Vendetta Online

The Chronicles of Exile

AD 2651

So began the Colony War, a long, sad war which lasted over ten years. Terra II had been created in an atmosphere of peace and prosperity, the first interstellar colony of mankind. Now, within a few hundred years, a war arose which set the stage for the future interactions of the human Dispossessed (as they came to refer to themselves after the Terra II wormhole phase transition of 2310).

At first the war appeared to favor the Itani. Their advanced mechanized infantry proved quite formidable, and within the first year they held many of the former Serco border towns. Originally, much of the Itani military command had intended to destroy any captured domes and the "unclean" augmented civilians within. However, the Itani infantry, which had largely joined to defend their own people, was unwilling to participate in the murder of thousands of Serco civilians. When this became apparent, the military command then changed tacks and decided instead to occupy the captured cities and prevent their populations from escaping and enlarging the Serco military. Unfortunately for the Itani, the task of maintaining a captive dome full of Serco civilians proved to be far more difficult than merely capturing it. Rebel uprisings required considerable response in terms of troops and firepower to quell the technologically augmented Serco populace. The application of this force usually made the occupied inhabitants that much more resentful, bringing about more rebellions.

While the Itani dealt with the complexities of ruling a rebellious people, the Serco continued to build up their forces. The initial flash of the conflict had resulted in sporadic battles up and down the border. Some Serco heavy antipersonnel creatures had seen action, as had limited numbers of Guises, but both had been relatively few and far between. Within a few days of the initial battle, the Serco retreated to more defensible positions, thereby giving up many of their domes and the towns along the border. Heavy fortifications were constructed, allowing the Serco to repel all further Itani attacks. Analysis of the Serco strategic patterns indicated that they were testing the strength of the Itani invaders, immediately retreating to a secondary position once the Itani forces were found to be too great for their limited defenses.

At the time of the first conflict, it was believed that the Serco, while possessing some devastating weaponry and creatures, did not have a sufficiently sized military to fully repel the Itani invasion. Thus they retreated, fortified, and began their military buildup. Held up by rebellions and unable to pierce the Serco defensive network, the frustrated Itani had little choice but to fortify their own positions within Serco territory. Just over a year after the war had begun, the Serco began to attack the Itani invaders. For the first few months, little occurred other than short-term hit and run attacks. Usually happening at night, the attacks often featured small, fast-moving, bipedal creatures which did gruesome damage to unprepared infantry units. The creatures would usually attack in silence, but sometimes were heard to emit long high-pitched wails before and during large engagements. These attacks, which occurred with increasing frequency, had a demoralizing and psychologically destructive effect on the Itani defenders.

A year and a half into the war, under cover of a cloudy night, the first major Serco offensive was launched. Several hundred thousand troops issued from the Serco defensive line, heralded by the wailing cries of countless interspersed antipersonnel creatures. When the wailing screams were heard, some fearful Itani defenders began deserting their posts, even before the ground began to shake under the footfalls of massive unseen Serco heavy assault creatures. Thousands of semi-autonomous Guises took point in front of the main human Serco infantry, flanked by a menagerie of creatures and their operators. Overall, the Itani defense put up a good fight, but was completely overrun and pushed far back into their own territory. After two days of fierce fighting and giving ground, the Itani managed to rally together after being pushed back to the first Itani border dome. 18 hours of intense fighting finally broke with a Serco retreat, with thousands left dead on both sides, bodies and creature carcasses scattered across the landscape. This was considered the first serious battle of the war, and both sides used data gathered during the conflict to adapt their ground combat strategies and future military development.

AD 2654

Sporadic battles moved back and forth between the Serco and Itani. Both nations largely maintained the integrity of their borders, but with some difficulty. As the Serco began generating large numbers of semiautonomous Guise infantry, the Itani found themselves losing ground once again. The Itani infantry used actual human beings equipped with mechanized suits and weaponry, and while they were often far more battle-effective than the computer-controlled Serco Guise armored infantry, the Guises could be manufactured on demand. Thus a loss of 5 Guise infantry to 1 Itani became a net loss to the Itani.

Meanwhile, however, Itani military technology was still in development. Up until this point the war had remained entirely land-based. Most mechanized equipment and creatures were adaptations of equipment that had been used in the terraforming and survival process of the past few hundred years. However, neither side had forgotten the historical importance of air and space superiority. The Itani were the first to produce usable aircraft, and later short-range spacecraft. High-altitude precision bombing became the standard Itani attack, decimating the invading Serco forces and pushing them back into Serco territory. Serco military establishments soon had to be moved deep underground into hardened bunkers, safe from Itani attack.

AD2661

Little changed in the war during the next few years. The Itani retained air and space superiority, despite some advanced Serco surface-to-air missile designs. Both sides maintained nearly their original borders. The Itani were unable to crack the Serco defensive bunkers, while the Serco still maintained their advantage on the ground. Thus, aside from continuous sporadic conflicts, the nations remained in stalemate.

During this time, the civilian political climate had changed somewhat. People on both sides were sick of war and strife. Akan, on the other hand, had slowly become more and more publicly outspoken in favor of complete destruction of the Serco and all their people. As he saw his war efforts frustrated and public opinion beginning to turn against him, he became even more rabid in his hatred of the Serco. Finally, early in 2661, he ordered the high altitude saturation bombing of the largest Serco cities. Many in the military were against this, these being wholly civilian targets, but with the help of his close-knit group of followers, Akan managed to wrest enough control to get the bombs to two of their targets. The Serco city of New Shanghai, populated with nearly a million civilians, was reduced to rubble within a few hours. Pacifica, a coastal Serco city and one of the first domes constructed on Terra II, was also heavily damaged, leaving tens of thousands dead or missing. When the news of New Shanghai's destruction reached the Itani military command, a split within the military occurred, with several high-ranking generals rebelling against Akan's authority and the supposed will of the Itani Senate. Pacifica would likely have been destroyed as well, had not the second bomber been forced down by rebel Itani short-range fighters. Chaos reigned within the Itani military in the hours following the attack. Once news broke within the Itani public, the population was aghast. Akan maintained a semblance of control through his loyal military police, but he knew his days were numbered.

Over the past few years, the Serco had been developing their own short-range space combat fighters. With most of their technological base dedicated to more terrestrial (biological and somewhat cybernetic) interests, they found it slower going than the Itani. However, with the capture and reverse-engineering of a few downed Itani air/spacecraft, they soon made good progress. The Serco implemented a completely cybernetic system, as opposed to a manual Itani pilot interface, allowing their test pilots to jack directly into the ship control systems. With this virtually thought-based piloting system, they could perform incredible maneuvers with very fast reaction times. Ten of the craft had been designed and constructed under the utmost secrecy, but had not yet been flight tested due to constant Itani over-flights.

As word of the destruction of New Shanghai and Pacifica spread through the Serco population and government, the people recoiled in shock. Then, as with a single voice, they screamed for bloody vengeance. On the morning of the Day of Death, as both sides came to refer to it, the 10 Serco nightwing fighters launched from their hidden silos. The Serco infantry, which had been largely trapped in hardened bunkers due to Itani air assault, began to mobilize for a massive offensive.

At this point, a number of events happened in rapid succession. The first was the sudden, unforeseen use of five assassination Guises within the Itani government. It has been since theorized that these Guises had been put in position some months previously for use during the eventual Serco invasion. After their activation, they proceeded past all security checkpoints and succeeded in murdering Akan, his senior aide, and two puppet senators with whom he had consolidated control of the Itani senate. They failed to assassinate their fifth target: Markus Vim, head of Akan's secret police and alleged spymaster. After the attempt on his life and the subsequent upheaval, Markus vanished without a trace.

Immediately following the pre-dawn assassinations, Itani air/space recon reported combat contact with a number of craft of unknown origin. Not long after, border sentries began to report a massive mobilization of Serco ground troops. With Akan and most of his senior staff dead or missing, the previously "rebel" half of the military command retained control of the Itani state. After securing their position internally, they began broadcasting messages to the Serco, announcing the coup and asking for peace. Sadly, they received no response. The Itani began to array their defenses for an onslaught. By daybreak, the Itani generals were faced with an unknown aerial assault force, and a border now seething with an enemy more numerous than their most pessimistic estimates had predicted.

As the giant Serco army began crossing the border, the Itani launched eight of their high altitude bombers, with over a hundred fighters flying cover against the unknown threat awaiting them in the skies. The Itani bombers were the pinnacle of their aerospace engineering, a testament to the innovation of the Itani engineers. Huge craft, powered by reactor driven gravitic pulse engines, their range was practically unlimited. However, due to their extraordinary expense and difficulties in manufacturing, the Itani military only possessed ten working spacecraft. When faced with the opposition of a ground force they could not possibly repel, it is understandable that they dedicated 80% of their flightworthy bombers to immediate defense.

And so began the final battle for dominion of Terra II. The Serco crossed the border en masse, and easily overran the Itani defensive positions. Over their heads, a battle for space superiority had begun. Not long after their launch, word began to reach Itani commanders of the sporadic conflicts between the fighter groups and the unknown spacecraft. Within an hour, fully forty of the Itani fighters had been lost, and one bomber had been heavily damaged, with no reports of enemy casualties. The rest of the bombers began what assault they could under the harried conditions, and managed to at least halt the Serco ground forces for a short time. However, the accuracy of their bombing was greatly diminished by the constant attacks from the Serco nightwing fighters.

By midday the remaining Itani fighters had adapted, to some degree, to the tactics of the Serco spacecraft, but the disparity between piloting ability had become painfully evident. The Serco cybernetic interface system had proven to be an unmitigated success. Some mechanical issues related to their flight control systems had become apparent, and two of their fighters had been lost over the course of the battle to such technical difficulties. However, none had been shot down by the Itani. It was all the Itani could do to draw them off and hope to distract them from the bombers, even as they gave their lives doing so. Toward the end of the day it had become apparent to the Itani command that their bid for defense was a lost cause. Only fifteen of their fighters remained, and only two bombers. The main bulk of the Serco ground forces, while they had lost over 30% of their battle-ready forces to Itani bombs, was still so numerous and strong that any significant Itani ground resistance was improbable.

While the Itani ground forces braced for the inevitable, the bombers and fighters over their heads attempted to do what damage they could. The crews of the remaining two bombers, heavily damaged and realizing they had no hope of making it back to base under the intense attacks of the Serco fighters, resolved to ditch their bombers in the most potentially devastating manor possible. Rigging their reactors to reach critical mass, they plunged the giant craft in a headlong dive at the main battlegroup of Serco heavy assault creatures. Seen from the nearest Itani dome, the double airbursts of the massive ships changed the evening sky to the sudden brilliance of noonday. The blasts destroyed every Serco within 20km, and cut huge swaths in the van of the approaching army. While a great victory for the spirits of the defenders, and damaging to the Serco heavy infantry, it did not even slow the Serco assault. They knew they had won. They commanded the skies, and the bombing threat had now been eliminated. It is said that as the massive armies roared towards the first of the Itani border domes, a great dust cloud rose from their passage to obscure the setting sun. Amid the final rays of a dusty twilight, the Serco and Itani armies met for the last time.

A sickly sun dawned over the shattered remnants of the Itani nation. Filled with a self-righteous rage and lust for vengeance, the Serco forces had not simply overrun the Itani domes, they had flattened them. The Itani fought fiercely and bitterly to the end, but they stood no real chance. Whenever the Serco reached a dome, they would stand off at a distance and shell it with heavy artillery, eventually sending in a few thousand of their shrieking antipersonnel creatures for cleanup. Survivors, military or civilian, were few and far between. Pockets of resistance would remain for a time, until the thousands of heavily armed Guises arrived. Soon the broken domes would be eerily silent, as the dust cloud of the Serco infantry faded into the distance, headed for the next Itani town. As it became apparent that the Serco military would settle for nothing less than the complete extinction of the Itani, domes began evacuating their civilians as swiftly as possible. Many civilians took up arms and joined the defenders. Some fled the Itani territory in the hopes of reaching the neutral domes, though few succeeded. Most attempted to reach domes further from the borders. At midnight, the last of the Itani senate, now holed up in the heavily fortified capital of New Panaji, gave the Itani military command a new mandate: provide for the survival of the Itani people, whatever the means. The generals, sadly watching the distant fires of their burning cities, pondered how they might deliver their people from the vengeance of the Serco.

By early morning, two imaginative generals and a top aerospace engineer had come up with a plan. Ten thousand randomly chosen civilians were evacuated to a secret underground base in the southern mountainous region of Itani territory. Designed primarily for the development, construction, and testing of the heavy bombers, the space provided a place where the survivors might last a little longer. Every effort was made to conceal the transportation of the civilians to the base, and somehow, through the chaos of war and poor reconnaissance on the part of the Serco, they succeeded. Every person aware of the project was relocated to the base. The rest of the surviving Itani holed up in the few remaining fortified domes, or fled to the neutral territories.

One week after the bombs had fallen on the Serco cities, the Serco held all that had once been the home of the Itani. Shattered domes, the remains of soldiers, creatures, and battle-armor littered the wasteland. Now recovered from their initial bloodlust, the Serco people began to absorb what had been done. Far to the south, however, the last vestiges of the Itani people still clung to life, veiled within their deeply hidden base. There, construction had begun on a great ship, built from the parts of the two remaining bombers. It had been decided that the Itani would attempt to flee Terra II and try to build a new home beyond one of the unexplored wormholes. The logistics of moving so many civilians were inherently daunting, but were made even more so by the required timeframe. The military command believed it unlikely that their base could remain undiscovered for long, a few months at best. No one knew how the Serco would react if they learned of the base, but the still-smoking remains of the Itani capital cities gave little hope for a peaceful solution. Thus, all the resources of the remaining Itani people were focused on the construction and launch of their ship.

The Ark, as they named it, was most definitely the pinnacle achievement of the early Itani people. Designed and constructed in only fifty three days, it represented every major technological advance and every drop of knowledge the Itani could bring to bear on the project. Most of the population would be cryogenically stored, since no one was certain of how long it would take to find a planet suitable for colonization. The ship would need to not only sustain its passengers during the voyage, but eventually land and provide a usable base at their destination. All the tools and technologies necessary to build a new self-sustaining dome would have to be stored onboard. No one had any illusions of ever returning, or of the greeting they were likely to receive if they tried.

On June the 11th, 2661 (date and month reckoned according to the original Earth date system) the Ark launched from Terra II. Nearly half the mountainside was detonated immediately before launch, exposing the Ark to the morning sky. A few minutes later, all twelve gravitic pulse engines engaged at full power, creating minor earthquakes for a hundred miles and affecting the tides even on the far side of the planet. As the Ark left the atmosphere, the remaining Serco fighters pursued, perhaps believing the ship to be a last-ditch final attack. The Ark had been armored against this eventuality, and the massive reactor driven ship soon passed beyond range of the more conventional Serco short-range fighters. The Ark's course quickly took them beyond the orbital path of Terra II, towards the outer regions of the system, where the two active (and one inactive) wormhole areas resided. Choosing the further of the two, the ten thousand, four hundred, and ninety two heirs of the Itani nation vanished into the unknown, and passed out of all knowledge of the Serco for more than a millennium.

It is important to note that not all the Itani were slaughtered by the Serco armies, or were among those Exiles who left in search of a new home. Some found shelter among the sparse neutral settlements (neither Serco nor Itani) on Terra II. These people survived and prospered and lived largely in peace. The Serco left them alone, and the neutrals developed a strong antiwar sentiment. The Itani among them did remember their roots for many generations, but years of peace with the Serco eventually made them a single, albeit loosely knit, homogenous people.