The Unification Crusade

When the Ascension returned to the Sol System it became quickly apparent it was a very different place than had it been previously.

The Ascendants, under the leadership of the Archon Gabriel, awoke from stasis as they approached the system and immediately ran a series of checks to ascertain what awaited them. For over a month the ark ship waited and watched.

What they found shocked them.

The Sol System was in chaos. The entire system was splintered into numerous warring fiefdoms. There was evidence of a highly advanced civilisation as evinced by terraformed Venus and Mars now sharing Earth's orbit around the sun as well numerous other terraformed moons. Numerous habitats of colossal sizes could be seen as well as several megastructures that the Ascendants could not ascertain the purpose of.

As a species the humans of Sol had become a myriad of new strains, some of which gave the Ascendants much consternation regarding contact for their alienness and hostility. No single faction claimed supremacy and concepts such as unity and peace seemed utterly ignored. Sol, the cradle of humanity, was mired in a Dark Age of war and chaos.

For all their advanced technology the Archon was loathe to throw his people into such a maelstrom. They had intended to return to the home system and rejoin the rest of humanity. The Ascension had not found a suitable system to claim their own despite centuries of searching and even with their propulsion system reducing the vast time of travel between stars the prospect of more centuries searching was not palatable.

The Archon was uncertain how to proceed. Some amongst his people called for him to cast aside the secrey and reveal themselves to what they called primitives and wage war to bring peace. Others counselled a more measured, slow plan; infiltrate the warring factions and guide them toward peace. Few wanted to abandon Sol entirely and even fewer desired more time trapped in the Ascension.

It is likely the Ascendants would have torn themselves asunder between differing ideologies had the Ascension not been visited by an unusual envoy.

It was, it said, a herald of the Great Mind; a sapient artificial intelligence that had been watching the Ascension ever since it began its approach to the Kuiper Belt. The Great Mind remained outside the bickering of the system, close to its own decision of abandoning Sol entirely. Yet the Ascension offered a potential future, one where the system would be at peace and flourish more.

The Archon met with the herald and spoke to the Great Mind through it.

Some time after both emerged from the meeting and proclaimed an alliance between the Ascendants and the Great Mind to end the chaos engulfing Sol and save the disparate nations of humanity.

So began the Unification Crusade.

Although the Ascendants were few in number their technology was for the most part beyond that of most of the nations of Sol. The Great Mind commanded a vast legion of robots and a treasure trove of technology found nowhere else. Combined, the two forces were formidable enough to quickly conquer the outlying nations of the Outer System, notably the Leagues of Saturn and the Free People of Uranus. Most of the disparate people of the Outer System saw the Ascendants and the Great Mind not as hostile invaders but liberators coming to end long and costly wars and end the numerous menaces that plagued them. Though often at great cost the hostile forces that came to be called the Adversaries were eliminated. Dangers such as the Juranitani and their endless hordes of cloned nightmares or the psychic vampires of the Grall fell one by one, either driven to extinction or forced into the cold void beyond the system.

Within five years the Crusade had pacified the Outer System and were preparing for what would likely be the most challenging and blood part of the war; the Inner System. Here dwelt the most dangerous of the Adversaries; the Mesitori, a people whose technology was close to that of the Ascendants coupled with an element that the Great Mind called, simply, magic; it was something the Great Mind could not comprehend and counter-act. This techno-sorcery would prove a great leveller in the war that followed and with the Mesitori and their complete lack of care for those they commanded would lead to catastrophic loss of lives on both sides.

After a gruelling three more years though, the Ascendant/Great Mind Alliance finally defeated the Mesitori; destroying the last of their World-Ships in orbit of Mercury, the Archon himself leading the boarding action and slaying the final Mesitorian Lord.

It had taken eight years. Cost billions of lives. Scores of habitats had been destroyed and many irreplaceable relics lost. Yet without the Adversaries the people of Sol would be able to rebuild in peace. Trade would at last flourish and the horrors of the Dark Age would give way to a new age of enlightenment.

Thus was born the Ascendant Imperium. The Archon took the title of Emperor and divided the system between those who had allied with the Crusade, rewarding them for their loyalty and foresight. The Great Mind would continue to serve as ally and advisor to the Emperor and aid in rebuilding that which had been lost.

Thus began a Golden Age.

Alas, it would only last a scant thirty years.