On October 15th, 2402, a network of atmospheric processors and gravitic anchors were activated
across the surface of Mars.
While planets had been regularly terraformed to adapt their biomes for human colonization,
for the first time, life would be created from lifelessness and a dead planet converted
into a world capable of sustaining colonization by the Greater Terran Union.
The terraforming of Mars was hailed across the Union as the start of a new era, a time
when scientific and cultural achievements would bring about unfathomable changes to
human civilization.
Union propaganda had long espoused the idea that there was no barrier that could not be
overcome and although these might have been previously dismissed as high-minded rhetoric,
it now seemed to be true.
While not quite the dominant hyperpower of explored space, the Greater Terran Union was,
at the very least, the equal of any other nation.
Every month brought with it new discoveries and innovations.
On the world of Mictlan, a planetwide penal colony established to house a genetic splinter
group of humanity now known as “The Clarus”, this idea of Terran superiority was challenged.
A new type of weapon, theoretically capable of shattering an entire planet, was tested
on one of Mictlan’s few oceans.
The results were promising, but the detonation awoke a race of colossal creatures that had
for millennia, hibernated in deep caverns beneath the planet’s surface.
For over a month, the citizens of the Greater Terran Union were horrified as Mictlan’s
cities were demolished by these titans, which raged against both the local garrison forces
and each other.
When Land Force Command assembled an army group to take back the planet however, not
even these enormous creatures could endure.
Their gigantic carcasses loomed over victorious Union tanks and soldiers, while the largest
and most dangerous of these titans were successfully confined to a solitary island, far from any
settlement.
Even a nationwide cyberattack by Algan separatists, which momentarily disrupted the GTU’s communication
infrastructure, could not mitigate feelings of Terran superiority.
In 2418, the forces of Fleet Command entered a star system which for over 200 years had
been off limits to everything but automated military reconnaissance craft.
Their target was an enormous mechanical construct that had endlessly prowled a graveyard of
ruined starships, scavenging amongst the wrecks to find components that would be added to
its own patchwork configuration.
The battle lasted over two weeks as Terran starships ambushed the leviathan from within
the system’s debris field, but in the end, it’s hull was pierced and its internal mechanisms
destroyed.
The bounty of the system was claimed and the remains of fallen service members, lost during
the initial disastrous conflict with the machine, were recovered and finally laid to rest.
The other great wonders of the Outer Rim met similar fates.
Enormous spaceborne aliens, once avoided at all costs by Terran ships, were systematically
hunted down and destroyed.
Whatever role they played in the galaxy, whether once great forces in the universe or merely
accidents of creation, their time was over.
There could be no room for such mysteries within the Greater Terran Union.
But one final effort still remained.
In London, in an unprecedented assembly of the Union’s most powerful leadership, it
was unanimously decided that the time had finally arrived.
The forces were ready, the interstellar gateway had been repaired, the great counter-attack
against the Tyrum could begin.
Even as mobilization orders were prepared and warships assigned to their rally coordinates,
the plans of the Greater Terran Union were frustrated.
The Compact, an alien alliance reduced to a rump state after a series of wars against
the GTU, launched a surprise attack across the border territories.
Whether they misinterpreted the GTU’s military mobilization or hoped to liberate the Union
of Nimerium, a Terran puppet state, their forces once more fought a senseless war against
the Greater Terran Union.
The GTU was forced to delay their plans against the Tyrum and deal once more with the Compact.
But on the far side of the galaxy, in the region of space that for centuries had been
ravaged by the Tyrum, events had begun to play out in a manner the GTU had never anticipated.
Alien nations that had suffered, as Earth had, under ceaseless attacks by the Tyrum
had united under a powerful new federation.
Known as the Star Concord, this alliance now represented the most formidable force in the
galaxy, dwarfing even the capabilities of the Greater Terran Union.
Where once their forces had only sought to repel attacks by the Tyrum, now they embarked
on a campaign of liberation, bringing the fight to Tyrum worlds and destroying their
war fleets and stations.
By the time the Greater Terran Union had once again decisively defeated the Compact, acquiring
new territories and worlds in the process, the Star Concord had successfully arrived
within striking distance of the Tyrum homeworld.
It was at this moment however that they stayed their hand.
The Tyrum were like no other species ever before encountered.
Hive minds, while not common were also not unknown, but the consciousness guiding the
Tyrum could not be reasoned with.
It seemed to exist only to destroy, incapable of engaging in any sort of dialog or diplomacy.
Its ships and drones would always attack without fear or any sense of self preservation.
How such a species even managed to develop the sophisticated technology it employed was
a mystery.
Ruins found on their former worlds led to speculation that the Tyrum had no actual technology
of their own and had in fact, simply appropriated ships left behind by a race of so called “old
ones” that had either been destroyed by the Tyrum or disappeared for some unknown
reason.
Whatever their origin, the Star Concord was at a standstill.
Sustained orbital bombardment was the only effective tactic against the Tyrum, blasting
away their cities until every trace of them had been eradicated.
Unwilling to commit to the genocide of an entire species, the Concord held a series
of conferences, debating the military, cultural, and ethical considerations a defeat of the
Tryum would entail.
Diplomats of the Greater Terran Union, present merely as observers, remained on the sidelines
of these discussion.
Eventually an agreement was reached.
The annihilation of an entire species or world, even those inhabited by a race such as the
Tyrum, could not be considered.
The Tyrum would be confined to their current borders by force.
They would not be permitted to expand but their current territory would be respected.
This decision outraged the Greater Terran Union and its embassies within the Concord
were closed in protest.
On May 1st, 2447, probes deployed by the Concord detected a breach of the Tyrum Exclusion Zone.
A force of warships were identified in orbit of the Tyrum Homeworld and reconnaissance
craft were sent to confirm these readings.
When they arrived, what they found terrified the Concord.
The ships detected were not a Tyrum invasion fleet, but instead a Terran battlegroup, one
that had slipped through the gateway and clandestinely maneuvered through Concord space.
At its center was a weapon of colossal power, of a magnitude never before seen in the galaxy.
Built in secret within the Sirius system and christened the Sword of Terra, it was already
in the process of charging its primary weapon.
Horrified Star Concord representatives demanded the Greater Terran Union recall this weapon
and its escorts and personal appeals were made directly to the High Marshal.
No reply was given, instead, footage of the charging weapon was broadcast on every Terran
media outlet, directed both at the citizens of the GTU and the entire galaxy.
When the Sword of Terra unleashed its power on the Tyrum’s homeworld, the planet’s
atmosphere was burned away in an instant.
Within minutes, its continents had been split apart and the entire planet was shattered
into continent sized husks that drifted around its dying core.
On Earth and its colonies, a few people laughed or cheered, a few people cried, most were
silent.
In Stellaris Invicta, the Templin Institute guides the Greater Terran Union into an uncertain
future, one you can influence.
Every Saturday we’ll live stream our progress on our Twitch channel, and viewers and patrons
will have the opportunity to vote on decisions, help name planets, ships, leaders and more.
If you miss the livestream, you can catch up on what happened when the stream is published
the next day to the Templin Archives channel.
Then, once a month we’ll produce a video like this one, detailing everything that’s
progressed in the Greater Terran Union’s struggle to achieve galactic supremacy.
The next livestream of Stellaris Invicta begins one hour after this video has gone live, we
hope to see you among the stars.