It was out on the fringes that some semblance of civilization survived, and it was there that mankind began to rebuild. The first century AC was dominated by the growth of individual worlds that had preserved at least some level of the earlier technology. These planets were able to grow quickly into interstellar nations, using their science to entice—or coerce—their neighbors to join them.

The rising nations grew along the surviving Schwerin transit lines. Where the transwarp links still existed, communications, trade—and war—could move from system to system. Little is known of the worlds whose transwarp lines were destroyed in the Cataclysm, save for the occasional radio signal attesting that some people survive there, outside the functional transport system. How many of those planets have slid fully into barbarism, or extinction, and how many continue to rebuild, to grow, trapped in their solar systems, remains a mystery.

Mankind’s rise from the Cataclysm has been as violent and warlike as his slide into destruction. There are a few bright spots, like the Confederation, which offers some level of freedom to its inhabitants. But most humans who survive in the centuries after the Cataclysm live under despots and oligarchies, and few know any level of liberty. And everywhere, the nascent nations are at war, struggling for worlds, power, tech…pushing ever closer back to the brink.

AS Vindictus

Approaching Heliopolis, Steggus II

Alliance Year 58 (307 AC)

Vindictus shook hard, the bridge lights flickering for an instant.

Katrine Rigellus stared straight ahead, paying no mind to the beating her ship was taking. At least none that her crew could see.

Another hit, a bad one this time…

She could imagine the impact on her ship’s hull, the massive heat from the deadly blast, Vindictus’s armor melting, buckling, space ripping into the compromised compartments below. Men and women dying, incinerated by the heat of the plasmas or sucked out into space through great rents in the hull.

The Helian primary batteries were focused plasma beams, highly advanced weapons, well beyond standard Alliance technology. Gaining access to the enemy’s science would be as great a spoil as adding a new highly industrialized world to the Alliance. It was enough reason alone to fight this war. But before the fruits of victory could be gathered, the Alliance’s warriors would have to run the gauntlet, drive straight into the teeth of the enemy’s deadly weapons and win the victory.

Kat’s body was tense. She could feel the effects of the stimulant she’d taken before the fighting began, the edginess, the increased awareness. She’d been in battle before, many times, and it was always the same. The almost electric feeling as her mind raced, analyzing each bit of information, constantly moving and reprioritizing her focus.