Lore I: The Phoenix Republic
Lore II: Republic Politics
Lore III: Corporate Politics
Lore IV: Military Structure
Lore V: Other Civilizations of Sol
Lore VI: The Europa Conflict
Timeline of Events[www.dropbox.com]
Phoenix Classification System
The Solar Library[solarlibrary.wordpress.com]
The Solar Armory

2074
- End of Martian Civil War, ESC establishes rule of Mars

2083
- The Horus movement begins, spurred by popular discontent with Themis leadership

2086
- Horus commits acts of terrorism, Themis is born as a response

2088
- A truce occurs between Themis and Horus, as both sides agree to build forces to fight the threat of the Outsiders.

2098-2102
- Themis begins secretly plotting to eradicate Horus, and builds up resources and ships for the cause

2103
- Themis instigates a cleansing of Horus sympathizers, executing thousands of suspected terrorists. Horus retreats to Luna and officially separates from the ESC as a new nation. Themis party members now hold de-facto control of the ESC

2104
- Horus begins coordinated terror bombings across Terra

2105
- Themis bears down on Luna and blockades it

November 12, 2105
- Horus pushes past the Themis blockade and bombards Hong Kong. The ESC falters.

2105 - early 2106
- Horus keeps up a constant barrage of Inter-planetary missiles against Earth. Many are shot down, but it is enough to cause panic among Themis.

2106
- Horus raids Mars, the Third War for Mars begins. Themis begins to suffer internally as it finds itself cut off from Mars, and increasingly Venus as the war drags on.

2107
- Themis forces push through Luna defenses and initiate a ground war that ultimately becomes a war of attrition.
- Venus secedes from the ESC as trade negotiations turn sour. ESC ships skirmish with Venusian mutineers in orbit.

2108
- The RIA organizes the Martian Confederacy to combat Horus, and pushes them back to Olympus, but eventually retreats due to problems in Phoenix space. The Third War becomes a stalemate.
- Admiral Anselm initiates a Coup and becomes dictator of Horus, he retreats into Luna to rebuild, ending the war with Themis
- Suffering internally from extended war, and separation from both Mars and Venus, The ESC begins to collapse. The North American state leaves the ESC, citing economic soveriegnty. Independance movements gain traction traction around the world.

After the Martian Civil War ended in 2074, the ESC quickly set about assimilating the newly "conquered" colony into its ranks. It set up a proxy government to rule over the planet, claiming that elections would be held and that Mars would soon return to its independence.

These promises would soon turn sour as the days for promised elections came and went. The ESC cited the colony's inability to pay due war reparations, and instead increased the military presence on the planet. Accompanied by heavy taxation Mars's growth slowed to a halt, with colonists no longer having the desire nor many of the resources they needed to continue their industrial expansion across the planet.

This situation on Mars continued to worsen with the concurrent industrial boom on Venus. Sponsored by the entrepreneurial elite of Earth, the fledgling colony prospered; proving a more viable industrial platform due to its better planetary transit windows. The ESC also poured more resources into the Venus project due to its security in distance from the outer system civilizations. Many in the ESC saw Mars as little more than a geopolitical frontier- a military outpost- while Venus and Earth would be the bastions of industry and commerce.

It was around this time that the TVSI incident occurred. A successful Mars shipwright company established after the end of the Civil War, TVSI became increasingly frustrated with the continuing neglect and heavy-handed bureaucracy from Earth. They began to seek new ventures, and were welcomed with open arms in Phoenix space. In a sudden move, TVSI pulled all of their assets from Mars and Terra, leaving many facilities and their workers abandoned. This would come as a blow to the ESC military, in addition to hurting the Martian economy further.

By this point, the morale of the Martian people had reached a breaking point. Although generally unwilling to provoke another war with Earth (knowing that they would lose such a conflict), many colonists went on strikes and demonstrations- calling for independence from the ESC. Between a massive, organised dockworkers strike and nationalization of ports and elevators by the ESC, commerce soon all but ceased to flow from Mars to Terra. Although the industrial project had made Venus more prosperous than its red neighbor, Mars was still a major contributor of ice and mineral resources to the ESC- and as the Shanghai exchange dropped to its lowest point in half a century, many on Earth began to lose faith in their government.

In 2083, Many Terran citizens began to organize, calling for the disposition of the current heads of the ESC. Citing the betrayal of TVSI and growing instability on Mars as signs of the incompetence of Earth's leaders; they rallied under the "Eye of Horus", a symbol of protection, making statements that they would "Protect Earth where it failed to protect itself." They called for direct military intervention on Mars, stating that the colony needed to be brought under control before a second Civil War broke out. Although populist in origin, the movement gained many supporters among the corporate elite of Earth, many of whom were still heavily invested in the Martian metals industry.

In 2086, Horus sympathizers infiltrated and bombed several key conspirator sites on Mars, killing dozens. While the ESC publicly condemned the act, the identity of the terrorists were never discovered. A few on Terra began to suspect that the ESC military was in league with Horus, and reached out to Martian sympathizers throughout Earth to find a way to combat the movement before it was too late.

Fearing that they were losing control of the military, and thereby their own power, this counter-movement rose quickly in popularity among the political elite of Earth. Many on Venus lent their support as well, fearing that an organised Horus (Now a political party and increasingly threatening to become a full fledged Military Junta) would seek to subdue their colony just as they sought to do on Mars. This new movement became known as Themis, a symbol of Justice, and they sought to make Horus pay for its actions and bring about retribution and security for their own political power.

The next few years saw increasing polarization among the common people of the ESC, with riots and demonstrations across Earth and Mars in favor of both parties. Horus continued to be popular among the military, where it had established a behind-the-scenes Junta organization. The rigid command structure of the ESC military kept its head firmly under the grip of the ESC, but especially among lower levels, Horus was truly in control. Many chiefs of staff and high ranking officers were forced to play a delicate ballet of politics and personal espionage- attempting to disguise their personal loyalties while divining those of their opponents.

Both sides continued to expand their power bases during this time, with Horus paying off or threatening many in the military and weapons industry into pledging their allegiance, while Themis bought off or convinced as many senators and governors as it could- playing into the ESC's top-heavy political system. Many of the common people on Mars, too, came to see Themis and the ESC as a necessary evil in light of the threat that Horus posed.

After a few years of political backrooming, Themis had essentially taken control of the ESC leadership and put Horus on a leash, holding back or nationalizing key industries that Horus would be dependent on if it were to attempt to take power. At least politically, a forced peace appeared to settle on the ESC. This would be solidified further when Phoenix released its Kestrel II Dreadnought in 2088.

At the time, the Kestrel II was the largest ship within the Sol System and it projected a powerful statement to the ESC that the outer systems would not back down from a fight. This was exacerbated by a massive Phoenix propaganda project, originally intended to demoralize the CEU. A worrying thought gnawed at many on Earth, that Phoenix might eventually return to seek revenge for the Martian Civil War. Although these fears remained rather distant for much of the populace, Themis in particular did what they could to spread the idea even further- confirming reports of Warp-capable ships created by the CEU, and establishing a sobering threat to ESC sovereignty in Sol. These fears resonated throughout the inner system, pointing towards Phoenix and its allies as a mutual enemy to both Themis and Horus. Behind closed doors, Horus leaders reluctantly agreed to a truce, and both organisations were suddenly working together to grow the ESC, and build up its military in anticipation of a conflict with the outer system.

However, many on Mars did not forget the Horus terrorist bombings of 2086, and quietly sought ways to bring the movement to justice once and for all.

An opportunity would begin to show itself in 2098, with the commercial release of Subluminal warp drives by the CEU. The ESC was baffled by the giving-up of what had until now been an invaluable military advantage for the outer systems, and eagerly adopted the technology. This led to a surge of industry among the ESC, as a new generation of ships were suddenly built or hastily retrofitted- and transit windows suddenly became of much lesser concern. The Martian colony received a massive wave of new investments in light of this new logistical advantage, and quickly began to climb out of its decade-long recession.

However, Horus continued to gain followers during this time as well, arguing that now was the time to re-take Sol. They lashed out politically against Themis' inaction, as well as the fledgling trade negotiations that it had allowed to spring up with the outer system. Meanwhile, the Martian Themis leaders quietly set about building a new fleet of Jump capable ships for the ESC, being careful to not be noticed by the Horus military, which fortunately still lacked any large scale implementation of Jump technology.

In late 2101, the newest batches of jump-capable Martian warships were placed directly under the control of Themis leadership; masked as a new fleet division in the Terrestrial guard. This was one of many such moves which had been discretely played out by Themis in the last few years; strongly bolstering the confidence of Themis supporters in their military and political situation. New reports by Themis sympathizers within the ESC military, who had been secretly feeding intelligence on the whereabouts of Horus members and their security details, showed evidence of severe infighting within the political sphere of the party, and many on Earth motioned to deal with the Horus threat once and for all.

These plans would come to a head in 2103 - on a date known colloquially as “The Night of Justice". In a massive, coordinated operation, Themis loyalists and Guard units rounded up and imprisoned hundreds of Horus leaders in the middle of the night. Simultaneously, the ESC military, bolstered by the jump-capable Martian ships, launched a series of sudden offensives against the fleets and armies of known Horus admirals and ground commanders. A hundred frenzied battles suddenly erupted across terrestrial space as armies and fleets that had been balancing tensions on a razor's edge for decades were suddenly unleashed upon each other. Thrown into the confusion, individual regiments and ships were often faced with the terrible choice to fight against the side they believed in or turn their guns against their comrades. On Earth, ground fighting in London and Wuhan resulted in heavy civilian casualties as partisans rose up to support both sides and artillery rained down indiscriminately to silence them.

When the dust cleared the next day it was the Themis advantage in surprise and technology that had emerged victorious. To send what it thought would be a final message, masses of Horus revolutionaries were executed on live television, broadcast to all ESC Nations and protectorates. High above, what remained of Horus burned hard to a hastily assembled defensive orbit around Luna.

Many on Earth's moon, headquarters of the ESC Navy, had remained loyal to Horus throughout the conflict and welcomed with open arms the arrival of the "New Order" as the remnants of the Horus fleets trickled in. Over the past several years, the ESC had poured resources into fortifying the moon as the Fortress-Headquarters of the ESC military and Luna's defenses were strong. In addition to an equatorial ring of SOM silos, and defensive complexes that burrowed for miles underneath the surface; the moon was riddled with emplacements for a satelite-wide directed energy defense grid- much like the system that had sparked off the First Colonial Rebellion on Mars.

Yet Horus had little time to rest as Themis focused its remaining fleets on the rogue government, which was now declared a treasonous entity and now completely cut off from the ESC. Several major battles took place in orbit around the moon, but the advantage of the newer and more numerous Themis ships were offset by the severity of the Horus defense, and the massive defense network on Luna, dragging the conflict to a stalemate.

During this time, Mars remained largely active, and continued producing new ships for Themis. Horus, too, set about re-building its fleet, yet many on Luna set out looking for alternatives to win the war. Although for the current time they could at least hold out on Luna safely, they knew that they did not have the resources to match the ESC in the long run.

In the meantime, Themis continued to put pressure on Luna, making their presence known through an extensive naval blockade of the moon. As they expanded the size of their fleet, each addition was announced as a public broadcast, ensuring that the citizens of Horus's fortress state were well aware that their days were numbered.

Horus, on the other hand, had other plans in mind. Throughout early 2104, Horus sympathizers and agents in the ESC staged a campaign of terror attacks on Earth. Various centers of commerce and industry were hit by improvised explosives in New York, Berlin, Tokyo, and Sydney. Tans-orbital cargo shuttles were hijacked and rammed into ports at Frankfurt and Beijing. A civilian Martian Transfer station was forced to scuttle from reactor sabotage. The quick succession of these attacks, and their large body counts, threw the ESC into a panic. Stocks began to drop as the Terran economy reeled. The confidence of Horus supporters on Terra was firmly bolstered.

It is important to note, however, that while many citizens saw little reason to attack Horus a year ago, there was now little doubt as to the nature of what they were up against. Losing family and friends, witnessing attacks on their home countries, many found themselves firmly galvanized against the rogue state. With swelling recruitment and surging industrial production, there was arguably no other time where the ESC enjoyed as much popular support as it did in the Terran Summer of 2104.

This sudden patriotic fever would come to be, perhaps, the ESC's downfall. Whipped into a frenzy by political generals and the fervor of a united populace, in January of 2105 it brought its blockade fleet down on Luna. In what was to be a decisive strike, coined "a second Day of Justice", they targeted Horus shipyards, He3 mining sites, defense complexes, and ports, pushing relentlessly past the Horus defenses to accomplish their goal. Through the withering fire of the PD system and the newly retrofitted Horus fleet bearing down on them, two entire fleets out of the four in orbit - the third and the seventh- were practically annihilated. Themis limped away, having suffered the single largest day of military casualties in its history.

Horus was quick to capitalize on their success. With the ESC no longer able to maintain a proper blockade against the reinvigorated and jump-drive equipped Lunar fleets, Horus was able to launch continual probing assaults at Themis orbital targets around Earth- striking out at shipyards and planetary transit stations, meeting mixed resistance from the Terrestrial Guard fleets, picked apart to fill the mounting losses in the blockade fleet. The Fight around Luna had turned into an uphill struggle for Themis. Spread thin to maintain the blockade, the ESC found itself hit hard by concentrated swarms of SOM's and bombers- punching holes in the geosynchronous perimeter through which the Horus raiding fleets shot in and out.

Many citizens, angry with the failure to achieve a "Second Day of Justice" demanded that Themis keep up the assault, but despite propaganda boasts to the contrary, by this time they knew the ESC was capable of very little. The Themis Lunar fleets- bleeding ships and men daily, and at this point far from adequate to breach Horus's defenses - pulled back in high energy defensive orbits around and waited for reinforcements to arrive. The ESC as a whole, knowing it could rebuild and outproduce Horus in the long run, took a defensive stance- biding its time.

Themis meanwhile did their best to contain the situation to the public, releasing propaganda showing the strength of their blockades and industry, and promising that Horus could not keep going on for much longer.

Horus would prove them wrong. On November 12, 2105 ESC intelligence picked up a reinforced battlegroup of Horus ships burning on a transit vector towards Earth. Within minutes scanners showed their intercept trajectory bringing them into a firing arc on the fortress station Resistencia- in geosynch over Argentina. The ESC moved immediately to counter the sudden Horus raid, bringing a hundred ships out of high orbit to smash the Horus task force. This threat turned out to be a distraction, and Horus blitzed a second large fleet, disguised as something much smaller by maintaining close formation, into low earth orbit. The low orbit put Horus ships in danger of falling into the atmosphere or suffering GTO weaponry, but it also allowed Themis little opportunity for PD interception, and gave Horus a maximal efficiency for orbital bombardment.

Their target was the city of Hong Kong. The megacity and its sublets from coast to coast were obliterated by a hundred kinetic impacts, each equaling the firepower of a mid-size nuclear bomb. Firestorms and tectonic aftershocks spread through Lantau and Kowloon and into the Chinese Republic, causing further damage.

Conservative estimates, taken from censuses of entire vaporized communities, put the death toll at twelve million instantly killed or displaced. The largest single loss of life in human history.

• A planet froze in its tracks as notifications popped into life on four billion screens and holograms. A hundred braying shouts from a thousand global broadcasters, all jockying for attention before falling into to an eerie silence as the true scale of what had just transpired begun to sink in to those that watched on.
  'On the frontlines of history' the NABC was the first to beam scattered footage from the peninsula out to a shell-shocked public. That shaky, silent, drone broadcast revealed a snapshot from a primordial Earth. A scarred hellscape, hissing into a blackened sea under the darkness of a molten night; an image that has embedded itself forever in the Terran psyche.
  
  - excerpt from 'End of the World, the death of modern journalism' (Freedman, Giuseppe; Ares Publications, Aris Mons. 2120.)

Following the Bombing of Hong Kong, Horus attempts several more terror raids- all thwarted in orbit. In response, Horus begins an extended artillery campaign against earth, with a 24 hour bombardment of Inter-Planetary missiles. This is accompanied by an escalation of raids against far orbital targets by Horus ships.

While mostly unsuccessful, Missiles impact near Antwerp, Harare, and Seoul; marking the third time in human history nuclear weapons have been detonated in anger. However, early warning and evacuations lead to many lives being saved.

The ESC recalls ships from Mars to assist in the defense of Earth and raids-in-force on Lunar targets.

Under the cover of a massive ISBM barrage, Horus races most of its fleet away from Luna. Confusion and inaction by Earth command -compounded by a communications glitch- leads ESC forces to not intercept.


Horus ships transit into Martian orbit, engaging the weakened Outer Fleet. Horus cohesion and aggression, including Kamikaze-style attacks, make early gains against the unprepared Martian fleet. Captains who had never seen combat find themselves thrust into combat against a fierce and well seasoned enemy. Unable to reach ESC high command, whole squadrons simply warp away when their sensors detect Horus ships on an approach vector. A few desperate, fleeing captains find themselves warping into CEU space- where they are quietly detained before starting an international incident.

Under the command of Admiral Anselm, a veteran of the first two Martian wars, Horus begins to land ground forces on Mars. ESC soldiers and the Mars Terrestrial Guard fight fiercely- aided by Martian partisans- but the overwhelming power of Horus orbital superiority quickly pushes them back into the protection of cities. On Earth, the ESC scrambles to assemble a task force to reinforce Mars.

Having predicted the ESC Quick Response Force's arrival within mere kilometers of their warp exit point, Anselm ambushes the fleet as soon as it exits warp, ripping them to shreds with a mass of Rail barrages.

Simultaneously, the ESC launches a new offensive against a weakened Luna. Without a significant Horus fleet to intercept them, they make slow, but costly gains against the fortress world.

Isolated and low on supplies, ESC troops on Mars retreat from Javelin City and its central space elevator - promising to return. Before they do, the Javelin lift will come to serve as an icon of Horus power on Mars. Remaining ESC forces concentrate their defense around the Martian capitol of Olympus, digging into the city to negate Horus's orbital advantage. Several smaller settlements and suburbs are obliterated by orbital artillery as Horus decides they aren't worth the cost of an assault.


The fighting continues through the new year. The ESC makes several successful raids through Mars intercept, harassing the Horus fleet and managing to insert sparse reinforcements - including orbital drop teams.

At the same time, the assault on Luna reached a fever pitch. Ships were lost daily, but many in high command believed the moon's defenses to be weakening. An invasion is considered, and fresh ships are pulled by the hundreds from Venusian shipyards to prepare. The formation of a Martian invasion fleet is delayed.


After holding out for months, ESC forces surrender the city of Olympus. The 'Jewel of Mars' has been reduced to a haunting landscape of bullet-shaved walls and abandoned buildings. Most have fled or live in anarchy, foraging to survive in the city's sealed underground levels. Horus takes de-facto control of the red planet, declaring martial law. Themis maintains holdouts in several regions of the planet, the conflict flaring into occasional skirmishes with Horus patrols.

A report of Horus war crimes against Martian nationalists and POW's becomes the center of public attention, receiving enormous amounts of global media coverage.

Attempts to establish a beachhead on Luna are costly failures. Conscription quotas are increased within Themis.

A scathing expose by the NABC - which has become increasingly Nationalist under the protection of public opinion - reveals reports of Horus war crimes to have been blatantly falsified by the ESC. While the public stance against Horus changes little, public trust in the ESC falters. There is talk that Antwerp- where evacuation efforts were delayed- and the original Horus terror attacks were in fact Council Intelligence operations. Further faith in the ESC seems to erode as the year passes with little gain.

Beset by a popular insurgency backed by the remaining Themis forces, Horus finds itself unable to maintain full control on Mars. Lawless regions spring up, controlled by guerilla warlords. Horus cracks down on dissent, appointing Commissars to public and military positions.

January 2107 saw the war of attrition around Luna begin to pay off for the ESC, with Marines landing amidst the sunlit ruins of Shackleton city. Half a year of ceaseless orbital bombardment had left wide swathes of cratered wasteland on the lunar surface, yet vast underground complexes and civilian sectors that hadn't been targeted by the fleet still held refuge to a vast Horus force. As the battle raged on, Themis forces simply found themselves overwhelmed; not so much by numbers as by the sheer fanaticism of Horus troops, who fought to the death and refused to surrender even when certain conflicts seemed hopeless. In some cases, Horus forces on the verge of defeat would collapse tunnels or vent entire sectors, killing soldier and civilian alike. Many Horus civilians are forced to fight, including any able-bodied teenagers and some even younger. Casualties are high, and constant; and while many in the ESC still believed in the war, some start to wonder if Luna is worth the cost. Poorer states- Russia and parts of South America- are hard hit, having "bought" ESC conscription quotas for financial relief.

July: On a cramped "relief" ship in Lunar orbit, ESC Army conscripts mutiny as orders come for them to return to the surface. Taking control of the ship, they burn hard for Ceresian space. Despite orders, they are not pursued. The incident causes a panic in Themis leadership - which covertly begins a mass crackdown on public dissent. Court Martials become a daily occurrence on the news as officer rotations and stricter regulations are imposed. Council Intelligence operations are increased tenfold in scale and freedom, and a sudden rise in "kidnappings" portends to something much more sinister.

A miasma of dissent had sprung up that would soon spread to the far corners of the ESC's vast empire.

Into this chaos stepped the RIA, who had had agents stationed on Mars for many years already. They began working to replace these warlords, and hoped to unify their movements into a new faction that would threaten both Horus and Themis, and throw both of them off of Mars.

Early attempts came with very mixed results. The RIA had trouble coordinating these movements, as the ongoing war made supplies and communications very inconsistent. Many agents were killed simply as collateral in the fight between Horus and Themis, and the RIA even faced the setback of a defector to Horus ruining their operations in Javelin city in Februrary of 2107.

In March, the RIA took a new approach under the command of Colonel Zarkov. Instead of seeking to have his agents replace these warlords, he instead sought to manipulate them. Appearing as a black silhouette and using a modulated voice, Zarkov contacted these warlords to win their alliegance. He offered them intelligence on Horus and Themis movements, and access codes his agents had gathered years prior. The data allowed these movements to have unprecedented success in their efforts to sabotage the governments of their respective sectors. More importantly, this data gained Zarkov the trust of these warlords.

Zarkov also played these warlords against each other, offering them intel on one another's movements so as to spur on their rivalry. This served to motivate them to take greater risks in their fight against Horus and Themis, knowing that whoever did the most damage would gain more of a following from the populace. In this way, Zarkov was able to narrow down which warlords were most useful, while also getting more results from those already under his influence.

The next step was unification. Zarkov purposefully fed bad intelligence to the less useful factions, ensuring that their warlords would get themselves killed as they underestimated the ESC forces in their regions. He then would have his other warlords sweep in to pick off the remnants of these movements, assimilating those who followed them.


By 2108, Zarkov had assembled a new, unified faction known as the Martian Confederacy, under the proxy rule of General Nadia, formerly of the Martian military under the ESC. They secured their hold in the northern-most region of Mars, with the Swordfish city as their capital. From here, Zarkov sought allies to continue his front.

Back in Ceresian space, the RIA contacted Amphion, who also had deep roots on the red planet. They entered an agreement with the corporation, that they would allow it to take its former facilities in the new Martian government, if Amphion would help to fuel their advance. Amphion agreed, and quickly began taking up supplies, as well as taking over its former facilities within Confederate territory. New Amphion productions allowed the Confederacy to fuel its military industry, as it slowly built up the forces for frontal assaults on the Terrans.

Having assembled a force and the means to back it, Zarkov implimented one final stage to begin pushing back Horus. He allied with the Themis remnant on Mars, guaranteeing their independence after Horus had been pushed back. Together, the Confederacy and Themis remnant began a push across Mars, driving towards Olympus.

Horus was quick to respond, and brought the might of its Navy bearing down on the insurgents. They bombarded many cities into oblivion, including some that still had Horus troops in them, or ones they had formerly wished to capture instead of destroy. Still, the combined forces fought on, and the bombardments only brough more revolts from the populace towards Horus, leading to chaos in the streets of cities deeper in Horus territory.

Horus did their best to suppress these uprisings. Commissars staged public executions, and the military began initiating curfews. This helped to pacify the populace, and it was able to rebuff itself against the coming insurgents. The insurgent advance came to a standstill, as Horus re-established order and its military efficiency began to push back its enemies.

However, with the war on Terra sucking away many of Horus' military resources, they began to falter inwardly. In June 2108, Admiral Anselm and a large portion of his fleet were called back to Luna, to repel the Themis forces on the homeworld.

Without a Naval logistics and artillery, Horus was forced to simply wait out the insurgent's advance. They lost the Javelin city, and other key strategic sites. The insurgency was closing in on Olympus.


The insurgent advance was cut short, however. In July 2108, the RIA pulled its forces off of Mars and suspended operations. Phoenix restructuring led to a general awareness among the populace of the RIA's operations. More importantly, the leak led to widespread knowledge among Sol that Phoenix had been manipulating the war on Mars. Weary and rebuilding from the Europa Conflict, the Senate did not wish to provoke another war so soon, and hoped to pacify a now incensed Horus by backing out. At the same time within Phoenix space, the ISS, hoping to drive their enemies to ground, announced its 2104 discovery of Ceresian spies within Saturn space, belonging to House Ramirez. Many RIA agents were called back to deal with counter-intelligence, and clean up the panic the ISS had created by making this public.

Without the support of Phoenix resources and intelligence, the insurgency grinded to a halt. Zarkov and his closest agents went rogue, promising to see the conflict through and hoping to spur the Confederacy's forces onwards. However, General Nadia chose to lock down and secure what they had gained, as without proper intel she did not feel comfortable pushing the conflict any further.

Away from the brutal conflict of Luna or Mars, the corporate government of Venus reduced the production of ESC-ordered shipyard and manufacturing goods by 15%- stating fiscal troubles.

In what many perceived as a violent overreaction, but in what was in reality a reflection of the ESC's precarious economic state, Themis sent ships to Venus to force the corporate leadership to the table. A dominating equatorial orbit was established over the planet, and a delegation was sent in to negotiate. During a long pause in the talks, a group of ships belonging to the Venus Advancement Corporation warped into the path of the fleet on a routine cargo transfer. On edge, and commanded by green political admirals, several ESC ships opened fire- ripping through the merchant vessels.

When the corporate leaders heard of this, they immediately broke off negotiations, pushing the Themis delegation out of the room and locking down the facility. Desperate to regain control of the planet, Council Intelligence cut through military channels and ordered the atmospheric cities bombed until they fell. The fleet suddenly erupted into chaos as it split between captains that refused and those that turned to carry out their new orders. Violence erupted within the hulls of several ships as mutineers- some with relatives on the colonies below- turned on their Themis officers.The battle was over in minutes, as loyalist ships turned and burned Earthward when suddenly finding themselves fired upon.

The Venusian Terrestrial Guard forces, with their newly defected complement, readied itself for a desperate defense against the inevitable ESC reprisal. Half a year later they would find themselves still waiting.


Broadcast system-wide by the new Venusian government, the mutiny in Venus orbit revealed to the Terran public the dismal state of the ESC military. The earlier crackdowns on morale and dissent had in fact had the opposite effect from what they were intended, serving to unite soldiers and sailors in discontent with the military and the ESC as a whole. Underground publications spread like wildfire among the ranks, often printed into physical leaflets to bypass the ESC's digital firewalls. Satirically mocking the incompetence of Themis leadership or calling for unity and revolution, they were eaten up by conscripts from states at the fringes of ESC hegemony.
Former South America and Russia, and the state of the United Central Republicwere all mostly unaffected by Horus's original terror attacks, and many there saw themselves as exploited by a "foreign" government, to which they bore no allegiance. Compounded by a strong history of independence movements, they severed themselves from the ESC, immediately stopping the flow of resources, recalling military units, and kicking out or even killing ESC personnel.

The ESC attempted to crack down on these movements, and violence was rampant on the streets for a short time. At best, Anarchy occured, and in a short matter of days the ESC capitulated to these new countries' demands and established a very tenuous alliance, due to the much greater threat of Horus looming over them all.


Still, Horus too had been weakened by the wars, but its leaders overestimated its capability, while also underestimating Themis and its alliance with these new nations. Although Horus was winning, it was still losing ships and many valuable resources.

Having already lost Mars when on the brink of victory, Anselm became furious, and rallied together his fleet and loyal officers, initiating an underground movement to undermine the current Horus ruling council of Admirals. Citing the failure of the Horus leadership on Mars, and their wasteful, destructive tactics on earth, Anselm spread of a message of reconsolidation, to conquer at a later time. This gained popularity in Horus, and over the next few months, they secretly won over several other Admirals in the earth fleet, including many in the Commissariat.

In October of 2108, Anselm's fleets deserted their posts in Terran orbit to push back towards Luna. They bombed and sabotaged many orbital defences, while others simply surrendered to Anselm's forces or were already agreed to turn. Anselm's forces raided the capitol sector, fighting through the Elite Guard and entering the Horus Council Chamber. Simultaneously, his forces within the Commissariat disabled security and let his armies in, subduing or killing anyone who remained loyal to the Admiralty Council. With their Commissars killed or turned, the Council found itself at the end of the guns they had previously ordered. They turned over the control codes to Anselm, and signed a surrender to Anselm's forces before the majority of them were publically executed.

Anselm set himself up as the new leader of Horus, and made good on his promise of peace. He retreated Horus forces from Terran orbit, pulling them into Luna orbit and fortifying it.

In December of 2108, Horus watched as the ESC officially dissolved, and Earth fractured into hundreds of new governments. Some were quickly annexed into larger governments, while anarchy remained in many other regions.

For Sol as a whole, there would be much more conflict to come, but for now- it seemed- there was a relative peace.