On the 3rd of February, 517al, a gathering of scientists, technologists and officials
from across the Confederacy amassed on a world that the Screk had named “The Archives.”
They had assembled to witness a strange monolith, whose origins and purpose had been lost even
to the remaining Screk themselves.
A strange pattern of eldritch lights shimmered across its surface.
They were bizarre and almost unpredictable, but unmistakably a kind of countdown.
At the exact moment the pattern reached its natural conclusion and the countdown came
to an end, a previously unnoticed rise in subspace energy across the galaxy suddenly
exploded in severity.
Communications were ruptured, hyperspace travel became unreliable and subspace storms bathed
entire star systems in vibrant but ultimately harmless radiation.
Within weeks however, the worst effects of the subspace discharge had faded.
Communications were restored, the hyperlanes were busy once again and interstellar civilization
resumed, seemingly without any lingering ill-effect.
That the galaxy was in the opening phase of a potentially apocalyptic crisis would not
be realized for months.
It was only when attempts were made to recontact the Imdar System that the first worrying signs
emerged.
A sparsely populated backwater on the periphery of the Madarishian People’s Federation,
that Imdar had not yet been reconnected with any interstellar communications network, even
months after the discharge, was hardly seen as unusual.
Home to only freelancers, smugglers and piracy elements, communications with star systems
in that region were routinely cut off with attempts to restore them hindered by lengthy
travel times.
When neighboring star systems similarly “went dark” however, the People’s Federation
began to investigate the cause in earnest.
While astrologically close to Antares, unfavorable hyperlane routes meant that Imdar was of no
practical concern to the Confederacy, a distant system for all intents and purposes.
The efforts of the nation were instead still dedicated towards stabilizing its allies and
neighbors in the decades following the capitulation of the Screk Empire.
Reports of decimated Madarishian fleets and armies were initially assumed to be the work
of the Ti-Zru, an ancient nation nearly the equal of the Screk in their day.
Amidst the ongoing war between the Ti-Zru and the Madarishian Alliance, the true nature
of the threat in the Imdar System was confused and misidentified.
The loss of an Antares Treaty Organization Battleship in the region only added to the
confusion, further escalating tensions, but as reports grew clearer, came the realization
that neither the Ti-Zru or the Madarishians were responsible for the growing chain of
dead systems.
In ancient myth, the land of Megiddo was prophesied to be the site of an apocalyptic battle.
Within the Confederacy however, it was instead merely the name given to the first extra-galactic
star system settled by Antares.
Located in a small cluster of dead worlds just past the outer periphery of the galaxy’s
spiral arms, it had become a center of commerce due to its unique gateway nexus, perhaps the
work of the Screk Empire or some other long fallen civilization.
The creatures that emerged from that nexus were unlike anything foretold in Earth’s
Book of Revelation, but the battle was similarly apocalyptic.
Neither ships nor living creatures, vast assemblages of light and subspace itself poured into the
system.
Nearly the entirety of the Confederacy’s 6th fleet, dedicated to the defense of Megiddo,
was lost in an instant and the trade stations and mining outposts scattered across the star
system, similarly eradicated.
Faced with the irrefutable evidence that some otherworldly force had entered the galaxy,
the Confederacy ordered the mobilization of its forces and the activation of wartime conditions
across the Antares Treaty Organization.
This order was matched by dozens of other powers across the galaxy, but with Megido
cut off and the extra-galactic nexus now harnessed by the interdimensional invaders, they could
now strike without warning within any one of several dozen star systems.
Even the Pilgrim Fleet, the most advanced formation within the ATO was unable to evade
ambush by the invaders, its last ship narrowly escaping destruction.
Everywhere across the galaxy came reports of extradimensional incursions and star systems
stripped of all life.
With emerging footholds in multiple territories, including those of the Confederacy’s allies,
the initial strategy to counter the invaders was confused and ineffectual.
Within the Confederacy, every effort was made to fortify the most vulnerable star systems,
those directly connected to the gateway network.
One such site was the Zorikkan Black Hole.
It had become famous within the Confederacy, first for its extensive research facilities
centered around the anomolies’ event horizon, and later for the construction of the Koxurem
Matter Decompressor.
A station of tremendous scope, the Decompressor was considered the ultimate refinement of
gravitic redirection, by boring into the black hole itself, an almost unlimited supply of
matter could be extracted and refined.
It was one of the Confederacy’s greatest technological achievements, and a pivotal
foundation of the nation’s economy.
In analyzing the movements and apparent strategy of what history would name the Unbidden, Confederate
scientists would later speculate that this manipulation of gravity might have acted as
a kind of beacon to the extra-dimensional invaders.
Whatever the cause might have been, as soon as the Unbidden became aware of the Decompressor’s
existence, their fleets converged upon it.
With the Confederacy forced to defend multiple points across its territory, the Zorikkan
Black Hole was defended only by the remnants of the 6th Fleet, hastily reinforced but hardly
at its full strength.
Underequipped, undermanned and prematurely returned to active service, the 6th Fleet’s
ships and sailors had barely trained together for more than a few months when the first
Unbidden formation arrived.
Yet as the only major fleet in the Confederacy to have engaged the invaders directly, its
surviving officers proved instrumental in confounding the Unibidden’s powerful yet
imprecise attacks.
The opening stages of the Battle of Xuukanis was unlike any other fought in the Confederacy’s
history, resembling more a series of interconnected feigned-retreats and routs.
The strategy failed to inflict any meaningful damage upon the invading forces, yet by avoiding
a pitched battle, the 6th was able to prolonged the engagement long enough for the 1st and
7th Confederate fleets to arrive.
Even with an overwhelming numerical superiority, Antares’ forces endured significant losses
before the Unbidden fleet withered away into nothingness.
The victory was the first of its kind in the galaxy, emboldening allies and other foreign
powers with the knowledge that victory over the Unbidden in mass fleet actions was possible.
Yet within just a few months, a second force of the interdimensional invaders emerged out
of the rift.
The 1st, 6th, and the 7th fleets, depleted significantly by the previous engagement,
were forced to retreat.
With the loss of the Koxurem Matter Decompressor the economy of the Antares Confederacy collapsed
almost instantly.
Without the raw matter necessary to maintain the enormous production lines keeping the
Confederate Navy reinforced, both the armed forces and nation seemed poised to disintegrate.
The actions of the Confederacy however had not gone unnoticed, and within the Galactic
Community it was Antares that emerged at the forefront of the defense effort.
In exchange for various elements the Confederacy possessed in abundance, the Madarishian People’s
Federation and Ro'thuggan Empire entered into an unprecedented trade agreement, dedicating
an enormous percentage of their industrial output to the Confederate military industrial
complex.
The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th battles of Xuukanis were merely the start of what would become
a seemingly endless campaign to hold the system.
The fleet actions fought here grew in size and scope until in the eyes of the galaxy,
they had become the supreme drama upon which the entire war seemed to hinge.
For seven years, extradimensional forces poured out of the gateway, assailing themselves against
the massed Confederate defenses.
Multiple times the system was lost, the Matter Decompressor disabled and Confederate fleets
scattered across the surrounding systems.
But each time, either through the massed production of the Galactic Community, the tenacity of
the forces ordered to counter-attack, or sheer resolve, the system was retaken and the decompressor
hurriedly reactivated.
It had long been remarked that Antares was the nation of a 1000 nations.
Its citizens had come from every manner of world across the galaxy and that heritage
could be seen and felt everywhere within the Confederacy.
Yet its critics had been vocal in claiming that while Antares was undeniably a 1000 nations,
it was rare that it was one.
In every conflict, every contest, from the Liberation of the Vrul to the Invasion of
the Great Khan, even during the campaigns against the Screk and the Greater Terran Empire,
the nation had truly united only fleetingly.
In the war against the Unbidden, the national spirit of Antares was catalyzed into something
grander, something deeper.
It was the refinement of a simple idea that had been expressed in many different forms
throughout its history; as the “raging of a martial fire”, the concept of“Antares
Exceptionalism”, the imagery of “a new Colossus”, or the simple notion that “evil
must be opposed.”
It asserted itself on every world in the Confederacy, emboldening each citizen towards the same
great effort.
For perhaps the first time in history, the citizens of Antares embodied the concerted
determination of the Earhart Pioneers, every doubt lost in the struggle against extinction.
Even in the former worlds of the Screk, the ideals of the Confederacy took hold with an
iron grip.
The Font of Knowledge, once the decrepit throne of a fallen power, was restored, its long
crippled foundries now burning with such light as to be visible from orbit.
Millenia ago, the Screk had fought to save all civilization and now they did so again,
the pride and honor of their ancient Empire finally revived.
Within its endless industries, the stain of slavery was burned away and the Font of Knowledge
transformed into a great Arsenal of Democracy.
With the attention of the Unbidden directed on Xuukanis came the opportunity for counter-strokes.
In 530al, a great victory was achieved by the Ti-Zru and the path to the heart of the
interdimensional rift was opened.
Presented with the moment to end the advance of the Unbidden in a single stroke, Confederate
Fleets abandoned the defense of Xuukanis instead driving towards Imdar itself.
It was only when battle had been joined with the extra dimensional forces surrounding the
great wound in reality, was it realized that to close this tear, the strange, ethereal
constructs of the Unbidden erected across the galaxy would all have to be destroyed.
With Confederate fleets engaged and without any means to retreat, all that could be done
was to hope that the other nations of the galaxy would follow their lead.
For weeks the massed forces of the Confederacy fought their way to the tear until their fire
could be directed upon the rift itself.
To the tremendous relief of all Antares, their faith in the galaxy was rewarded.
Elsewhere, a final offensive by the Galactic Community had destroyed the last of the Unbidden’s
constructs.
The rift was finally closed.
The nation that had entered the war against the Unbidden was not the same one that ended
it.
In countless ways, the Confederacy had been transformed.
Within the Antares System, terraforming technologies had reformed the worlds of Alhaji and Vinh
into paradises.
In the Dronafeg system, an artificial ringworld had been constructed rivalling any of the
greatest wonders in the galaxy.
But the greatest change was in the soul of Antares itself.
The Confederate Republics of Antares had always been a compromise; a labyrinth of agreements
and stipulations meant to balance the power of the Republics with that of the Federal
system.
It was a compromise that was no longer needed.
On May 22nd, 532al, representatives of each Republic of Antares made their way one by
one to the floor of Parliament in Sagallo, and announced the results of the last national
referendum held by the Antares Confederacy.
That evening, at midnight Sagallo time, the Confederate Republics of Antares were dissolved
and the Antares Commonwealth established.
The formation of the Antares Commonwealth was the greatest and most far reaching reform
ever enacted across the nation.
It transformed the sovereign republics into constituent states, solidified the roles of
each branch of government, and ended the contradictions and peculiarities that had defined Antares
politics.
But amidst this new wave of optimism and renewal was the expectation that the greatest failure
of the Confederacy would be remedied.
The declaration of war against the Greater Terran Empire occurred simultaneously with
a sweeping decisive strike through the Siuhuri-Aldebaran wormhole.
It was almost identical to the Reyes Operation attempted 40 years earlier but the scale of
the forces involved defied any comparison.
Forged by the trials of the Unbidden War, fueled by the massed industries of their shining
worlds, Commonwealth Forces had grown exponentially larger.
During fleet actions in Aldebaran, Capella, Sigma Draconis, Sirius and dozens of other
Star Systems, the military forces of the Terran Empire were systematically torn apart.
In their wake came vast armadas of troop transports and the Commonwealth Army embarked on the
liberation campaigns for which they had always been intended.
In the war against the Greater Terran Empire every soldier, on both sides, became a casualty.
Some escaped physical wounds, but none were above the emotional torment of the conflict.
The Terran state was no longer a nation in any meaningful sense, but an inhuman mechanism
running with deadly precision towards its own destruction.
Unable to achieve victory, it instead dedicated itself towards merely increasing the suffering
and violence, punishing Antares for every step forward it took.
Through their superstitious belief in technology, the leaders of the Terran Empire had abandoned
any feeling for the life and dignity of man.
The individual held no importance, no consideration given to their uniqueness and distinctiveness,
used up instead as a raw material.
Men, women and children were thrown in the face of Commonwealth guns, expended as any
soldier might expend ammunition.
The Battle of Earth was decided before it began, but the inhuman insanity of the Terran
Empire prevented any surrender or withdrawal.
Whatever glory that might have been won was replaced by a tremendous feeling of agony
that gripped every Commonwealth soldier with cruel force.
The birthplace of mankind had been defiled, transformed into an unsurpassed violation
and degeneration of the human essence.
Earth was a graveyard, a place where untold millions of lives had been senselessly snuffed
out, where an immeasurable wealth of human happiness, human plans, hopes, talents and
fertile possibilities of the future were destroyed forever.
This, and nothing more, was the prize that the Antares Commonwealth had won.
In Stellaris Invicta, the Templin Institute guided the Antares Confederacy into an uncertain
future.
The live streams are now over, but remain available on the Templin Archives.
On the Templin Commissary however, a new piece of artwork depicting the Liberation of Earth
is now available for purchase.