Operation Phoenix

Prologue Part II - Operation Phoenix

We are not alone

After the dark age of humanity on Earth ended in the 25th century, the survivors began to explore their world again ... and divide it among themselves. Not without conflict, though.

At the beginning of the 25th century, a group of explorers from the faction of the "Northern Grand States" made a sensational discovery in the ice of the Antarctic: a destroyed spaceship.

The members of the expedition quickly realized that, despite some similarities, this did not represent a Terran battleship from the wars of the 21nd century, but alien technology. With times still unstable and only a major conflict to end, the three expedition leaders, Mercer, Henricks and Lamarr, along with their equally concerned colleagues, decided to keep the find a secret for the time being. The group formed a community that later became known as The Council.

The members of the Council were sworn to secrecy, but saw it as their task, with the technology now available, to guide Earth's destiny for the better through technical progress .. and some nudging and coercion.

Rising from the Ashes

After a few years, the relevant parties, at the Council's instigation, succeeded in making peace. The United Council of Humanity (UCH) was founded, whose decision-making body also included the Council - now a publicly known, official organization.

After just two decades, the Earth had reached a technical level that allowed not only to explore the solar system, but also to colonize it quickly.

At that time a recurring phenomenon was observed for the first time at the edge of the solar system: a vortex of chaotic electromagnetic wave fronts and gravity space quakes in different strengths.

At the instigation of the Council, the secret fleet base Apollon Station was built in the orbit of the Saturn moon Titan. All not yet explored high technology of the alien vessel - among other things several apparently defective replacement devices of the jump drives from the storage areas of the old Talon ship - were brought there under highest secrecy to be examined and made usable, while the space quake zones also were to be explored more closely.

The Hyperion Incident

After a prosperous decade, the first problems arose with the availability of basic materials needed for technical use. The consumables for the advanced techniques used for civilian purposes, as well as for military purposes, were running low and, despite efforts, could not all be replicated: A key element was a crystal that the Talon documents named as Pentaxid.

According to the analysis of the alien ship's logs, the crystal, rare in this area of the galaxy, was only ever obtained at Proxima Centauri.

Facing a renewed society decline, the Council and other UCH bodies secretly began building a long-range exploration ship at the Jupiter shipyard: The UCH 001 Hyperion.

At great expense and risk to human life, the ship was to fly to Proxima Centauri, to scout for deposits and mine and store pentaxid for subsequent ships. Confident that they understood the principle of the alien warp drive, many scientific, as well as technologically savvy, participants boarded the ship.

However, despite the meticulous mapping of the outer solar system, nothing went as planned. When the warp drive activated, an irregular vortex was created, resulting in an irregular spacequake with an enormous wavefront. The ship disappeared in a kind of explosion. At least this is how it was officially reported. In fact, a rupture effect of space was documented by the accompanying sensor drones. A garbled message was received shortly thereafter from the closing wormhole: We are under attack.

Alarmed by what had happened, and under pressure from the dwindling Pentaxid supplies, the go-ahead was given for Operation Phoenix. It was assumed that an enemy species had attacked the Hyperion in space. This enemy would also use similar techniques and materials, which seemed to confirm the presence of the needed Pentaxid crystal. A military-equipped convoy was to follow the UCH Hyperion to Proxima Centauri and, if in doubt, secure the crystals by force.

Even most members of the military on the still secret Apollon Station and Jupiter shipyards were not informed about the actual purpose of Operation Phoenix, or were distracted by propaganda forcing opinions into a different direction.

Operation Phoenix

In this context, and since an operation of this size could no longer be fully concealed, the Council officially started the ‘Jump to the stars’ program with the ambitious goal to spread humanity beyond the borders of the solar system and to open up new settlement worlds. This gigantic effort would easily cover the materials required for the Operation Phoenix convoy, and as a suitable planet had already been identified in the Proxima Centauri system, such an ambitious goal was not unreasonable. Specialists and military were to break ground on the new planet to secure the area and make it ready for the colonists to arrive later. Nobody contradicted, since this was considered as an absolutely logical approach at that time.

The operation was launched by the UCH eventually and celebrated under the official name "Operation Phoenix" in the media of the solar system.

Enthusiastically, ten thousands of volunteers signed up for the colonies that would be established in a few years. The high militarization of the ships was not questioned. After all, one did not know what was going on in the neighborhood - so the propaganda went.

As preparations neared completion, the first differences about the procedures on arrival emerged behind closed doors between the inaugurated Admiralty, UCH representatives and the Council.

A New Hope

Shortly thereafter, a regular meeting of the admirals took a surprising turn when a garbled message from the UCH Hyperion was picked up by a surveillance satellite.

Although analysts could not determine the carrier medium, the message appeared to have been sent to the solar system from the neighboring galaxy of Andromeda.

It contained only two identifiable words: New Eden.

From the additional data embedded in this message - information about lush, habitable worlds and vast resources, especially of pentaxid - the analysts drew two momentous conclusions: Contrary to earlier assumptions, and given that the message was decoded and attributed correctly, it could not be 100% assumed that there was actually enough pentaxid on Proxima Centauri for an entire fleet. Let alone for the supply of mankind. The Operation Phoenix fleet would instead most likely be stranded after arrival with no chance of return. Furthermore, if the Hyperion did make it to Andromeda for reasons still unknown, there is no indication that the mechanics of the repaired warp drive and its side effects were really fully understood. In the simplest case, the fleet's warp drives might not even be sufficient to get the ships to Proxima Centauri - and back again. In the worst case, they would end up in some random place in deep space.

However, thanks to a lucky observation, it quickly became clear that the wave fronts that had been observed for decades were the key. This literally turned all plans upside down.

Struggle for Directions

The dispute just over competence turned into a heated dispute over general directions.

While the council, as well as some admirals, wanted to stick to the plan to get the needed crystals for mankind, if necessary from Andromeda, the opinion was formed from the remaining representatives that it would be better to try to gain a foothold in Andromeda and to accept the inevitable fate of mankind in the Milky Way. This New Terra grouping, led by Fleet Admiral R.T. Yaden was ultimately unable to prevail against Admirals Benner and Vide Admiral Perez and the Council in the following discussions, but had won over some advocates of the more radical ‘New Terra’ solution.

While the dispute was still ongoing, the UCH Science Division was tasked with re-analyzing the Hyperion incident with the latest findings. Eventually, a possible way was found to take the path to Andromeda with a synchronization of the warp jump with one of the next space quakes.

Although a success was only at a 50:50 chance, more ships were assigned to the fleet under the new premise. With only two jump engines remaining, they were installed in the sister ships UCH 002 TITAN and UCH 003 GRAND. All other ships, so the theory went, would be transported through the warp vortex due to the tight staggering within the protective field generated by the warp drives of the two main vessels.

Conflicted Arrival

However, same as with the Hyperion, the departure of the fleet was not fully going according to plan. The wave front appeared earlier and was stronger than calculated. At Apollon Station, failures occurred and, due to the strong wave fronts, the fabric of space time was distorted in large areas of the solar system.

Although Joe Henricks (Player character) fought his way out of Apollon Station, he failed to reach the departure rendezvous point in time. However, he was pulled into the warp vortex, but not into the safety area of the TITAN. After the fleet arrived, his spouse, Alex Lamaar, found that Henricks did not arrive in Andromeda along with the fleet and held Edwin Mercer Senior responsible for her loss.

Shortly before, in the Ellyon system, a patrol fleet of the Zirax Empire was observing the unusual energetic activities around the gas giant Crown and in the planetary space around Omicron

While constantly expecting an attack by the Factions Overview|Kriel Empire, a dangerous enemy to the Zirax Empire, a highly nervous Xenu commander of the Omicron defense group started the attack on the unknown fleet, heedless of long-range reconnaissance reports indicating that the enemy was unknown but not identical to the Kriel.

Heroic Sacrifices

As a result of the fight, the UCH TITAN and several other Operation Phoenix ships were destroyed or crashed on Omicron and its moon. The rest of the fleet, led by Admiral Perez, escaped into deep space, thanks to the sacrifice of Admiral Benner. Fleet Admiral Yaden and Mercer escaped from the TITAN in a shuttle, but were picked up by chance by the Xenu in the confusion of battle before being able to reach the GRAND. The TITAN itself crashed on the moon. There were no known survivors.

The survivors of the crashed UCH Heidelberg on Omicron, through the help of an Abyssal officer stationed on Omicron who had been frustrated by the Xenu, were able to escape into space after brief contact with the local Talon in succession. After reaching free space, the survivors were picked up by a vessel of the Arkenian Republic and brought back to the remains of the UCH fleet later on..

At the end of the battle, the energetic wavefront in the system intensified, creating more chaos and technical issues, but also helped the GRAND and others to successfully escape.

Some time after the events calmed down, the Zirax patrol fleets gradually withdrew to intervene in the escalating conflict with the Kriel. Only the guard post on Masperon (moon of the gas giant Crown) and a research station on Omicron (under DESC administration) remained behind.

And so it begins..

A year later (2474 AD), after the spacetime anomaly that had frozen ship and pilot in time until then had dissipated, Joe Henricks (the player) reaches the Ellyon System.