History 1999-2012
In 1999 an alien space craft crash landed on Earth. While humanity was already starting to produce manned space stations and even develop basic fusion technology, this ship represented a monumental leap forwards in technology for mankind. While much of this vessel, codenamed Alien Star Ship 1 (or ASS-1 for short), was heavily damaged it was still possible for much of it to be rebuilt.
During this time many discoveries were made. Among them were new and advanced propulsion technologies allowing for interplanetary and even interstellar travel. It was also discovered that the ship had been inhabited by a race of giants, assumed to be 50 feet tall or close to that. This immediately worried the nations currently researching the vessel. For if these aliens came looking for their lost ship they would most likely not be pleased. A large scale effort was put forward to unify the Earth into a true United Nations, one world, one government. However, many were opposed to this and soon the Unification War began. At the same time development on both refurbishing the ship as well as adapting the ship's technology to humanity's uses continued at a furious pace.
2007 saw the end of the Unification War, though there are still remnants of the Anti-UN faction even to this day. In 2009 the refurbishment of the ASS-1 vessel was complete and it was rechristened to the SDF-1 Macross. On this same day the aliens, then presumed to be the same ones the ship belonged to, arrived on Earth, triggering a booby-trap built into the Macross' systems. The mammoth ship activated of its own accord, main gun targeting the alien fleet and successfully destroying one of their ships. This marked the beginning of Space War One. In a desperate move to draw the alien invaders away from Earth the SDF-1 initiated a hyperspace fold while on planet, subsequently taking the island it was on along with its inhabitants out to around Pluto's orbit.
The next year would mark many developments in the conflict. The rescued civilians constructed a city within the giant space battle fortress and even began their own television and movie productions here. This would eventually lead to the rise of the now legendary idol Lynn Minmay. The aliens, known as the Zentradi, apparently had no prior comprehension of civilian life, having been bred only for war. As such the broadcasts from the Macross, especially Minmay's singing was cause for great confusion among their ranks. Eventually the Zentradi attempted to abduct several crewmembers from the Macross. Those taken were Cmdr. Misa Hayase, Lt. Hikaru Ichijo, and Lt. Hayao Kakizaki. Lt. Maximillian Jenius also managed to sneak aboard and would be instrumental in aiding the others in their escape.
Before escaping the group of captives would gain a fair deal of insight about the Zentradi. First, the Zentradi possessed an absolutely massive fleet, numbering in the millions and fully capable of destroying all life on a target planet. This is also where they came to learn of the Zentradi's culture of constant warfare. It was also discovered that the concept of males and females together was completely alien to them. Zentradi and their female counterparts, the Meltrandi were constantly kept in separate fleets, to the point that their downfall was prophesized should the two ever meet. As such, seeing simple displays of affection like a man and a woman hugging, or kissing was absolutely terrifying to them. They believed humanity to be something called the Protoculture (the very first civilization in the known universe) whom the Zentradi used to serve and now feared being contaminated by.
The Zentradi advisor, Exodole Folmo, transferred to the Macross to assist in planning for the battle that they had no hope of winning, with only 1000 or so ships on Earth's side to fend off a fleet of approximately six million warships, commanded by Lord Bodolza- the supreme commander of the Main Zentradi fleet. When the Zentradi fleet arrived their first action was to bombard the Earth, the combined blast of that many ships all but eradicating all life on Earth. During that time, Lt. Ichijo came up with the idea of having Minmay's singing broadcast to both fleets, using it as a morale booster for their allies while throwing the main Zentradi fleet into disarray.
Eventually this tactic led to the alliance of the across and the relatively small Zentradi fleet to emerge victorious, the Macross having broken through the main line to destroy Boldolza's command ship from within. The blast from the stricken ship's death throes all but obliterating much of the amassed Main Fleet. Many of those who remained were so shaken by Minmay's singing that they, like those who arrived before them, sought to align themselves with the human survivors aboard the Macross.
This was by no means the end, however. Earth was in shambles, humanity reduced from billions to mere thousands, the Earth's environment all but shattered with little to no life left on the planet. Immediate reconstruction efforts were put forth and soon small cities began to crop up over the planet. The new capital was Macross City in Alaska, where the now immobile battle fortress of the same name had landed in a crater shortly after the final battle that closed Space War One. Most of the Zentradi survivors chose to be micronized, shrunk down to human size, though some did retain their giant stature. Humanity took it upon themselves to teach the Zentradi the intricacies of dealing with modern technology, something they hadn't truly learned save for how to operate it (much of their fleets having spent thousands of years in disrepair).
In 2011, realizing that Earth couldn't possibly hope to survive another attack on the previous scale, Admiral Global dispatched a small task force to take command of a resource satellite used by the Zentradi. The satellite was used for the construction of almost all of the Zentradi equipment, from infantry weapons all the way to capital ships. The satellite also possessed cloning chambers which could be used to help repopulate Earth more quickly. The resource satellite was captured with little issue and it's Fold engines were used to move it into Earth orbit, the new structure showing up in the sky almost like another moon.
Not everything was rosy on Earth, sadly. Many of the Zentradi refugees were beginning to grow frustrated with their civilian lives. While a large number adjusted well to peace, many wished to go back to their life of battle. This was leading to an increasing number of rouge Zentradi groups cropping up throughout the large wasteland areas of the planet. During this time Admiral Global made his intentions behind gathering all these resources clear: Humanity needed to spread itself out or else it risked being destroyed by another alien attack.
This began a massive colonization effort. Initially it was the Megaroad class colonies, single, massive vessels with a few capital ships and fighters to provide escort. Unfortunately many of these fell victim to the ravages of space, and even the first ship of the line, the Megaroad-01 disappeared.
Regardless, some of these colonies did succeed. The overall success of Earth's initial colonization efforts led to the creation of the New Macross class colony fleets. These fleets were considerably larger, employing a myriad of vessels in order to better sustain the colonists (now numbering around a million instead of a few hundred thousand) for as long as 20 years - the expected operational lifecycle of the vessels within the fleet.
History 2046-Present:
An important note on the MUSH timeline: In February of 2015 the game launched Season 2 which advanced it to 2061 in character. The game proceeds at a rate of 1 year of in character time per 1 year in real life, please factor this into your character concepts!
In 2046 the16th New Macross class colonization fleet was launched. Named Horizon, this fleet incorporated several new technological breakthroughs. This colony was to function as a test bed for the new Bio Plant design concept. Several smaller ships were directly connected to the city section of the main colony ship. These functioned as agricultural, residential and some resort ships. This made most of Horizon self-sufficient within its own ecosystem. However, as a prototype, Horizon accomplished this on a smaller scale than what would later be used in fleets like the Frontier colony. Horizon still employs numerous support ships for everything from recreation to manufacturing, ensuring the best standard of living possible for its primary residents. The support ships are all linked to one another by the Milky Highway system, a series of computer controlled flight paths that act like traffic lanes, very much akin to what was used on the Macross 7 fleet.
Horizon is also one of the first colony fleets to allow full-sized Zentradi onboard, a matter that has raised some degree of controversy among some of the residents. Horizon has also broken other boundaries in embracing the budding industry of cybernetics and boasts one of the most advanced cybernetics labs in the UN Government, although the actual application has been strictly controlled.
At launch, the Horizon fleet was commanded by Captain Welsh Tors. Despite having command of Horizon for two years, Tors wasn't much more than a footnote in Horizon's history. More reactive than proactive, Tors was extremely conservative in his actions, generally unwilling to adopt new ideas and stick to more traditional tactics. While this meshed well with Horizon XO Francis Thompson on one level, it was obvious Tors wasn't going to move very far up the ladder and rumor suggested that Tors only got his position due to favor within the upper echelons of the UNS. Regardless, after his inflexible nature nearly resulted in the Horizon fleet getting severely damaged in a relatively small encounter with a pocket of rogue Zentradi it was decided to remove him from command. Tors was soon replaced by a new captain, Samantha Cook. This was a transfer that did not go over smoothly either with Tors still bearing quite a grudge against Cook.
Cook was promoted to her position with a fair deal of controversy, something to do with getting her out of UN Spacy command's hair regarding an unknown incident. Cook is an extremely young captain, only in her 30's. Moreover her happy-go-lucky nature has ruffled more than a few feathers, including those of her XO. However Cook has demonstrated an exceptional level of command ability and a frightening degree of resourcefulness. One of the first ideas she had implemented was to begin outfitting the newer AVFs with melee weapons to augment their close combat abilities. As well she began to reintroduce Destroids into the fleet's arsenal to assist with things like point defences.
Cook was also promoted to Horizon for another reason: it was determined by UNS command that a younger captain would be better suited to the unorthodox mission that was given to the Horizon fleet. Unlike most colony fleets that are to set out in a given direction and settle the first habitable planet they come across. Horizon, meanwhile was sent to the other side of of the galaxy and instructed to map out as many potential colony worlds as possible along the way until they reached the end of the fleet's operational lifespan, at which point they would settle the nearest habitable world they had mapped. The reasoning for this was twofold: with more detailed maps future colony missions would be able to be sent directly to the best prospective worlds. As well, Horizon was to skirt the edge of the center of the Galaxy to find the fastest route past the supermassive black hole at its center.
This assignment has made many of the residents of Horizon feel slighted, however. It has put Capt. Cook at odds with the Mayor of the Horizon fleet's civilian side, Damon Lee, on more than one occasion. As a newly elected official Lee has taken his position very seriously and is often rather outspoken against the military, despite the constant efforts of Cook and her crew to defend the colony's inhabitants.
From 2051 through to 2056 the Horizon Fleet encountered numerous hostile groups ranging from rogue Zentradi fleets and a renegade colony fleet to even encountering a group of Protodevilin that left the fleet heavily taxed. Through all of this they also faced constant harassment from the Dawnbreaker and Genesis Anti Unification cells. These two groups were arguably the largest threat posed to Horizon with Dawnbreaker even managing to secure Horizon City from the UN Spacy for a time.
Everything came to a head when Dawnbreaker began to implement their latest weapon, the Terminus Fold gun, to harass UN Spacy forces. During the UN Spacys operation to capture or destroy the gun, Genesis betrayed Dawnbreaker and attempted to use the Terminus to attack and destroy Earth with a Micro Dimension Eater warhead. The nearly broken Dawnbreaker fleet joined forces with Horizon in order to put a stop to Genesis. While Dawnbreaker did flee from this conflict they were rounded up a short time later. The status of Genesis as a whole is unknown though most were presumed to have died in the final battle for the Terminus
Because of the sheer number of people involved with Genesis it was impossible to imprison everyone. Those who had only minimal involvement were allowed to return to civilian lives while those who were more active members were given the opportunity to join penal units throughout the UN forces, most serving life sentences in lieu of facing harsher penalties for acts of terrorism and treason.
This conflict brought an end to the civil war that had been ongoing since Dawnbreakers capture of Horizon City and sent a resounding message to the UN government on earth that change was needed. In 2057 the New UN Government charter was ratified, allowing each colony to self govern. Due to the number of armed incursions the Horizon fleet faced during the past few years the civilian population was eager to elect a new president, Ray Maxwell, whose more hard line tendencies won him favor with a population seeking security in lieu of so many battles.
By the end of 2058 the Horizon fleet discovered and settled the planet Aurorae in the Providence star system. In the three years following there has been a much needed peace for the fleet, allowing the colony to build and expand beyond the confines of the original colony ships. However, Aurorae holds secrets of its own, many of which upon the Horizon Colony's fate rests should they discover them in time.
