Tens of millennia ago, in the basking warmth of a yellow star, the civilization that would one day be known as humanity was born. They began nestled in an unremarkable stellar system in the Inner Sphere, host to a single habitable planet: Terra. Their culture evolved there, suffering fits and starts, but eventually breaking free from their atmosphere and painstakingly colonizing other planets within the same star system. This exploration heralded the discovery of a new class of minerals and elements within the swirling gases of this system. Scientific breakthroughs followed quickly, which revolutionized manufacturing and technology.
These were mere footnotes compared to the discovery of Rift-Space and the technology of Rift travel. This development turned the prospect of interstellar travel from a distant dream into a realistic venture, as travel could occur over mere weeks rather than the decades previously projected. With the resources of Terra gradually depleting, many were eager to reach into the stars. This catapulted humanity into a new age of expansion, as it began to explore and settle in nearby star systems.
The lives of the first generations of settlers were often difficult and short, spent in cramped corridors with strict rationing while the colony developed. These problems were only intensified by the ever-increasing production quotas coming from Terra, desperate to recover the high costs of interstellar expansion. Tension rose drastically as an increasingly desperate populace had their requests for lighter quotas, political freedom, and better living conditions dismissed. Travel using their initial Rift-drives proved extremely hazardous as they encountered aggressive species and dangerous rift entities.
Beyond their home system, Humans encountered the other sentient species of the Inner Sphere. Colonies beyond Terra’s star would trade with Vaelen star-clippers and Pahtra caravans. A few daring human groups even contracted themselves into Geodan guilds. Humans organized themselves politically into a Terran Republic. The government on Terra struggled to maintain its influence on colonies beyond their system. Charters would court the Valaen Principality or particularly prosperous Guild Masters over their own Republic. The Emerging power would strain against the competition for space and resources in the Inner Sphere.
The Sider Stratiotes
Faced with this rising tension, geneticists presented a solution through innovation. They created the first gene-mods, which allowed people to tailor their genetics and modified individuals to be stronger, tougher, and capable of withstanding the harshest of environments. They hoped to uplift all of humanity with these gene-mods, which would give those living on the colonies a far better life than they could have dreamed of previously, while also reducing Terra’s dependence on the colonies for resources. Such changes would allow humanity to spread out through the stars as never before and prosper on worlds where their ancestors had struggled to survive. Terra’s leadership, however, was interested primarily in its military applications.
They ensured that the early gene-mods were offered exclusively to a handful of Terran-based legions. This resulted in the first Sider Stratiotes, soldiers unmatched among their unmodified peers. Further refinements allowed for specialization of Hoplites into various Legions, each tuned for optimal combat prowess in more specialized roles. The first Engram developed to produce a legion of Hoplites was based on a single, spectacular human specimen; he was a renowned soldier who had been resurrected several times through a process of cloning and encoding. The Sider Stratiotes produced from this Engram proved to be an effective fighting force. Clad in Phalanx armor, these hoplites were an unmatched infantry force. The Hoplite project scoured real and rift space for genetic stock to incorporate into the Sider Stratiotes.
The Terran Incursion
By comparison, Riftgate travel is much more stable, safe, and reliable than Rift Drives. The Vaelen had been using their riftgate network for millennia by the time humans made first contact. The Directors on Terra coveted this technology. When an abandoned riftgate was discovered on the fringes of the Inner Sphere, it was collected and brought to Terra to kickstart Humanity's very own Riftgate project.
Aethelred, the progenitor of the Sider Stratiotes and the leader of his personal legion known as the Unbroken, warned against rift experimentation on humanity’s homeworld. Aethelred had routinely led his legion into the rift, collecting genetic samples, and had encountered hordes of “Rift-Demons” surging at anticipated breaks in reality, ready to push through into real space.
Unwilling to give up on the technology, the Terran Directoral cabinet was prepared to green-light the Rift-way project. In preparation for the project's initiation, the Riftgate was brought online. A rift tear formed in the gate that sparked off a demonic maelstrom under the republic’s capital. Malevolent rift entities poured into the urban centers on Terra. Bloodthirsty beasts ravaged the planet, killing billions in mere moments. The torrent of psychic energy released in this assault was channeled into Aethelred, the now Ascendent. The emergent saint then led the counter-assault to retake Terra.
The Incursion of Terra had transitioned from a massacre to a hotly contested battle. The surface was crawling with Horrors and Furies, and the skies were swarming with Shriekers. The Terran Defense Force and Unbroken Legion descended in drop pods to rescue the remaining pockets of survivors and end the demonic incursion on their homeworld. The campaign was brutal, but the Human coalition was able to clear the demons from most of the planet. Pushing the horde almost back through the hellgate they had poured out of. In their last push, the rift entities had spawned a Soul Demon that had nearly succeeded in breaking through the Unbroken’s envelopment. The Acendent met the gargantuan Demon at the breach. At the cost of his retinue, the Ascendant drove the demon back to the precipice of the hellgate. Lashing out with their sword, the avian form demon pierced the Ascendant. The wound released a surge of rift-energy that pushed the demon through the gate and sealed it. The incursion was over, but the Ascendant was mortally wounded.
Humanity After the Incursion
At the immediate end of the incursion, the Ascendant, still clinging on to his last strands of life, was rushed into a cryogenic sarcophagus to preserve his essence. For the multitudes that had placed their faith in the Ascendant, his wounding was the last grievance they could tolerate from the Inner Sphere. The sarcophagus was loaded onto the directorate’s capital ship, accompanied by the faithful, and they set off to establish a Human nation in the Outer Sphere. The Human Settlers, accompanied by several legions of Sider Stratiotes, christened themselves the Genesis Ascendancy; they would settle the stars of far-off sectors to establish a faithful nation in anticipation of the Ascendant’s revival.
The Terran Republic would not reemerge as a political power in the Inner Sphere after the incursion. Human groups had integrated into communities across the sphere. Corporations struck out enterprises across the stars. Several colonies were sponsored for expansion into the Outer Sphere. Some Hoplite legions have found their place in the Inner Sphere, even taking on contracts on behalf of the commission. Some Human Defense Corps also make their services available for hire to the highest bidder. The most capable outfits find themselves taking jobs from one of the five families of the commission. The planets of the Terra system would continue to operate under private interests. Terra has been shaped into a pilgrimage site for the Human diaspora. A relatively small population remains on Terra, and tourism is their principal industry.
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