually wiped out after a vaccine is discovered but not until planetary populations are reduced considerably, in some systems.

2063 – 2075: The Mechanon Revolt. A robotic alien race is discovered and assumed to be robots. They are enslaved by the Streel and Pan-Galactic corporations on Volturnus. Mechanons eventually revolt and a full scale planetary war envelopes the planet. The Mechanon race is assumed to have been wiped out after 12 years of war.

2077: Tough new guidelines for legal ownership of a system or planet are laid down by the UPF and the Council of Worlds. The guidelines are designed to halt mega-corp expansion and to prevent occurrences such as the Mechanon problem.

2094 – 2101: The Capellan Free Merchants first appear on the Expanse bringing news of the Rim and their fight with the Sathar, and supplying desperately needed food to the survivors on Laco (Dixon’s Star) and Gran Quivera (Prenglar). Expanse ships enter Rim space for the first time. In 2101, Regular trade established with the Rim planets.

2124 – 2145: Second Sathar War – The Sathar secretly capture a non-UPF system between Solar Major and Solar Minor and enslave its inhabitants (humans). It is later dubbed Sigma Alpha 1 by the UPF Intelligence. Construction begins on a planet-wide military and industrial complex intended as a permanent base for incoming Sathar supply ships and troops. From this secret location, the Sathar begin the Second Sathar War against the Coalition forces and the UPF. Battles include Attack at Volturnus (2125), The Battle of Solar Minor (2106), The Battle of Madderly’s Star (2126-2107), Battle of Prenglar (2130), Battle of Moonworld (2132-2135), The Battle of the Blockade (2133 – 2142) and The Battle of Five Fleets (2140). The war ends with the The Siege of Outpost 2140-2145) where UPF and Coalition forces all but destroy the Sathar presence in the region of space. Sigma Alpha 1 is later established as a UPF military base.

2146: The Rim and the UPF enter into multiple defense treaties and economic trade agreements. The Rim Worlds are given a seat on the Council of Worlds.

2154-2166: First Corporate Wars: Galactic Task Force and MercCo fight the first post-SWII Corporate War over settlement rights on a moon orbiting Alcazzar in the Rhianna system. Hostilities quickly spread to include all seven of Alcazzar’s moons and over a half dozen mega-corps. The Corporate Wars begin in earnest. It ends with UPF and Star Law intervention.

2167-2203: The Second Age of Expansion begins as hundreds of exploratory vessels are sent out to make the unknown regions surrounding the Rim. The Council of Worlds agree to define the borders of the Star Realms – Vrusk Incorporation, Dralasite Assembly and the Yazirian Confederation of Clans. The Rim Coalition is given Star Realm status. Humans are given “equal” status in each of the realms, but in many cases, are treated as second class citizens as they have no known homeworld.

2178: An advanced Mechanon (The Evolved) assassinates the Governor of Zebulon. The UPF suspects an extensive Sathar spy and terrorist network. The resurfacing of the Mechanons is also a surprise

2180: In an effort to stem the growing numbers of Corporate Wars, the UPF and Coalition worlds grant Star Law the authority to recruit and use mercenaries and to establish the Star Law Psi-Corps, a special branch of Mindwalker-disciplined officers.

2186: A human assassin fails in his attempt to shoot Queanee Kloonanu, chairman of the Council of Worlds. A small bioform is found attached to the human’s back. Scientific studies show it to be some kind of intelligent, parasitic organism with the same genetic make-up as Sathar specimens. Authorities believe it to be a new Sathar method of controlling agents.

2192: Long-range probe ships are sent into suspected Sathar space away from the Rim and UPF systems on the other side of the Xagyg Dust Nebula. Contact is made with the remnants of the Sathar Empire. No hostilities break out and the Sathars open diplomatic relations with the UPF and the Coalition.

2209-2243: The Third Sathar War: Diplomatic relations break down as the Sathar attempt to expand, and bolstered by a fanatical leaders and a even more fanatical ally – the Que’Sha – the third of the Sathar Wars begins. A long and drawn out war ends after the discovery and destruction of the Que’Sha homeworld by detonating the system’s star. The Que’Sha are all but wiped out and the Sathar are forced to surrender. As part of the surrender, the Council of Worlds defines the borders of the Sathar Empire and the Sathar agree never to violate those borders. In return, they are given a seat on the Council.

2245-2337: The Dark Times: The over expansion of the different powers along with over commitment to the last Sathar War leads to a period of economic trouble through the regions. Some planets fall into severe economic decline and governing focus becomes more distributed and localized while each realm recovers. The Council of Worlds meets rarely as many deal with local problems, worrying less about galactic scale problems. The UPF decays as funds dry up and the Council of Worlds all but dissolves.

2340-2381: Age of Recovery: The first recovery is marked with the first joint mega-corporation between UPF stellar nations and the Rim Coalition being established – Remis Warmachine Manufacturers in Daladan Remis (Polomegan system). The Council of Worlds is re-established however, with less power as the individual stellar realms become more independent. The UPF rebuilds Spacefleet and Landfleet with the help of the recovering mega-corporations.

2382-2394: Human Uprisings: Humans, who enjoyed isolation from their ruling realms during the Dark Times, were not so subservient as previous generations of humans and were not willing to take on the second class citizenship the ruling races were offering like in past generations. The revolts and uprisings that result vary in severity, depending on the world. Some are simply peaceful but disruptive protests while others are armed rebellions. Eventually, predominantly human worlds unite in an open civil war that wages on for a decade. Humans unit under the banner of United Colonies of Humanity (UCH).

Eventually, the Council of Worlds is given authority to negotiate peace and give the UCH authority over their own worlds, as long as they obey the Council of Worlds edicts. The UCH is given representation in the Council.

2401-2419: Second Corporate Wars: Growth means conflict in the corporate world, and it did not take long for the mega-corporations to start another corporate war. Star Law, still weakened from the Dark Times, was slow to react. As it spread deeper towards the core, individual star realms used their own military force to fight back. This expanded the war as corporate were fighting governments while fighting each other. The war ends with concessions given to the corporations, allowing them more autonomy in the corporate core. However, they do not allow the corporations to control their own regions of space, as in the case with the Stellar Nations.

2422: University of Zebulon Xeno-Archeologist find ruins on Alcazzar and Sundown that link them to aliens similar to the Fraal.

2425: Wartech establishes a secret weapons test facility on a remote world near the Lynchpin system, called Corrialus. There, the test a variety of weapons including bio weapons and genetically engineered constructs.

2430: A Remis Warmachine exploratory mission finds an adrift ship on the far reaches of the Expanse. It is identified as a heavily damaged Starmech battle cruiser that had made bad starfall. All hands aboard were dead, but they were identified as humans. RWM tried to keep it secret but through corporate espionage, the secret got out.

2430-2455: The Awakening: The discovery of other humans outside the Expanse fueled a turmoil that ranged from riots in the streets to all out civil war on other planets. The Council of Worlds and the UPF struggled to keep order. This bolsters the power of Star Law and Landfleet, as the realization spreads and the star realms prove ineffective against the uprisings. Sovereignty lines are blurred as the Council of Worlds’ spreads its influence. The turmoil never truly ends, but it does die down to manageable levels. Tension remains between the individual star realms and the Council of Worlds as they continue their power struggle.

2457: Wartech loses contact with Corrialus. A mission is sent out to discover the colony completely wiped out.

2459 – 2472: The Third Age of Expansion begins with a variety of missions going to outlying systems, some coreward (towards the galactic core) and rimward (away from the galatic core). Many systems are settled are predominantly human. Tensions between the UCH and the other Star Realms tighten as it appears the humans are carving out their own realm. These two regions are called the Coreward Fringe and the Rimward Fringe. Colonists from these regions are traditionally called Fringers.

The Coreward Fringe is where the most humans expanded. Much saber rattling between the UPF and the militias of the UCH took place while the humans Fringers expanded without heed to UPF or Council of Worlds edicts. Sanctions were put on some colonies which lead to skirmishes between UPF forces and colonists. Tensions between this region and the UPF remain and some say that a war of independence is inevitable.

The Rimward Fringe expanded further and further out, finding the pick of viable worlds sparse the further they went out. In 2470, PGC established an observation colony on a cold rock of a world called Shazar in a system called Xenos. The remote scientific colony was created to search for more worlds out on the Galactic Rim. What they discovered shocked scientists andis still being studied today. They call it the Shatterzone. Through long range scans and probes, the scientists discovered an unchartable and mysterious massive barrier in space consisting of dark matter and strange gravitational phenomena as well as strange energy storms and asteroid fields. No known scanner has been able to find the end of this barrier or see what is on the other side.

2475: The Green Dragon Incident – a radical Coreward Fringer terrorist group called Humanity’s Crusaders attacks the UPF battleship, the Green Dragon with a suicide attack using a series of small freighters, overwhelming the battleships point defense system. The battleship is heavily damaged. This incident forces the UPF to have a strong presence in the region. Investigation into the incident shows evidence that the Sathar may have been behind the Fringer group.

2481 – 2484: The Grymsyn Counter-Insurgency – The UPF sends troops to attack a small city on a world called Meridan III in the Meridus system, where intelligence they gathered revealed it to be the headquarters of the terrorist group, Humanity’s Crusaders. The short occupation leads to no true evidence the Crusader were headquartered, although they met strong resistance from the locals. This only furthered the tensions between the Coreward Fringe and the UPF.

2490: First Contact with the Verge: Joint PGC and UPF expedition extends deeper coreward to a world called Cronin in the Elkad system.