ATS Plot Introduction

ATS is a hard science fiction, Cold War doctrine forum roleplay with optional gameplay mechanics. It is designed to be as free form in either its Character RP or its Nation RP, below is the story of mankind, but it can be retconned in order to fulfil the needs of user-created human factions, within reason.


In the early 21st century of Earth, mankind discovered a solution to what seemed to be all of its problems; nuclear fusion. By 2025, the first commercial fusion reactor went online near Paris, France. By 2040, more than one third of global power requirements were covered by the impressive technology. The oil industry was left to rot as more efficient reactors were designed every week, allowing humanity to turn its focus to the stars and not on petty civil conflict. One material made it all possible: Helium-3.

While there were many methods of power generation, Helium-3 was by far the most efficient one. The problem was that the material was rare on the small blue pearl, the inhabitants of which were forced to use the less useful Deuterium reactors, the fuel of which existed in abundance in the oceans. Luckily for them, and in an ironic twist, the valuable isotope existed in terrifying quantities on a location only a single light-second away: Luna. The once neglected moon became a hive of activity as private corporations raced to get their hands on the deposits, and before 2060, the space industry had boomed to a degree where there were civilian transports between Earth and its moon every few hours. A new era of prosperity had begun.





By 2080, there were human colonies on Mars, Europa and Titan, and mining outposts in the Sol asteroid belt. But it was not until the late 2090s that the true leap in space exploration occurred. The first faster-than-light jump was successfully completed on the 22nd of July, 2097, at exactly 12:00 Universal Coordinated Time by the United Nations Space Vessel "UNSV Curie", with Alpha Centauri as its destination. It was a crude jump, one that took entire weeks to plot, but it caught the attention of greater powers. Just a month later, humanity had its first encounter with an extraterrestrial intelligence. While the natural name is impossible to pronounce in any human language, humans decided to call them the "Alarei", a word close to what the aliens called them. They revealed themselves to be the true Roswell aliens, and invited the people of Sol to join a small, but growing interstellar community. The United Nations reluctantly accepted.



Having gained entry into the galactic community; a broad proportion of human nations began to focus their efforts on the production of military vessels. The first Max Planck Class Destroyer finished trials in 2106, and entered active service as a long range patrol craft with the newly formed United Nations Space Command. As of 2110, there were twelve such destroyers in service, and the first cruiser was in the process of being built. As of 2120, the first human battleship had been launched from the Albert Einstein Shipyards in orbit of Mars. Human expansion peaked; six solar systems were colonized by man, and outposts were built on twelve more. Technological progress boomed. It was a utopia.




But after much delegation from the Alarei-led galactic forum, it was decided that humanity was too ambitious and was spreading too fast. The rate at which humans expanded without signs of stopping struck fear in the hearts of many, especially the Alarei, the superpower at the time, unmatched by any other. Humanity was asked to sign the new treaty they called "The Alarei Limits"; a clear nod to the fact the Alarei were the most advanced race in the council. The treaty called for a limit in both the systems humanity can colonize, and the number of ships it can field at a time.

Humanity and the U.N. thought it over, attempting to seek a diplomatic resolution. Tensions rose, as humanities response was mixed, with nations both accepting and denying the treaty. Many humans saw this treaty as a death sentence in the face of all that could have been possible for humanity had the treaty not been implemented;  that humanity needed to expand or it would stagnate.  This led to humanity aggressively expanding even further, pushing the boundaries in spite of the aliens.

The galactic forum, as a response, closed all communications with the humans. While the human media suppressed it and spun the story into the aliens submitting to humanity's might, it was quite the opposite. The Alarei, with the help of the races they strong armed into helping them, were preparing. For 15 months, humanity lived in ignorance of the growing threat.





A devastating war followed, starting with the Alarei attack on the Einstein Shipyards, Humanity’s primary production facility, and ending with a decisive nuclear strike on the Alarei Homeworld by the first Inter Stellar Ballistic Missiles. Human kind had chosen to withhold the fact that it had developed jump cruise missiles, and had now used them as a deadly bargaining chip to end the war in its favour. The war splintered the old Council; some desired peace, while others joined the Alarei in defense against the powerful Humans. The Alarei had nothing to lose; their homeworld was a nuclear wasteland, and their colonies had been devastated by gruesome orbital bombardments. Their allies feared a similar fate. The Alarei withdrew all of their defensive vessels and refitted them with nuclear weapons, preparing for their next move.

That counter attack took place on the 26th of December, 2142. That day became known as Black Wednesday. Alarei and allied ships, armed with nuclear warheads, jumped a few kilometers above major human cities and detonated them, killing two thirds of the human population. The will of humanity was broken, with the Alarei homeworld destroyed, their allies breaking treaties and the Galactic council in tatters, humanity had fought the Alarei to near-extinction.


The United Nations and the inter-galactic community collapsed, the Alarei disappeared completely without a trace, their technologies and secrets gone with them. The surviving nations of Sol and their colonies balkanized into countless nation states, voting not to fall into the same traps that brought them into the Alarei war. Humanity fragmented into societies of similar outlook and culture, with their home world scarred and mostly uninhabitable humanity moved outwards and established colonies anew in systems for and wide.


300 years after the destruction of the Alarei left a large power vacuum. It was a vacuum that many young races attempted to fill after the end of the First Interstellar War. The Galactic Council, once a shell in which the Alarei exercised its right to rule over the other nations, had nations gripping for power and jostling one another for position and influence. Prominent nations that rose from the dark depths of Space included the Valkari; a warrior tribe keen to expand their existing fledgling empire. Then there were the Kal’Bavakorians, a fierce and stoic race with equal warrior tradition, forged in the fires of a gritty civil war. These prominent alien races were among many in the council and, like humanity, were aggressively expanding their interests. NATO and the Western World of Humanity had formed into the United Systems Coalition; a now vastly corrupt and suspicious empire with a strong military and a vastly xenophobic outlook. Humanities far Eastern Nations had founded the colonies of New Terra, and within the 300 years had formed into a formidable nation, with cross-species population.


2457. Within' fifteen years time, the Teuffel Mining Field, a large shared helium-3 mining field; runs almost completely dry. Many nations were reliant on the mining field and the Galactic Councils ability to fairly divide its resources. Nations fight over who has the rights to the helium-3 now that the council faces a crisis of fuel. Negotiations on Armistice collapse; forcing Coalition and Kal'Bavakorian delegates to leave. This forces the allied forces of the Kal'Bavakorian Alliance and their New Terran allies into direct conflict with the United Systems Coalition, as both fight for worlds, resources and the remaining veins of Helium-3 in the known sectors of space. The true hatred between the Kal'Bavakorians and the Coalition becomes the forefront in the war, and the galactic community watches silently as USC warships, experienced with years of warfare; destroy their Kal'Bavakorian counterparts. The Kal'Bavakorians however fought back, and using their ground forces, trained to an elite standard; pull a great number of victories on planet-side assaults on strategic worlds. Civilian casualties beome commonplace as the militaries of each side begin to whittle each other down over countless colonies and sectors of space.


The war continues to deplete both the resources of the Alliance and the Coalition. The Valkari, spurred on by the Coalition, decides to initiate an assault into Kal'Bavakorian territory in order to gather more worlds for their bustling empire in an attempt to make a quick grab at a dying empire. The battles over and on conflicted worlds become some of the most violent in the war, and create a reference point for many atrocities committed by both species. Only through the tenacity of their planetary defence forces and reinforcements from other systems does the Alliance break the siege on their colony. Attacks by Valkari and the Coalition continued, and soon the Kal'Bavakorians faced an assault on two fronts.

The Kal'Bavakorian Alliance, while holding out as best as they can, began to show desperation. Having been on the defensive, their Imperial High Command faces an ultimatum: Attack, or face defeat. In response, the Alliance launches a risky operation with the support of the New Terran military. Launching a two-pronged attack on both Coalition and Valkari space, the Alliance targets the Coalition-held Talarin, and the Valkari homeworld of Kaan. This large fleet, supported by New Terran supplies, initiates their assault: a smaller force attacking the Washington System to divert attention from Talarin, a strategically valuable coalition resource operation, while a massive force warps directly over Talarin.

The assault is a massacre. Defences on Talarin decimate the Alliance fleet, causing many ships to burn up in the atmosphere or forcing other craft to crash onto the planet. The remaining Alliance fleet and their New Terran allies launch a series of nuclear strikes onto the planet; destroying crashed friendly ships and plunging the planet into a second nuclear winter before escaping.

A massive fleet of captured human craft, however, prepares a fake attack on a Valkari world at the same time. Launched by Kal'Bavakorians, this distraction forces a huge force from the Valkari home world to run to the planet's defense. Before the ploy can be discovered, however, a true Kal'Bavakorian fleet warps over Kaan. Winning a decisive naval victory over the resisting fleet, the Alliance initiates a series of planetary bombardments and launches troops to conquer the world. In the ferocity of the attack, the Kal'Bavakorian military launches a series of bio-weapons onto the planet. In an unseen turn of events, the bio-weapon reacts aggressively to the planets eco-system, nearly destroying the planet's eco-system and atmosphere. Its population lies in ruins. This leads the council to ridicule the Kal’Bavakorians for their wasteful use of weaponry and the collateral damage it caused.

The Coalition, fearing another attack by the industrious Alliance on the scale of Talarin, or worse; Kaan, decides it is time to initiate their last attack against the Alliance. ISBM's, nuclear weapons capable of destroying continents via warping into a planet's atmosphere from another system, are used against the Kal'Bavakorian systems of Ballo'Krechka and Hallo'Wai. Billions are killed instantly, prompting a similar response from Kal'Bavakor. Similar weapons are used against the Chicago and Washington Systems, killing the human colonial populations just as quickly as their Kal'Bavakorian opponents were.

With these weapons of mass destruction finally used, the war ends overnight. The Valkari are left without a home, the Coalition has lost half it's fleet and population, and the Kal'Bavakorians plunge into the 'Great Hunger' with their main food facilities in Ballo'Krechka lost. Galactic politics collapse overnight, with Armistice left abandoned in it's wake. The New Terrans, their comrades and trade partners having gone dark to lick their wounds, begin to face rapid fuel shortages and must cope with the loss of trade. Following this, due to the lack of resources after the war and the high-society lifestyles their denizens were used to following, many nations suffered schisms, coups and civil strife after the war, allowing many nations to break away and form separatist states.





New races and hidden human colonies, once unable to make their way into the stars, now have access to basic space age technologies. Dormant alien fleets fall to inhabited planets to leave new technologies behind, trade blockades collapse to allow small empires to flourish, and sources of Helium-3 in previously unsettled systems now supply new fleets for years. Smaller races rush into the void to take their prizes: seats on the now empty Armistice Station, fuel reserves, and empty planets in a galactic sector, rich with life and resources.

This is where you come in. Your people, either human or alien, await expansion into the stars, to break the silence that has reigned for centuries. Will you attempt to bring the galaxy to peace through diplomacy, or conquer it in a bloody crusade? Will you create, or will you destroy? The choice is yours.