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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 19, 2018 1:03:02 GMT -5
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 19, 2018 1:03:17 GMT -5
THE PIONEER NETWORK
Prior to documented history on Set, the planet was largely uninhabited save for a single entity; the Pioneer Network. The Pioneer Network was a small alliance of Looney bunkers centered around the now-long-abandoned Madness Command Post. There is currently no official name for the Pioneer Network. Likewise, it is unknown if one had ever been established. Unearthed records from its time suggest that it was believed to be the only Looney presence on the planet and that, therefore, a name was not necessary. Some have conjectured that the Pioneer Network may not have been a proper Looney network at all and may have instead been a collection of facilities owned and administrated directly from the Madness Command Post. Evidence to support this suggestion has not been found.
Across the rest of Set, communities were mostly small, sparsely-distributed groups of hunter-gatherers, most living in great ruins. According to limited archaeological evidence of the time, these ruins may have been abandoned Looney facilities. Some of these small tribes may even have been descended from Loonies evicted from their bunkers by catastrophes, but supporting evidence is scarce. For the most part, the tribes near the Pioneer Network's area of influence went unnoticed.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 19, 2018 1:03:29 GMT -5
THE EXPANSION ERAThe early years of the Pioneer Network are known as the Expansion Era. During the Expansion Era, the Pioneer Network was assailed by the similarly-unnamed First Invaders, a group from off-world that is believed to have arrived at roughly the same time that the Madness Command Post was founded. Over a long period of time, estimated at roughly a century, the First Invaders were routed and destroyed by the Loonies. Since the Expansion Era, there has been no sighting of the First Invaders, and their identity remains an ongoing mystery. During the Expansion Era, the redworlders were brought to Set and fully integrated into the Looney presence on the planet. It is believed that their influence was extensive, and that the redworlders held a number of senior positions in the Pioneer Network. It is even believed that there was at least one of their kind serving as an administrator for the Madness Command Post. Over time, the Redworlder presence expanded significantly, to such a degree that it may have equalled - or even outnumbered - the human portion of the Pioneer Network. The Second Invaders, now better known as the Cult of Meat, arrived on Set shortly after the First Invaders. It is believed that they were brought along with the redworlders, but there is strong disagreement on whether or not it was knowingly. At the time, the Cult of Meat was no more than a few disparate, reclusive worshipers of a then-obscure religion. The difficulties they presented for the Pioneer Network were negligible or possibly non-existent. Over time, however, the Cult expanded and steadily became a recurring problem. They have since survived to this day, but kept no records on their activities of the time. The whiteworlders arrived during the tail end of the Expansion Era. It was at this time that they inhabited the Worldship, a supermassive space vessel that served as the home of their entire species. As part of an agreement with the Pioneer Network, the whiteworlders allowed a sizeable portion of the redworlder population to reside aboard the Worldship. Over time, the whiteworlders were dispersed across Looney facilities to serve as laborers in a similar capacity to their present-day role.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 19, 2018 1:03:42 GMT -5
THE FIRST JUMP
The First Jump was the end of the Expansion Era and the first time in recorded history that Set moved of its own accord. The First Jump ended with the disappearance of many of the Pioneer Network's senior officers. The whiteworlders suffered a catastrophic blow to their population in the process, as, when Set exited the wormhole, the Worldship had been lost. It is estimated that only a tenth of the whiteworlder population was left on Set following the First Jump. The disappearance of the Worldship was further responsible for a significant reduction of the Redworlder population, resulting in a disappearance of potentially half of their total numbers.
The aftermath of the First Jump enabled the Cult of Meat to spread and rise up against the Pioneer Network. Initially, they were restricted to small-scale guerrilla action, but their early efforts were critical to the creation of the Southern Veinlands in Ventannen. For the Cult, the time was deemed the Second Awakening of the Fervent Few. It saw the creation of their eldest works, including the Gospel of the Crimson Cloud. The Pioneer Network's attempts to remove them were largely superseded and supplanted by recovery and reconstruction efforts.
The First Jump's aftermath is believed to have triggered a number of cataclysmic changes on Set. Entire continents shifted across the planet in the first major geodisplacement event. Bunkers of the Pioneer Network were lost and lost bunkers that had existed before them emerged to the surface. The chaos of the time prompted many tribal communities to band together into more organized towns and raiding bands, leading to the first major expansion of the non-Looney presence on the planet. All the while, massed migrations of wildlife left the few unaffected regions on the planet in a state of unpredictable turmoil.
Complications continued as the years went by. The Pioneer Network survived, but only with the assistance of the nomadic Zaschia. The Zaschia were present as a migratory fleet of spacecraft that were present in the system that Set arrived in following the First Jump. Upon the planet's arrival - which was the first hospitable planet their species had encountered in centuries - the Zaschia moved to investigate. They arrived at a time when the Pioneer Network had been threatened with total collapse, with its command structure in disarray and no more than a tenth of its facilities in regular contact at any given time.
The interconnected nature of the Pioneer Network heightened the level of damage inflicted by the loss of its related bunkers. Without supporting industry, agriculture, and manpower, many bunkers no longer had the means to sustain themselves. Communications breakdowns and bunker disappearances crippled their ability to re-establish contact. Neither able to call for help, nor supply themselves, many facilities simply collapsed under their own logistics strain. Search efforts suffered from a critical shortage of two primary resources; aircraft and manpower.
When the Zaschia discovered the Looney presence on the planet, they offered their immediate assistance. At the time, their fleet numbered in the thousands. Moreover, many of their ships were smaller vessels that were more able to perform low-altitude reconnaissance sweeps. Zaschian involvement was negotiated primarily through the redworlders, and it is believed that the redworlders may have been the only orbital presence over Set. After several months of language decryption and negotiations, the Zaschia began a complete planetary search for the Pioneer Network's missing.
With their assistance, the Pioneer Network was able to re-establish contact with most of its major facilities. It was during this time that unaffiliated Looney bunkers were uncovered, most of whom claimed no knowledge of the Pioneer Network. Further still, many were found by Zaschian scouts. The Loonies' deeply-set xenophobia had been suppressed only in the Pioneer Network, which resulted in many hostile encounters between alien scouts and Looney defenders. Exhaustion built quickly for the Zaschia, while murmurs of dissent crept up in the human majority of the Pioneer Network.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 19, 2018 1:03:53 GMT -5
THE COLLECTION ERA & THE SPLINTER WARSThe time following the First Jump has been titled the Collection Era, and took place over the span of several jumps and at least two centuries. Even in the years following Zaschia's arrival and the reunification of the Pioneer Network, Set continued to add fresh faces to its daily affairs. The Collection Era saw the arrival of several alien species, including the orscruft, boglanders, unionites, and many others. Significant infrastructure was added to Set over time, including the construction of the hauler drones, the development of the MASTER Network, and the creation of several Looney fleets. By the end of the Collection Era, Set was home to billions. The Collection Era ended with the arrival of the Third Invaders immediately following one of Set's jumps, estimated to be at least the sixth. When Set arrived in its new home system, it appeared opposite to the capital system of a major interstellar power. After only a month, attempts at diplomacy collapsed. The Third Invaders besieged Set with a fleet at least ten thousand strong and a doctrine of total war. Behind the flag of the Pioneer Network, the various races and Looney bunkers rallied together into a defense force only days after first contact with the invading fleet. The Third Invaders' siege and various conflicts in its aftermath are collectively known as the Splinter Wars. Over the course of several decades, up until Set's departure from the Third Invaders' home system, catastrophe and tragedy overwhelmed the Pioneer Network. At least three species were driven to extinction in that time; the Zaschia, orscruft, and the blackworlders. Countless towns and Looney bunkers were destroyed and at least a billion inhabitants of Set, human or otherwise, were killed. Ruins and spacecraft wrecks from the Splinter Wars remain commonplace across the planet. During the Splinter Wars, the Cult of Meat made its resurgence and laid siege to the Loonies across the planet. Riots erupted in cities, mass suicides ran rampant throughout rural areas, and cultist raiders gathered into rampaging warbands. Ground forces already struggling to respond to landings by the Third Invaders were further pressed by tides of monsters and cultists. For the Cult of Meat, the Third Invaders' arrival is known as the Third Awakening of the Zealous Many. This period saw its most significant expansion and established many of its core holdings. The Splinter Wars were the end of the Pioneer Network. Shortly after Set made its jump and the Third Invaders were left behind, Looney bunkers of the Pioneer Network seceded in wave after wave of withdrawals. Internal dissent ran rampant and Looney xenophobia spiked to an all-time high. Some bunkers committed to zero-tolerance policies in their areas of influence and began open hostilities against non-human parties. The Pioneer Network's dissolution was officially marked by the Big Split, when most aliens began a mass exodus from Set's surface. It is believed that the Big Split was a direct consequence of the abandonment of Madness Command Post and the loss of its command staff. The redworlders were the most influential alien species on Set at the time and one of its most populous. Following the Big Split, they were reduced to a bitter shell of their former selves, accompanied only by a relative handful of sympathetic Loonies and other species. Their departure to orbit marked the creation - or, rather, distinction - of the Space Loonies. Over the course of the Dissolution Era, the Space Loonies themselves broke up into individual fleets and flotillas. A show of unity like the Pioneer Network has not been seen since its death.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 19, 2018 1:04:03 GMT -5
THE DISSOLUTION ERA
The times following the Splinter Wars are known as the Dissolution Era. The Pioneer Network was not alone in its collapse. Many large cities, fledgling nation-states, and smaller communities were shattered outright by the Third Invaders' siege. Following the breakup of the Pioneer Network, many were left without Looney support they depended on. Famine, war, and chaos reigned across the planet for centuries while the Loonies, spaceborne or otherwise, refocused efforts on themselves and themselves alone.
The Dissolution Era lasted multiple centuries and jumps, and is the least documented of any given period. There is no well-defined end and few historians can agree on the transition point between the Dissolution Era and the present-day Independence Era. Some even suggest that the Dissolution Era remains ongoing due to the Cult of Meat's continued activities. For the Loonies, it is largely irrelevant; following the Big Split, their return to the old ways was final. Few Looney networks have been founded in the intervening years and none have stood the test of time. To most, the Pioneer Network was nothing more than a failed experiment - one that cost many their families, friends, and lives.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 19, 2018 1:04:14 GMT -5
PRESENT DAY
Today, the Loonies remain focused on themselves. Bunkers continue to operate alone, sometimes with the support - or in support - of nearby towns. Cooperative efforts between Looney bases are primarily restricted to joint operations against the Cult of Meat, who are seen as a threat to the entirety of the planet. The rift between planetside Loonies and the Space Loonies has cooled, but not shrunk. Though rare, open hostilities between the two are not unheard of. The future for the Loonies remains as clouded and murky as their past. In the end, the stories of individual bunkers will likely overshadow that of the Loonies as a whole.
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