[ERF] Redworlders: History

ORIGINS
It is unknown where the redworlders originated from, nor is it known what the conditions of their home planet were like. "Redworlder" stems from no more than the relationship between their species and the Cult of Meat. Speculation, rumor, and legend abound on the topic. Some suggest the redworlders were once human, and gradually diverged from mankind over centuries of space travel. Others claim they were the first true meat monsters, formed into coherent replicas of mankind by a planet fully submerged in meat. Most redworlders deny both and many take offense to them - even as much as they have no answer themselves.

One of the most popular suggestions is that the redworlders were once from Mars - and, resultantly, some even refer to them as Martians. Most consider it no more than a popular legend, and it is routinely denied by redworlders as pure fiction. Despite this, it has doggedly clung on with Loonies and well-travelled wanderers. The legend suggests that, far in the past, Mars and the redworlders suffered a great calamity that drove them to Earth. There, they waited in orbit until mankind was ready for them, and opened relations by the time humanity had achieved full spaceflight. Eventually, Earth became Set - or Erf - and the history of the Pioneer Network followed.

Countless permutations of this central myth exist. Some suggest that mankind and the redworlders were once the same people, and that the redworlders were left behind on Mars while humanity evacuated to Earth. Some flatteringly claim that Mars was attacked, and that the redworlders remained behind to allow humanity the opportunity to escape. Some go so far as to suggest that the redworlders themselves were the attackers - and more hostile recountings weave them in as monsters spawned by human ambition. The Mars myth is comparable in popularity to the Loonies' Godsons legend. The two often intertwine to various effect.

THE FIRST JUMP
The First Jump of 250-300 OSC was a colossal blow to the redworlders. The Worldship was lost in the process, taking at least a third of Set's redworlder population with it. Further still, a great deal of redworlder ships were lost, and many redworlders on the ground went missing during the First Jump's geodisplacement event. In total, half of their population was lost or killed, and the resulting chaos for the Pioneer Network placed the remainder in a precarious situation.

Lost, confused, and almost wholly cut off from the Network below, another fissure ripped open for the redworlders as it had when the Cult was discovered. It earned its name as the Des'Tazirad, or "Final Exodus". Of the ships left in orbit, a portion gathered together into a loose collection of flotillas and fled on improvised superluminal drives. Some were destroyed or crippled trying to activate their drives, others simply vanished into Set's new home system. Meanwhile, the Cult seized on the chaos to crash a collection of other ships into the planet's surface. Those that survived went on to gather into secluded, reclusive villages.

The bulk of the redworlders, however, remained in orbit. Just as they had before, those loyal to the Pioneer Network - or too afraid to risk exploring an unknown system - had won over the majority. They rallied together, gathered up their survivors, and waited in hopes that the Network would eventually contact them. Some made tentative attempts to seek out the Loonies still on the ground, but the effort was largely unsuccessful. The redworlders lacked ships capable of in-atmosphere flight. Many were hardly even spaceworthy.

An indeterminate amount of years passed following the jump. Two major events occurred during this time; the resurfacing of the Pioneer Network - or what was left of it - and the arrival of the Zaschia. It is unknown which occurred first, but records indicate that the Pioneer Network had been aware of the remaining redworlders for some time. When the Zaschia appeared over Set, it was a moment of absolute terror for the loose assortment of civilian craft. It was no more than eighty unarmed ships facing down a fleet of thousands, unable to flee or defend themselves. In a panic, the redworlders attempted to reach out.

The Zaschia themselves were struck with fear. They had seen Set as an unexploited opportunity, a chance to collect resources to sustain their fleet before moving on. Instead, they found a species they had never encountered before, huddled together in a defensive formation. The redworlders' attempts to contact them went unanswered; neither species understood eachother's language, nor could they interpret eachother's signals. To the redworlders' shock, the Zaschia began the process of turning to withdraw. Instead, the incessant and increasingly-desperate redworlders bombarded the Zaschia with as many transmissions as possible, hoping something would eventually break through.

It is unclear what precisely caused the Zaschia fleet to halt. It is further unclear how the redworlders were able to achieve communication with them prior to a working translation basis. Regardless, the Zaschia turned back to Set. Only a month later, the two species had cleared their language barrier and opened dialogue. Soon after, the situation was made clear - or what could be made clear of it - and the Zaschia offered their assistance. It was a wave of relief felt across the whole of the redworlder fleet - or what was left of it.

The Pioneer Network did not share the same view. While powerless to act, the Loonies below objected to the enlistment of yet another alien species - particularly one with a fleet that could raze the planet on a moment's notice. A long-running argument went back and forth between the two founding races of the Network throughout the recovery effort. Ultimately, Looney fears proved to be largely unfounded. Even when the planet was found to be largely uninhabitable for the Zaschia, they remained committed to their role in the arrangement. Animosity between the Loonies and redworlders continued to simmer in the background.

The First Jump brought countless Looney bunkers to the surface from subterranean locations that had once been inaccessible. As a result, many Looney bunkers were fresh and unaware of the redworlders, whiteworlders, and Zaschia. Many knew nothing about the Pioneer Network or its employment of non-humans. Others simply did not care. When the aliens arrived to investigate Looney bunkers, many were ambushed and killed or shot down before their transports could land. A small handful were even captured for study or interrogation.

For the aliens above, the hostility was unprecedented. For the Loonies loyal to the Pioneer Network, it was hardly unexpected. With tentative support from the redworlders, the Zaschia repeatedly demanded permission to bombard hostile bunkers. Each time, it was denied. The redworlders remained quiet throughout the recovery effort and focused solely on reconnecting the Network. They were only fresh from a brush with extirpation - or even extinction - and needed the Network's help. With relations still soured from the Zaschia's arrival, few were ready to risk pushing the Loonies further.

In the end, the recovery effort was a success regardless of any amount of hostile bunkers. Some eventually integrated into the Pioneer Network, others quietly faded away. The redworlders and the Network had survived their first great catastrophe and resumed their path of progress. In the years following, they expanded significantly. For every facility the Pioneer Network added, the redworlders' planetside presence grew with them. Some of their fleet bedded down into ship-cities, many loaned by the Zaschia. Others simply joined the Loonies themselves, earning their place as valued contributors across the planet. It was a time of tentative plenty with a future that seemed to grow more radiant with every year.

THE VIOLET UPRISING
Internal tensions in the redworlders did not solely include the Cult of Meat. A faction had steadily grown in the divide between the Cult and its kin, built over years of discontent. It grew off of the Cult's membership like a cancer, eroding the religion's foundations with self-destructive dissidence. It earned its name as the Vizem'Kam nes Samalah'Dar, or roughly "Azure Sect of Lost Homes". It began life somewhere around 680-740 OSC, during cultural exchange with the unionites, and split from the Cult some time between 710-750.

The movement was dedicated towards nothing more than the destruction of the redworlders' past. Only a handful of members openly followed the Cult's dogma; most quietly and ardently opposed its actions and influence. They wanted nothing more than to rid their race of its greatest failure by starting anew. To do so, there was no choice but to strike their past that the Cult might never again be remembered. Despite their radical stance, the Vizem'Kam gained followers from both sides. Their repentant beliefs struck a chord with cultists and ordinary redworlders alike. By 720-760, it is estimated that they had finally achieved enough power to significantly impact redworlder politics.

It was during this time that they set upon their goals. They had secured the assistance of both sympathetic cultists and redworlder officials in the Pioneer Network. With them, they worked to find, isolate, and completely destroy as many historical records of their people as possible. Everything from cultural artifacts to server banks were targeted. Not long after, the Pioneer Network deemed them vandals and cultists. Efforts were forced to scale down and consolidate on significant targets as suspicion crowded around the movement.

When the blackworlders arrived in 770-840 OSC, it was a major tipping point for the Vizem'Kam, but it is unclear why. Conjecture and speculation are all that remain of what happened - if anything had indeed happened at all. Theories range from cultist epiphanies to blackworlder whisperings. Some believe it was simply the branding of the redworlders as the "Exiles"; a single word that triggered a cultural shock across an entire species. With the blackworlders' arrival, the Vizem'Kam swelled in prominence. It rose quietly to the top of redworlder politics as word spread further.

Once a sect of the Cult of Meat, the Vizem'Kam had grown to become its own entity. With its newfound strength, it launched into a wave of strikes against data stores, museums, and even graveyards. It worked quietly, effectively, and with no shortage of support; among its ranks were veteran soldiers, senior captains, reputed hackers, and even some of the Loonies themselves. Its influence blinded the Pioneer Network to what, for most, was a bizarre spectacle of species-wide self-loathing. Bit by bit, the only thing left for the redworlders was their future.

This action did not go without reprisal. Among the Vizem'Kam's most important opponents were - unsurprisingly - the Cult of Meat. In an unlikely and distant alliance, the unionites applied themselves in kind. Both sought to expose the Vizem'Kam and preserve the redworlders' past. For the Cult, it was for survival, both of their scripture and of themselves. For the unionites, it was a cold matter of preserving valuable data. During the literal information war unfolding across Set, the Pioneer Network remained baffled, powerless to act, and unsure of its role in the conflict.

Unravelling the history of an entire species was not an easy task on a planet as interconnected as Set. Despite this, the Vizem'Kam slowly made progress with every year. More and more members fell in with their cause, willing to swear themselves to silence and secrecy to maintain the funeral shroud over their past. Attempts to preserve historical information against the Vizem'Kam slowly worked in their favor. Corrupt data and misremembered facts supplanted the old. The Vizem'Kam's actions earned their name as the Violet Uprising, or Dazareth'Tav, and continued on until the Big Split.

THE BIG SPLIT
The end of the Third Invaders was not the end of the war. Below, in the chaos of cultist riots and warbands, the unthinkable happened. Looney dissent had finally reached its boiling point; the Pioneer Network was destroying itself and openly targeting non-humans. Looney bunkers split off, declared independence, and barred their doors to aliens. Redworlders that had been among them were forced out or even executed on the spot. The more militant and frustrated took to raiding towns and besieging cities. They blamed aliens of all species for the Third Invaders' attention - and the redworlders once again suffered for their success.

Redworlder populations on the ground outnumbered all other alien species considerably. They were of the few adapted to Set's native conditions and the most invested in human settlements. There were more redworlder Loonies than all other species combined. When mankind sought out its vengeance, they were simply the easiest to find. It was yet another attempt at the extermination of their species, driving out innumerable settlements and wiping out countless others. Many simply succumbed to a lack of supplies, others were left to die as the Cult descended on them.

The remainder in orbit were horrified at what they found. For them, it was a war against the whole of humanity - an all-or-nothing clash against the race that had once been their closest allies. With what few ships they had left in orbit, the redworlders struck back. Evacuation flights ran parallel to bombardment campaigns. Looney bunkers were reduced to nothing more than blackened craters by concentrated barrages. Cult holdouts were scoured clean in gunship strikes. Human settlements and militia garrisons on the ground were razed with little thought. Refugees continually walked a tightrope between showers of death from above.

It was another shock when some of the first refugees arrived, escorted and shuttled by humans. Many of them were Loonies with long careers behind them, many others were Looney captains that had been driven into hiding. Others were simply civilians who, at all personal cost, had taken up arms to safeguard friends and colleagues. Countless more had died in the attempt. With reluctance and regret, the redworlders dialed back their orbital rampage. Looney ships returned from the shadows to aid them. Sympathetic bunkers opened up and offered their assistance - or even simply fled to orbit in entirety.

The redworlders were focused on one thing and one thing alone during the Big Split; survival. Not of any others, but purely of themselves and the handful of allies that directly assisted them. For others, there was no sympathy. The sorassan in particular suffered the most to redworlder apathy. Those that reached landing zones for evacuation ships were immediately turned away. Few captains or pilots were willing to risk disruption from sorassan thought fields. Many of those that were abandoned died soon after. What thanks the redworlders had earned in the past were forgotten, replaced by a grudge that has only begun to loosen today.

In the background of the conflict, the Vizem'Kam enacted its final gambit. With much of orbit in shambles and little much of its influence remaining, it struck its last, most decisive target; Unity Station. Ships blockaded the wounded home of the unionites and operatives swarmed its halls. For the unionites, it was an unprecedented betrayal, just as the Loonies had done to the redworlders. Countless information caches were destroyed, hundreds of neural networks were shattered, and scores of unionites were killed as they tried to safeguard their hoard of knowledge.

The Vizem'Kam died as it accomplished its goal. The redworlders' history had been scattered, broken, and forgotten. What little remained was what the Pioneer Network had held onto in its death grip. The Vizem'Kam's surviving members swore themselves to silence and dispersed. They sought refuge among the nascent Space Loonies to blot out what could have been left. In the aftermath, the unionites were infuriated; they had been attacked in their own home and robbed of centuries' worth of information - much of it completely unrelated to the redworlders. The raid came to be known as the Hard Purge of 866. The unionites have held onto their frustration ever since.

For the redworlders, the Splinter Wars and the Big Split were bound together as the Raadam'Da Jako, of which a concrete translation does not exist. "The Great Death at Nightfall" is among the closest approximations, but few agree that it is accurate. Regardless, it ended not much unlike the Vizem'Kam. The redworlders were scattered, broken up between Space Looney fleets and isolated towns, and fell from their golden age. They remained Set's most populous alien species, but only by thin margins. Recovery was a slow process that remains ongoing to this day.