The corporations looked out on their worlds and found everything was good. The entire solar system lay under their control. Nothing could challenge their dominion. Their's was the greatest, wealthiest, most advanced and potent civilization that had ever existed. They possessed technologies beyond the dreams of our own diminished folk. They could cure the sick and feed the hungry. They understood the mysteries of how to alter entire worlds. They were proud and haughty but their pride would soon count for naught, because they were to encounter a power that defied all human understanding. Every aspect of their civilization was doomed to fall.
It began when Imperial Conquistadors reached Nero, the cold dark world on the fringes of our system. There they found a strange tablet. Not till much later were we to know what they disturbed, for soon all contact with them was lost. Shortly thereafter the Dark Symmetry reached out across the system and began to infect the mighty Thinking Engines. The first and most subtle of the Dark Soul's efforts to overthrow humanity had begun.
Dire events began to occur. Complex technological systems failed. Powerplants exploded, destroying cities. Thinking Engines ran amok, turning automated weapons against the human population. The great electronic credit webs collapsed, bringing the economic system to its knees. New plagues emerged to bring death to the populace. Everywhere were rumors of sabotage. The corporations blamed each other. Evil influences saturated the Thinking Engines, showing rival corporations to be to blame when they were not. In the confusion no-one could tell truth from falsity. Men had become so reliant on the machines that they still believed them even when the evidence of their eyes told them something different.
As system after system went down, deeds of ownership were lost, invoices and contracts ceased to exist. The entire economy, on which the prosperity of worlds depended, evaporated overnight. As the automated factories ground to a halt, and the lights went out all over the System, the folk rioted, blaming their leaders for catastrophe. The rulers found it easier to blame rival corporations. Tension led to conflict. Conflict escalated to war. A new drk age fell. The First Corporate Wars begun.
On the Southern Mars, the most fertile and prosperous part of the Solar System war raged as Capitol, Mishima and Imperial fought for control of the land. On the Graveton Archipelago of Venus, a titanic struggle between Bauhaus, Mishima and Capitol erupted across the Thousand Islands.
On every civilized world, between every corporation, wars were fought with insane ferocity. Fear fueled them. Fear that the darkness would descend forever. Fear that technology was mankind's enemy. Fear that in this new and barely understood universe, there would not be enough for one corporation, let alone them all.
New alliances were formed wherever either side could saw a temporary advantage. Such alliances ended just as swiftly when a new opportunity arose. It was an age of terrible treachery that bred hatred and resentments that lasted for centuries. It was an age of insane violence where corporation smote corporation on the slightest provocation. Fighting bred fighting. Violence bred vengeance.
It began when Imperial Conquistadors reached Nero, the cold dark world on the fringes of our system. There they found a strange tablet. Not till much later were we to know what they disturbed, for soon all contact with them was lost. Shortly thereafter the Dark Symmetry reached out across the system and began to infect the mighty Thinking Engines. The first and most subtle of the Dark Soul's efforts to overthrow humanity had begun.
Dire events began to occur. Complex technological systems failed. Powerplants exploded, destroying cities. Thinking Engines ran amok, turning automated weapons against the human population. The great electronic credit webs collapsed, bringing the economic system to its knees. New plagues emerged to bring death to the populace. Everywhere were rumors of sabotage. The corporations blamed each other. Evil influences saturated the Thinking Engines, showing rival corporations to be to blame when they were not. In the confusion no-one could tell truth from falsity. Men had become so reliant on the machines that they still believed them even when the evidence of their eyes told them something different.
As system after system went down, deeds of ownership were lost, invoices and contracts ceased to exist. The entire economy, on which the prosperity of worlds depended, evaporated overnight. As the automated factories ground to a halt, and the lights went out all over the System, the folk rioted, blaming their leaders for catastrophe. The rulers found it easier to blame rival corporations. Tension led to conflict. Conflict escalated to war. A new drk age fell. The First Corporate Wars begun.
On the Southern Mars, the most fertile and prosperous part of the Solar System war raged as Capitol, Mishima and Imperial fought for control of the land. On the Graveton Archipelago of Venus, a titanic struggle between Bauhaus, Mishima and Capitol erupted across the Thousand Islands.
On every civilized world, between every corporation, wars were fought with insane ferocity. Fear fueled them. Fear that the darkness would descend forever. Fear that technology was mankind's enemy. Fear that in this new and barely understood universe, there would not be enough for one corporation, let alone them all.
New alliances were formed wherever either side could saw a temporary advantage. Such alliances ended just as swiftly when a new opportunity arose. It was an age of terrible treachery that bred hatred and resentments that lasted for centuries. It was an age of insane violence where corporation smote corporation on the slightest provocation. Fighting bred fighting. Violence bred vengeance.
