A/N: I am absolutely elated by the amount of positive attention this fic has been getting! As such, I have decided to accelerate work on the timeline of the fic's universe, as that has been requested by multiple reviewers. I hope that this clears up most of the uncertainty that occurred with the Prologue!
"The Ethereal race is a race of cowards. The second and third wars have empirically proved that! Had they been willing to risk themselves out of anything other than sheer desperation, we would be bowing down to our Great Elderly Overlords right now. But they didn't, and now we're gonna come for them, and one by one we will kill them! And you, son, will be the one to do it!" - Last words of General Peter van Doorn.
A Brief Timeline of Human Military History during the first three Ethereal Wars (EWI-EWIII), as taken from Humanity Triumphant, a history of the Sol System's Wars, by Irene Carlock.
March 1st, 2015: First Ethereal War (EWI) begins.
On March 1st, 2015, approximately five hundred unidentified craft appeared in orbit around Earth. Less than twenty minutes later, two hundred troop transports make landfall all over the globe, while targeted airstrikes and precision orbital bombardment prevent humanity from responding in force. Nearly three quarters of Humanity's combined air force is destroyed over the next two days, either on the ground or in the air. Anti-shipping strikes bring maritime travel to a halt, while all human warships at anchor are destroyed by a combination of aerial and orbital strikes. Two thirds of humanity's ground forces are destroyed over the next two weeks.
Once it becomes clear that conventional forces cannot repel the alien threat, no fewer than three hundred nuclear weapons are deployed by humanity in a desperate attempt to prevent the Ethereal forces from establishing a foothold on Earth. None of these warheads detonate, with both bombers and missiles being intercepted in flight by patrolling Ethereal fighters.
March 22nd, 2015: ADVENT Coalition is formed.
Almost as soon as the Ethereals began their invasion, there were people who called for immediate and unconditional surrender. While at first dismissed as raving lunatics, they soon became a tangible threat to humanity's attempts to fight back, leaking information on troop movements to the enemy, actively fighting alongside the aliens, and spreading their propaganda throughout Human-held territory.
The rapid onset of collaboration, which was unexplained at the time and dismissed as insanity, is now known to be the result of ExAlting, or the genetic modification of human abductees in order to create perfect sleeper agents. Human technology at the time was unable to distinguish between an ExAlt and an ordinary human, and any children of an ExAlt would be ExAlts themselves. Given the amount of ExAlts in existence at the time, it is safe to say that a good portion of supposed 'Alien Abduction' stories of the time were the result of Ethereal abductions, with the abductees being converted into ExAlts to expedite the Ethereal conquest of Earth.
On March 22nd, however, Russia is overrun, becoming the first major country to capitulate to the Ethereals, although this surrender is now clearly shown to be a result of Ethereal Mind Control. On the wake of the Russian surrender, Human Collaborators set up their own government under the aliens' watch, calling it the ADVENT Coalition. Over the following days, thousands of Russian civilians are 'conscripted' by ADVENT, being subjected to forceful and invasive augmentation and brainwashing in order to become the first of ADVENT's military.
April 13th, 2015: April Fools' Day Offensive fails. EU is overrun.
The April Fools' Day Offensive was the only coordinated, multi-national offensive of the short war, and it is widely considered to be the only Human offensive to be even partially successful. With Germany having capitulated on March 25th, the April Fools' Day Offensive was Humanity's attempt to take it back, beginning with a forced crossing of the Rhine by multinational forces on April 1st. However, while the Rhine was successfully crossed, the desperate all-out assault is halted at Essen on April 5th by a massed deployment of ADVENT forces. While troops reported the ADVENT modified humans as being poorly coordinated and inexperienced, serving mostly as cannon fodder, their superior, alien-supplied technology allows them to inflict heavy casualties upon the Human forces in a series of human wave assaults between April 5th and 7th. By the dawn of April the 8th, Alien reinforcements are flown in from a newly-subjugated South America, and an Alien 'Battleship' (In reality, a Frigate), takes up position over the Ruhr River Valley. In their desperation, members of the 23rd Special Air Service Regiment sacrifice themselves to detonate a tactical nuclear weapon underneath the Alien warship. The vessel's shields are lowered by the blast, allowing ground-based artillery to down the Ethereal vessel. That frigate was the only Ethereal capital to be successfully downed by Human armed forces during the First Ethereal War.
However, the downing of one frigate heralded the arrival of five more, and the Human forces are driven back across the Rhine by April 10th. By April 13th, the Alien forces have smashed through the final defensive positions of what was once an offensive push, their armed forces reaching Paris two days later.
No surrender ever comes from the French government, and Paris is razed in the ensuing battle. The destruction of Paris sets a grim example for the rest of the EU, and by the end of April the entirety of Europe is under Alien control.
May 25th, 2015: Humanity capitulates. First Ethereal War ends, and Ethereal Occupation begins.
The last vestiges of human resistance are overrun as Camp Pendleton on the US West Coast, having ignored orders for surrender for nearly twenty days, runs out of ammunition and is overrun. No prisoners are taken, and the Marines in the base, having only their knives, are slaughtered. At this point, the only armed resistance remaining was in the form of disparate partisan and guerrilla groups formed composed of everything from military remnants to children carrying their parents' hunting rifles.
June 1st, 2015: ADVENT officially becomes the puppet government of Humanity.
The end of organized resistance five days prior allowed ADVENT to rapidly assume control of the Human governments, and on June 1st, an human-esque alien designated as 'The Speaker' appoints ADVENT as the official governing body of Earth. Over the next few days, ADVENT conscripts turn Earth into a police state, serving as the stick to the Alien metaphorical carrot of 'Gene Therapy', a supposed panacea that promised to both eliminate aging and cure any and all diseases. Ironically, while its true purpose was much more nefarious, the Gene Therapy clinics that opened worldwide are responsible for all but eliminating most of the world's genetic diseases, while nearly all bacteria and virus borne ailments, from Ebola and HIV to the common cold, also vanished from the world, disappearing into the depths of the Ethereal biological warfare laboratories.
December 2nd, 2018: Resistance Radio is established.
The need for an organized resistance was blatantly obvious to everyone capable of seeing the big picture. However, with Earth's satellite network either destroyed or under ADVENT control, and the airwaves carefully monitored, a safe method of communication remained out of humanity's reach. However, on Octover 1st, 2018, a chance discovery by Dr. Moira Vahlen, one of the rare scientists who managed to slip through ADVENT's grasp, leads to the creation of Resistance Radio. The first tower of the communications grid is completed on December 1st, with the first test broadcast being made on December 2nd. Once it was determined that the method was indeed safe, John Bradford, the commander of the the resistance operation that contained Dr. Vahlen, ordered the construction of the worldwide Resistance Radio network.
September 15th, 2021: Operation Shot Glass
Operation Shot Glass is considered by many to be the first significant victory scored by Resistance forces. Posing as turncoats, a Human resistance group in Mexico deliberately broke radio silence in order to offer its surrender to ADVENT, intending to lure a local group of ADVENT into an ambush with a promise of information on the movements of other resistance groups in the area. However, instead of an ADVENT response team, an Ethereal light transport was the response sent. The operation went ahead anyway, and after nearly a day of combat, the Ethereal vessel is captured relatively intact. The newly constructed Resistance Radio tower in the area allowed for several other resistance groups to converge on the area, and the Alien transport is recovered. Over the next two months, the vehicle is transported across North America, being examined along the way by former engineers, who find several transponder beacons clearly intended as tracking devices.
The captured vehicle was eventually analyzed by now-famous minds like Raymond Shen and Moira Vahlen, and data gleaned from analyzing it proved invaluable in jump-starting humanity's reverse engineering of Alien technology.
March 1st, 2025: Ethereal Withdrawal Begins
Despite the success of Operation Shot Glass, Ethereal armed forces announce their plans to start withdrawal from Earth, leaving the planet's security largely in the hands of ADVENT's Peacekeepers. The exact motivation behind these actions is still unclear, but the reduced amount of aliens on Earth was crucial to the success of the coming conflict.
July 8th, 2026: Contact is made with William Thorne
William Thorne has long been one of the most controversial figures in XCOM's history. Originally a politician from the UK who advocated peaceful cooperation with the Ethereals, Thorne was able to quickly work his way into the ADVENT occupational government once the UK fell, slowly climbing through the ranks until, on July 8th, 2026, Thorne made contact with the Resistance forces via a tapped line. Analysis of the man's personal journal reveals that he had reached a high enough rank that he was able to gleans some information regarding the Ethereals' true intentions for the human race, which horrified him into attempting contact with the Resistance. After some wrangling with local Resistance Radio operators, Thorne was able to secure a private conversation with Commander Bradford. The exact specifications of that conversation have never been recorded, but suffice to say, William Thorne proved his worth to the Resistance several times over over the course of the coming years. Thanks to his efforts in diverting supplies and surplus ADVENT gear, the Resistance was able to finish the Resistance Radio network five years ahead of schedule, and the ADVENT equipment proved invaluable in the coming conflict.
January 30th, 2031: Resistance Radio Network is completed.
Plagued by the omnipresent shortage of supplies and personnel, and with secrecy being paramount, the construction of Resistance Radio was not finished until twelve years later. At that point, the vast majority of human resistance forces were unified under the control of Bradford's group. Preparations for the Second Ethereal War begin in earnest.
March 1st, 2035: Operation Avenger signals the start of the Second Ethereal War (EWII).
After twenty years of occupation and guerrilla warfare, of covert preparation and fearful scrounging, the newly christened XCOM (eXtraterrestrial COMbat) Initiative commences the largest offensive operation since the April Fools' Day Offensive of EWI.
Operation Avenger was, in reality, a collective name for three concurrent operations that occurred on the twentieth anniversary of the Ethereal Invasion, taking advantage of the worldwide 'holiday' known as Unification Day.
The first of these operations was Operation Gatecrasher, which consisted of a series of simultaneous bombings of monuments in Ethereal-controlled cities around the globe. Several days earlier, a dress rehearsal of the attack had been carried out on an under-construction Gene Therapy clinic in New Paris, the attack being used to gauge the response times and actions of ADVENT Peacekeepers.
Operation Gatecrasher went off without any major issues, with monuments in every one of the targeted cities being leveled by XCOM strike teams, the attackers being evacuated by re-painted ADVENT dropships, which had been captured on a tip-off from William Thorne, and were now the backbone of XCOM's air force.
However, Operation Gatecrasher was ultimately a diversion for the two other operations that were executed that day.
The first of these two operations was Operation Vulture, which composed of a series of strikes on old military equipment graveyards across the globe. While the old Human militaries were officially disarmed after the First Ethereal War ended, the old aircraft and tank boneyards were low on the Ethereal priority list, as they had very little to gain from scrapping old, rusting military equipment, and the Resistance lacked the necessary expertise to restore, operate or maintain the relics within. Therefore, the Resistance forces sent to old equipment graveyards like the Sierra Nevada Army Depot, the Kharkov Soviet Tank Graveyard, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, and many other such sites, their intention being to retrieve as many of the rusting military relics as possible. Once the designated boneyards were secured, XCOM forces recovered thousands of tons of antique military equipment over the course of three days, before ADVENT retaliatory forces finally mobilized to challenge them.
However, due to their age and poor condition, none of the recovered vehicles were in serviceable condition. Instead, the recovered vehicles were to serve as training for the next generation of XCOM's engineering corps. After all, the vast majority of people who knew how to build tanks or aircraft were either dead or in ADVENT employ. In order to build the next generation of aircraft and armor, the entire discipline had to be re-discovered. That discovery was facilitated by Operation Vulture, as while they would never see combat again, the vehicles recovered over the course of the operation would go on to inspire the creation of their successors.
The final segment of Operation Avenger was also the most critical. Thanks to information leaked by William Thorne, the general locations of multiple ADVENT concentration camps were made known to XCOM, and Operation Jailbreak was supposed to liberate those camps. However, while Operations Gatecrasher and Vulture went off extremely smoothly, Jailbreak was fraught with problems from the start. Without orbital imaging, and with only the general location of the camps provided to them, not all XCOM teams were in position by the time the March 1st deadline came about, meaning that the teams that did not already locate their target had to keep searching until they found their target one or two days later. Thus, over the course of the next three days, raids on ADVENT camps were carried out to varying degrees of success, rather than the simultaneous assault that was supposed to occur.
The first few raids went off without a hitch, with ADVENT guards being sniped from afar, while incoming dropships painted in ADVENT livery ended up containing more XCOM soldiers, who were quickly able to secure the camps with minimal prisoner casualties. Some of the famous individuals rescued from the camps include Anna Sing, who eventually became XCOM's top scoring female sniper, who revolutionized sniper warfare with the invention of the now-ubiquitous Squadsight module, Thomas Hutch, who was responsible for much of XCOM's propaganda during the war, and Dr. Hongou Marazuki, whose work in theoretical physics laid the groundwork for FTL technology as we know it.
However, by the second day of Jailbreak, security at the camps had been strengthened to the point of making such an assault suicidal. On the second and third days of Operation Jailbreak, XCOM forces suffered heavy casualties for minimal gain, with entire assault teams being reported as KIA. However, one camp was liberated successfully on the third and final day of Operation Jailbreak. That liberation turned out to be the most important gain of Operation Jailbreak, as within the last liberated camp was one Annette Durand.
Ever since the occupation began, psionic powers were known to humanity. However, until Annette Durand, no human was known to be able to visibly manifest such abilities. Once Annette's abilities were discovered by ADVENT, she was quickly deported to a camp in what were once the Swiss Alps. There, she was soon joined by three other Psionic individuals of a power similar to her own, as well as multiple other, less powerful psionics discovered by ADVENT's new, more intensive screening that was performed under the guise of improved Gene Therapy. These psionics were kept contained until the XCOM force assigned to liberate a known camp in the Swiss Alps found its target. Once the attack began, the human psionics inside the camp rebelled, causing ADVENT to split its attention between the interior and exterior of the camp. While hundreds of the prisoners were machine-gunned to death before the XCOM liberation team could break in, the most powerful psionics in the camp were able to survive long enough to open a path outside to the waiting XCOM troops. Unfortunately, out of the powerful psionics within the camp, only Annette was able to make it out, the other three being killed while holding off ADVENT forces. All in all, twenty human psionic individuals or varying degrees of power were rescued from the camp. These individuals would form the basis of XCOM's psionic corps.
The three parts of Operation Avenger were humanity's opening move of the Second Ethereal War. However, the ADVENT Coalition and its Alien masters were far from idle in the aftermath.
March 21st, 2035: ADVENT Retaliation begins.
After twenty days of defensive action, first against Operation Avenger, then against the many small-scale guerrilla raids that followed, ADVENT forces embarked on an offensive, targeting any and every human settlement they could find outside of the main cities. It is estimated that upwards of one million human civilians are killed during the first week of these purges, while ADVENT losses are minimal.
The first week of ADVENT's retaliatory purges are focused on settlements relatively close to their cities, although in these areas there is relatively little XCOM activity. In a move that nearly costs him his position as commander, but likely won the war, Commander Bradford decides not to send XCOM troops to defend these settlements, deciding not to squander XCOM's strength by stationing permanent garrisons so close to ADVENT's bases of operation. An outright mutiny is barely prevented.
However, while XCOM stood idle during the first week of purges, the second week is completely different. As April began, ADVENT began striking at more distant settlements, and at a much slower rate due to the logistical difficulties in locating these camouflaged villages. At this point, Bradford orders for as many settlements as possible to be saved, resulting in retaliation sites turning into bloodbaths for both sides. Friendly fire was alarmingly common during these raids, as XCOM's equipment was mostly scavenged from ADVENT, with personal body armor, weaponry, and vehicles all being taken from raids on ADVENT's armories and convoys. This led to many cases of confused identity, where XCOM reinforcements were mistaken for an ADVENT retaliation strike and fired upon, while in at least one case, an ADVENT retaliation strike was confused with XCOM reinforcements and welcomed with open arms. The tendency of both ADVENT and XCOM to move by night did not help in this regard.
However, by the May of 2035, the remaining human settlements in the wilderness had been fortified to the point where conventional retaliatory strikes were simply not economical for ADVENT to perform, leading to a marked decrease in retaliation strikes until July 2035.
April 18th, 2035: Operation Pierced Veil.
With ADVENT's retaliatory purges at an all-time high, XCOM command was under significant pressure to mount a counter-offensive. Operation Pierced Veil was that counter-offensive. On April-18th, 2035, XCOM troops first utilized the device now known as a skulljack while raiding an ADVENT supply convoy. The data retrieved in this manner revealed the location of a secret ADVENT facility in the wilderness, where the convoy was headed. Operation Pierced Veil then commenced, with transports being scrambled to strike at the facility. After three hours of combat, the facility was clear, allowing XCOM forces to quickly search the facility, ascertain its purpose, recover samples, and rig it for detonation before hostile reinforcements arrived.
The facility turned out to be a biological research laboratory, designed to fatally process hundreds of humans daily. It is now known that the Ethereals were attempting to isolate optimal aspects of the human genetic code in order to create a perfect Avatar body, but at the time it was believed that XCOM had hit an ADVENT cloning lab, where the puppet government was attempting to transition from genetically modifying conscripts to simply growing them in vats.
Regardless of the facility's purpose, XCOM's priority shifted from assassination of ADVENT's leadership to the destruction of these covert ADVENT black sites. The amount of XCOM activity within the main cities slowly petered off, while raids on convoys and trains became more frequent. Thanks to liberal use of skulljacks during these convoy raids, six additional ADVENT black sites are located and destroyed by the end of April.
May 5th, 2035: Battle of Yellowstone.
The first true large-scale battle of EWII, the Battle of Yellowstone took place in the former U.S. National Park, which now contained one of the largest XCOM settlements in the world. An ADVENT retaliation strike was detected en-route to its location, leading to XCOM forces under the command of former general Peter Van Doorn to be dispatched to defend the human settlement, which had already withstood an earlier retaliation strike in late April. The result was the first large-scale ground engagement in XCOM's history, lasting for three days and involving nearly fifty thousand XCOM personnel against nearly one hundred thousand ADVENT troops and automated units.
The battle was won thanks to clever manipulation of Yellowstone' geological activity, which the civilian residents were using as a source of electricity. With remote-detonated charges and precise airstrikes, XCOM forces were able to trigger the eruptions of several large geysers, as well as create multiple sinkholes and small-scale earthquakes. While these actions alone would have done little more than cause minor casualties and temporary disorganization within the enemy's ranks, the follow-up assault by XCOM airborne troops was devastating, leaving nearly ten thousand dead on ADVENT's side and stopping their advance in its tracks by the end of the first day. Overnight, ADVENT forces quickly regrouped, while XCOM forces retreated to pre-prepared defensive positions, using the opportunity to shore up said fortifications.
On the dawn of the second day, ADVENT lands reinforcements, and begins a series of human wave assaults on the XCOM position, using organic infantry and light mechanized units at first, before proceeding to heavy armor and alien auxiliaries when the first waves did not successfully breach the XCOM line. XCOM forces sustain heavy casualties, and by the end of the day are reduced to pressing civilians as young as twelve into plugging the gaps in their line. The repeated assaults continue overnight and well into the third day, at which point XCOM reinforcements under the command of Caroline Stern arrive, landing behind ADVENT's own forces in order to catch them in a pincer maneuver. When combined with a counter-offensive from the entrenched XCOM forces already present, this is enough to break the back of ADVENT's forces, which fight to the last man, having never been given an order to retreat. Mop-up operations continue for nearly two weeks after the battle's end before the area is declared clear once more.
While XCOM's forces suffered extremely heavy casualties during the battle, with nearly one third of all involved forces being declared either KIA or MIA, while almost every survivor of the battle was wounded in some fashion, the victory served to bolster resistance morale around the globe, simultaneously legitimizing XCOM as the new official face of humanity. Recruitment from resistance settlements nearly doubles once the victory is announced, while smaller, independent resistance movements start to come out of hiding, both to attack ADVENT on their own and to join up with XCOM. Finally, the lack of an ADVENT retreat meant that almost all of their gear could be scavenged in some way. Destroyed Sectopods are disassembled, their built-in weapons converted into field artillery, ADVENT mechs are stripped for parts to create body armor, while their weapons are converted into independent mortars and heavy machine guns. Finally, most of ADVENT's aircraft involved are captured on the ground, while those shot down are scavenged for parts.
Almost overnight, XCOM went from an oversized resistance movement to a serious threat to ADVENT's hold on Earth thanks to its victory at Yellowstone.
May 22nd, 2035: Alien Code is cracked.
Using data recovered from ADVENT Blacksite raids, a team led by Dr. Richard Tygan announces that it has managed to crack the code used by the ADVENT coalition, and through extension, the Ethereal hive mind. Using experimental psionic transmitters, the ADVENT transmissions are streamed through the mind of a psionic individual, allowing the code to be ascertained and cracked. This discovery means that multiple weak psionic individuals, previously employed in scientific studies, are reassigned to cryptography.
The cracking of the ADVENT code leads to the discovery of a previously-unknown Blacksite designated as a 'Forge' facility. Operation Broken Anvil is launched the next day, and the Forge facility is raided and destroyed. Among the alien artifacts recovered is an unusual human body inside an enviro-suit. It is now known that the body was one of the early Ethereal Avatar prototypes, and its theft was a major setback to the Avatar project. However, at the time, the Forge facility is believed to be a fully functional ADVENT cloning facility.
June 2nd, 2035: Ethereal reinforcements arrive on Earth.
After the destruction of the Forge facility, Ethereal forces off-planet mobilized, and on June 2nd, 2035, nearly one million alien troops are landed on Earth, accompanied by no less than four Ethereals. ADVENT cities discard their veneer of tranquility and are placed under strict martial law. Skulljacking is countered by the implementation of the Codex defense network, all but completely shutting XCOM out of the ADVENT network. All remaining blacksites are heavily fortified, with garrisons of thousands of alien troops joining the ADVENT forces in guarding these facilities. Subsequent blacksite raids by XCOM are repulsed with heavy casualties. However, the aliens' prioritize completion of the Avatar project over crushing all human rebellion, and rather than mount an immediate offensive, alien forces remain firmly in place at their respective black sites, while ADVENT continues its attempts at putting down human rebellion with relatively little aid from their alien masters.
June 29th, 2035: Operation Closed Gate.
Analysis of Codex remains reveals the location of another previously-unknown blacksite. At the time, this is believed to be the Codex defense network's central node, and an immediate assault is ordered under the name of Operation Closed Gate. Just past the stroke of midnight, on June 29th, human airstrikes take Alien forces by surprise, allowing human airborne forces to land and assault the facility proper. However, almost as soon as the initial landing zones were secure, human forces came under furious, massed assault by Chryssalids, the insectoid race making a devastating combat debut against the unprepared human forces. Unknown to XCOM commanders, the initial airstrikes had destroyed the Chryssalids' psionic control nexus, causing the monstrous creatures to start rampaging, attacking both humans and aliens alike. The Chryssalid threat is eventually cleared by constant, repeated firebombing of the alien site, which leaves very little of the site recoverable by surviving human forces. Fortunately, the human defenders are able to recover a psionically-driven portal device, which, while damaged, still operational. However, the Codex defense network remains in place, and the ADVENT network remains closed off to humanity.
July 1st, 2035: Chryssalid Raids begin.
In a direct response to Operation Closed Gate, Alien forces, in conjunction with ADVENT, go on the offensive. With their advanced aircraft giving them complete air superiority, Ethereal forces make a series of practically unopposed air raids against human settlements, aerially dropping thousands of Chryssalid eggs into every known concentration of human life outside of the main cities. Yellowstone is one of the first settlements hit in such a manner, and is completely wiped out. Areas targeted by these raids become infested with Chryssalids, permanently denying them to XCOM's forces.
July 5th, 2035: Battle of the Amazon.
In response to the devastating Chryssalid raids, XCOM forces mount a full-scale offensive against a blacksite in the Amazon rain forest. Two forces converge on the alien facility, and on July 5th, the offensive begins. Two days of combat pass as human infantry slowly advance on the black site, supported by mobile Anti-Air divisions and whatever aircraft are available. The facility itself is subjected to three hours of bombardment by a combination of light, mobile mortars and what little heavy artillery could be hauled into position through the forest. Then, an all-out infantry assault begins. Many of the troops involved are on their last reserves of ammunition, and the large machetes used to clear away the forest find a new use in close combat. Near the end of the battle, a Codex is stabbed by a skulljack, giving human cryptographers temporary access to both the ADVENT network and the Ethereal hive mind. The intrusion leads to an incomplete Avatar body being teleported into the combat zone under the control of an Ethereal. The incomplete Avatar is eventually brought down after killing nearly two hundred XCOM soldiers, and the psionic backlash of the Ethereal's death throws alien forces into disarray. The disorganized defenders of the Amazon facility are smoothly eradicated, and the blacksite is captured relatively intact.
July 18th, 2035: Death of William Thorne.
The death of an Ethereal in the Battle of the Amazon led to a significant acceleration of the Avatar project's timetable, or more specifically, the immediate liquidation of all non-essential human populace in order to jump-start Avatar production. William Thorne discovered this information, and immediately reported it to XCOM command. However, while he was collecting data on this turn of events, he was revealed as a spy, and ADVENT soldiers arrived on the scene halfway through the transmission. Thorne was killed after a brief exchange of fire with said soldiers, but the data he sent out was critical to the prevention of the Ethereal plot.
July 20th, 2035: Operation Kind Censor.
In the wake of Thorne's death, XCOM Commander Bradford immediately prepared to execute the operation to save the human race. In the two days between Thorne's death and the start of Operation Kind Censor, elite XCOM agents were smuggled into New Geneva, the ADVENT world headquarters. Then, on July 20th, Operation Kind Censor commenced, with the XCOM strike team infiltrating the ADVENT primary network tower. Quickly shooting their way through the unprepared ADVENT opposition, the XCOM forces were able to hijack the entire network partway through the Alien Speaker's address to the public, turning cheering crowds around the world into lynch mobs. The hijacking of the ADVENT network also wreaked havoc on ADVENT troop movements, allowing for multiple simultaneous large-scale offensives by XCOM forces to take place. Hundreds of cities around the globe were captured by XCOM forces, while Alien defenders suddenly found themselves severely outnumbered, the network hack having rendered their ADVENT servants all but useless unless under direct psionic control.
July 21st, 2035: Operation Vengeful Vandal.
While the battle for Earth raged anew, a second XCOM strike team under the leadership of Annette Durand prepared to ensure that all the aliens' efforts in taking Earth were in vain. By psionically hijacking the body of the Ethereal Avatar that had been killed in the Amazon, Annette was able to interface with the portal captured in Operation Closed Gate, giving XCOM access to the Avatar project's primary research hub. Fifty-three of XCOM's finest soldiers, Annette included, are able to head through the gate before it is shut down. Cut off completely from XCOM's high command, the XCOM strike team proceeded with its mission. Recovered gun-camera footage shows that they ended up fighting a six hour long battle against Ethereal forces in a complex located on the Pacific Ocean floor. Thanks to judicious use of psionic powers such as mind control by Annette, the XCOM strike team suffered no casualties for the majority of the fight. However, near the end of the fight, the desperate Ethereals within the complex activated the three completed Avatar bodies within the facility, and engaged XCOM's forces directly. While all the Avatars were eventually killed, only six XCOM soldiers were able to make it out of the complex, with Annette using a freshly killed Avatar to interface with a second alien portal, creating an exit for herself and her team moments before the complex self-destructed.
The end result of Operation Vengeful Vandal was devastating to the alien command structure. Doubtlessly in a panic over having three Ethereals killed in such rapid succession, whatever off-world commander that assumed command of alien forces on Earth ordered a full retreat, with alien forces abducting what few humans they could before fleeing the system, leaving the tattered remnants of ADVENT to fend for themselves. The last ADVENT bastion, Moscow, would fall within three days of the alien retreat.
August 7th, 2035: Second Ethereal War ends. XCOM becomes the government of a unified Humanity. Reconstruction begins.
The last mop-up operations of ADVENT forces are concluded on August 7th, and the was is declared to be over on the same day to jubilant crowds around the world. Although large areas of Earth remained infested with Chryssalids, the alien forces had retreated, and the ADVENT coalition was destroyed. The XCOM high command, now in control of the entire planet, appoints itself as the new world government to thunderous applause around the globe. Immediately afterward, the government begins a mass purge of all collaborators, having learned of the ExAlt modifications from captured ADVENT data. Nearly two million people are killed during the subsequent purges, but the ExAlt gene is successfully eliminated from the human population.
December 8th, 2035: Construction of subterranean arcologies is begun.
Grim projections of a third Ethereal war lead to High Commander Bradford ordering the construction of multiple subterranean arcologies to house Earth's surviving population. Built with an orbital bombardment of Earth's population centers in mind, these arcologies are heavily armored, protected by thick layers of alien alloy, the formula of which having been determined late during the war by Dr. Lily Shen. Beneath these shields, the arcologies were heavily fortified, with tight chokepoints, pre-mined streets, and machine gun emplacements strategically positioned to protect against an infantry assault.
May 9th, 2038: The XCS Amazon, Humanity's first armed starship, is launched. XCOM Starfleet is established.
Although the Ethereal forces had retreated from Earth, they still remained out there, and XCOM's High Command knew that they had to take the fight to the enemy. However, a combination of Elerium shortages and a complete lack of experience in space combat hampered the creation of XCOM's Starfleet, and only in 2038 did the XCS Amazon launch. An inability to manufacture Elerium on Earth, however, meant that humanity could only afford a small spacefaring navy. As a result, the XCOM starfleet soon shifted its focus from offensive warships to defensive orbital platforms powered by early fusion reactors and armed with a combination of railguns and laser cannons. Likewise, the XCOM forces on the ground were equipped with body armor produced in ADVENT's old factories, and were equipped with a mix of laser and gauss weaponry.
January 15th, 2040: New Chicago Arcology is completed.
The race to construct the first arcology is won by New Chicago, with the megacity's population being completely relocated underground by the end of the month. Over the course of January 2040, ten other arcologies are finished, with over two hundred being completed by the end of the year. By the January of 2041, three quarters of the human population is living underground.
September 8th, 2040: Mars is colonized.
Against the recommendations of his chief of Navy, High Commander Bradford orders the colonization of Mars, and the first mining colony is established on September 8th, 2040. The first resource shipment is transported back to Earth onboard the XCS Amazon three months later.
March 2nd, 2041: Third Ethereal War (EWIII) Begins.
On March 2nd, 2041, the Third Ethereal War begins, as three thousand Ethereal warships, ranging from frigates to a huge Temple Ship, exit FTL in Mars orbit. The undefended human colony is devastated by orbital bombardment, with any survivors being methodically wiped out by ground assault. Two days later, the Ethereal force is engaged by human warships while en-route to Earth. Two Ethereal frigates are destroyed, and three alien transports are damaged. All human warships involved are wiped out with no survivors. The next day, Ethereal forces arrive in Earth orbit, and are engaged by both orbital defense platforms and ground-based mass drivers. However, while some casualties are inflicted, the orbital defenses are overwhelmed, and Earth is once again surrounded. By the dawn of March the 6th, all human anti-orbit installations on the ground are destroyed by concentrated orbital bombardment, while further bombardment is directed at all known above-ground human installations. By March 7th, all human life on the planet's surface has been eradicated.
March 7th, 2041: Ethereal Landings commence.
With all visible signs of human resistance eliminated, one thousand Ethereal transports descend to the planet's surface, escorted by frigates and light cruisers, while swarms of fighters are dispatched from carriers in orbit to ferret out any human resistance. The first Ethereal transport lands at approximately 12:00 hours, Coordinated Universal Time. At 12:01 Hours UCT, human forces open fire on landing Ethereal forces. Fighters are catapulted into the air from concealed underground silos, artillery is raised from their shelters by high-speed elevators, and tens of millions of infantrymen storm out of underground barracks, fully armed and with the enemy in sight. Furious air combat erupts between Ethereal and Human fighters, while alien frigates duel with ground-based batteries. All the while, at fifty separate locations worldwide, the Ethereals attempt to establish beachheads while under furious fire from Earth's defenders. Twenty two of these beachheads are overwhelmed, and the transports retreat with empty holds, their troops massacred, while their escorts suppressed the victorious humans. Three more transport groups land in Chryssalid-infested territory. The insectoid monstrosities, once under Ethereal control, had gone native while on Earth, and attacked their former masters as if they were any other interloping species. One such landing site on the coast of Newfoundland is overwhelmed by Chryssalids, while at Yellowstone and Kamchatka the Chryssalids are slowly cleared away by Ethereal landing parties.
In total, twenty seven Ethereal beachheads are established on Earth on March 7th, but the attackers pay in blood for every step they take, and human forces remain firmly entrenched. The situation on Earth devolves into static trench warfare, as neither side is capable of overwhelming the other.
March 12th, 2041: Universal Conscription is implemented.
The initial Ethereal landings inflicted approximately twelve million casualties on the human defenders, with many millions more killed by the prior orbital bombardment. Protests are silenced, sometimes lethally, by XCOM Enforcers, and millions of human citizens are drafted into XCOM training camps.
April 8th, 2041: Ethereal reinforcements arrive.
Unable to break the month-long stalemate, the Ethereal commanders bring in additional reinforcements from off-world. Once again, human defenders do their utmost to stop these reinforcements from accomplishing their objectives, but breakthroughs are forced at sixteen of the twenty-seven beachheads, and the Ethereal forces rapidly shift forces from one beachhead to another, allowing six landing sites to be overwhelmed by human forces in exchange for increased gains at others. By April 21st, Ethereal forces stand at the gates of the New Volgograd and New Chicago arcologies.
Ethereal reinforcements would continue to arrive regularly until the end of the war.
April 21st, 2041: Hara-Kiri Protocol is devised.
With Ethereal forces pushing ever closer to the arcologies at New Volgograd and New Chicago, High Commander Bradford is faced with a difficult decision. In the event of an arcology's capture, the Ethereals would then be able to abduct the subterranean city's population, which could then be potentially used to complete the Avatar project. If the Avatar project were to succeed, all of the sacrifices of the previous wars would be in vain, and the Ethereals would be able to deploy Avatar super-soldiers en-masse.
Therefore, on April 21st, 2041, Bradford orders the placement of two hundred megaton thermonuclear bombs within each arcology, to be detonated in the event of the subterranean city's capture. This nuclear last resort is appropriately named the Hara-Kiri protocol. Commanders worldwide are informed of the protocol, and its existence is used to encourage arcology defenders to fight back harder against the enemy.
May 11th, 2041: Battle of New Volgograd begins.
At approximately 10:47 UCT, on May 11th, 2041, Ethereal forces reach the outer fortifications of the New Volgograd Arcology. Despite being reinforced multiple times, Ethereal forces barely outnumber the defenders, and their assault breaks apart against human defenses. Ground-based artillery is able to down two of the three attacking Ethereal frigates, one of which makes a relatively soft landing directly on top of the subterranean city. Human commandos quickly clear out the vessel, and with assistance from local engineers, are able to turn the vessel's remaining guns upon the enemy. New Volgograd's defenses would not be breached nearly fourteen months.
May 19th, 2041: Battle of New Chicago begins.
Similarly to New Volgograd, the New Chicago Arcology inflicts heavy casualties upon Ethereal attackers. Fighting back from heavily defensible, orbital bombardment resistant positions, the New Chicago guards employ everything from land mines to tactical nuclear warheads to stall the enemy advance.
New Volgograd and New Chicago were but the first of the human arcologies to be besieged by the Ethereals, although each and every one fought back with similar desperation. Casualties were quickly replaced with civilian draftees, and every arcology siege soon became a bloody stalemate.
However, the ongoing war was taking its toll on Earth's environment. The constant use of nuclear weapons by humanity, coupled with the debris thrown up by Ethereal orbital bombardment, caused the planet's temperature to drop by nearly five degrees Celsius by the end of May 2041, while radioactive fallout quickly contaminated the vast majority of the world's groundwater. Many species of wildlife, already in danger thanks to Chryssalid infestations, succumbed to radiation and went extinct. However, EWIII raged on, uncaring as to the plight of the environment.
June 19th, 2041: Raid on New Orleans Arcology. Aquatoids enter the war.
The rising radioactivity of the Earth had not gone unnoticed by any party. Human body armor now incorporated NCB seals, and geiger counters was a common sight within the arcologies. The Ethereals, meanwhile, had increased the amount of mechanized units in their forces, to compensate for the slow but steady death toll that radioactivity was exacting on their organic forces. However, there was a third party present that neither side knew of. Within their underwater city beneath the Gulf of Mexico, the Aquatoid race prepared for war. The ancient ancestors of what the Ethereals turned into Sectoids, the Aquatoids almost immediately noticed the war raging on the Earth above them, and immediately took action in accordance with their nature as an imperialistic alien race.
We now know that the Aquatoids are the remnants of the race that the Ethereals turned into the Sectoids, having fled their world in a huge generation ship, the T'leth, sixty-five million years ago. It was the T'leth crashing on Earth that was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. However, aside from brief exploratory forays into the world, the Aquatoids were content to allow their race to remain in cryosleep for fear of attracting Ethereal attention. Now that the Ethereals were on Earth, the Aquatoids prepared to take the fight to their ancient enslavers.
However, the Aquatoids were not prepared for the presence of humanity on Earth, and in their arrogance decided that we too were both a threat and an enemy. Their first action as a newly awakened race was to launch an amphibious raid on the New Orleans Arcology. While the New Orleans Arcology had not yet been besieged by Ethereals, it now came under attack by a different foe. Of course, the coastal archology was well equipped to defend against an amphibious assault, and the Aquatoids were soon driven off, and the attack was written off a new Ethereal tactic. It was only after Aquatoids were observed engaging Ethereal forces during the Siege of New Shanghai two weeks later that XCOM High Command realized that a third party had entered the war.
October 1st, 2041: New Rome Arcology employs the Hara-Kiri Protocol.
The New Rome Arcology was finally breached in late August of 2041, with heavy casualties being suffered on both sides. It was a Aquatoid raid that broke the arcology's defenses, diverting essential human forces to defend against an attack by sea. This allows Ethereal forces to launch the largest offensive since the Battle of New Volgograd, and the beleaguered human defenders are overwhelmed. The entirety of September is spent fighting the Ethereal and Aquatoid forces in desperate, room-by-room combat, with the arcology slowly being taken level by level. Every able bodied human being was given a weapon and ordered to fight by the last week of September, and when that proved to be insufficient, the Hara-Kiri protocol was reluctantly activated on October 1st.
The two hundred megaton detonation was the largest nuclear blast on Earth to date. Large waves produced by the blast devastated Aquatoid coastal bases on Sardinia and Corsica, and the losses inflicted caused all Aquatoid operations in the Mediterranean to grind to a halt. The blast itself was felt across the globe, and the mushroom cloud extended well past the atmosphere. In addition, the blast propelled nearly one hundred thousand tons of alien alloy plate, which originally composed the arcology's orbital bombardment shield, into space, catching the Ethereal space vessels over New Rome unawares. Like a crude shotgun, the verneshot from the nuclear blast destroyed six Ethereal frigates, two cruisers, and severely damaged the battleship they were escorting. Realizing this, a force of human Aerospace fighters, theoretically capable of combat both in and out of the atmosphere, were launched from silos in northern Italy, using the mushroom cloud as cover. Armed with laser cannons and carrying two ten kiloton oxygen-shell nuclear warheads, weapons designed specifically for vacuum use, the fighters launched into the mushroom cloud approximately two hours after the initial New Rome detonation. Approaching their target undetected, the fighters were able to quickly destroy the Ethereal battleship, killing the Ethereal onboard, and return home without even being fired upon. The New Rome crater is now a memorial site for all civilians who died during the first three Ethereal Wars.
In the aftermath of the New Rome blast, Ethereal forces retreated from near orbit, where they were holding position in order to provide close orbital support. While this move placed them safely out of range of any future nuclear blasts, this also prevented the Ethereals from being able to provide immediate orbital support. This in turn led to besieged arcologies mounting offensives, and by the end of October, the New Berlin, New London, New Paris, New Geneva, New Hamburg, and New Warsaw arcologies were able to break their respective sieges, and by the end of 2041 the Ethereals had been pushed out of Europe.
January 1st, 2042: XCOM Pacific Offensive begins.
With the Pacific Islands largely deserted after the First and Second Ethereal Wars, it came as no surprise to XCOM High Command that the Aquatoids had arrived in the humans' absence. Unwilling to risk assault by Aquatoid submarine, the XCOM Pacific Campaign is carried out almost exclusively by aircraft. One by one, Aquatoid forces are pushed off their newfound island bases, with the campaign being completed by the end of 2042. However, it becomes increasingly clear to XCOM that the Aquatoids cannot be defeated without destroying their underwater bases of operations. Therefore, even as XCOM footsoldiers were clearing out isolated island bases, the XCOM Aquanaut corps were deployed to the seafloor, using waterproofed gauss guns and special aqua-plastic armored suits to combat opponents equipped with lethal sonic weaponry and their own brand of psionic powers. On November 11th, 2042, Aquanaut forces discover an Aquatoid base on the Pacific sea floor. Torpedo strikes destroy some of the complex, but the vast majority of the base is built into the seabed, requiring five thousand infantry to go in and clear it out by hand. The Battle of the Challenger Fracture quickly became a bloodbath, but the three hundred surviving Aquanauts are able to capture the base and its technology relatively intact, allowing XCOM scientists to analyze and duplicate both the Aquatoids' technology, and Zrbite, the Trans-Newtonian element behind this technology.
Mass production of Zribite begins immediately, and while Zrbite lacks the gravitational manipulation and antimatter generation properties of Elerium, it still allows for humanity to start employing sonic weapons underwater, and exponentially more powerful laser weaponry above it.
July 23rd, 2042: Siege of New Volgograd ends.
The retreat of the Ethereals from close orbit allowed the XCOM forces trapped in the arcologies to move around much more freely, leading to the arcology sieges being broken one by one. With the Aquatoids in full retreat in the Pacific and the Ethereal forces being pushed out of Europe, the arcologies of western Asia are asked to apply pressure on the retreating Ethereal forces' eastern flank. One by one, the sieges of Russian arcologies are broken, with New Volgograd being the last to do so. After fourteen months of hard siege and constant warfare, the Ethereal forces around New Volgograd are reinforced, and mount a massive, desperate push at the arcology gates. Both sides suffer casualties in excess of fifty percent, but the New Volgograd gates are finally breached. However, unlike in New Rome, the Ethereal attackers are unable to take even the first level of the breached fortress city, and are driven out of the city after nearly three days of combat, with the New Volgograd Guard in hot pursuit.
With forces converging on them from the East and West, the Ethereal pocket in Europe is forced to retreat to the Vistula river. There, with the Volgograd, Moscow, Kiev and Novgorod Guard armies on one side, and the Warsaw, Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Helsinki, and Prague Guard armies on the other, the Ethereal forces are hemmed in with no further avenues of withdrawal. The subsequent Battle of the Vistula results in the annihilation of the remaining Ethereal forces in Europe. Europe becomes the first continent to be declared clear of Ethereal forces.
October 22nd, 2042: Battle of the Mississippi.
Following the example of the Europeans, the arcologies of North America push the alien invaders to the Mississippi river, destroying them utterly over the course of five days. On the other end of the continent, the Ethereal forces are pushed to the edge of the Pacific, where they are caught between Aquatoid and Human armies and are once again eliminated. Aquatoid forces suffer heavy casualties during the battle, and retreat rather than engage the human forces. Meanwhile, to the north, the New Ottawa Guard spearheads the Canadian Offensive, driving the Ethereal forces to the shores of Lake Ontario, where they are summarily destroyed, with the New York and New Cleveland guards provide fire support from across the lake. This, when combined with the landing forces in Mexico being driven all the way down to former Venezuela, leads to North America becoming the second continent declared free of Ethereal influence.
December 19th, 2042: T'leth is discovered.
While pursuing an Aquatoid raiding force within the Gulf of Mexico, an Aquatoid team stumbles upon what at first appears to be a small underwater outpost. The team attempts entry, but soon discovers that they have inadvertently stumbled into an enormous underwater city. Quickly retreating, the team alerts XCOM high command of their discovery.
December 21st, 2042: T'leth launches. Battle of the Gulf of Mexico commences.
Believing their home base compromised, the Aquatoids launch the T'leth, intending to use it to destroy all opposition on Earth, whether to colonize it or to destroy pursuit is unknown. Desperate for a solution, the New Orleans Arcology orders a general evacuation, intending to activate the Hara-Kiri protocol with the purpose of using the verneshot effect to take out the enormous alien vessel once it surfaced. However, before the T'leth could breach the ocean surface, one thousand XCOM Aquanauts arrive on the scene and board the vessel. XCOM aerial forces are launched from all over North America to intercept the gargantuan generation ship, while Ethereal aircraft launch from South America to do the same. When combined with Aquatoid multimodal submarines launching from the T'leth itself, a three-way air duel erupts over the Gulf, while onboard the T'leth proper, a small army of Aquanauts work to destroy the vessel before it can breach the surface. They are unsuccessful, and the T'leth's breaching causes tsunamis to hammer the Gulf coastline.
Ultimately, the T'leth is downed not by human bravery, but by Ethereal capital ships arriving from space. The ancient weaponry onboard the T'leth, while it may have been a match for the Ethereal weapons of sixty-five million years ago, was no match for what the Ethereals had in 2042, and the T'leth was soon shot down. However, in one final, spiteful move, the Aquatoid leadership detonates the T'leth's enormous Zrbite core. The resulting blast dwarfed the earlier New Rome detonation in magnitude, and caused a second wave of tsunamis to pound the Gulf's shores. The blast itself was enough to vaporize any human and Etheral forces present over or near the Gulf, and the New Orleans arcology, already devastated by the tsunamis, is completely destroyed by the blast wave. The Caribbean islands, along with nearly half of Florida, are completely leveled. The fallout from the blast still remains in the now-renamed Bay of Mexico, rendering it completely inhospitable to all life to this day.
However, the T'leth's self-destruction is the last act of the Aquatoids and their many vat-grown slave races. With the third party now eliminated, both Ethereals and Humans are now able to focus their full respective strengths against each other.
However, the Ethereals remain hesitant to bring their forces into close orbit around Earth, having lost one of their number to the T'leth's detonation. This inaction on the part of their orbital forces means that, while Ethereal troops can still land without fear of anti-orbital weapons, their only orbital support comes from Ethereal frigates, which had been proven vulnerable to ground battery fire and fighter attacks.
This means that the Ethereal orbital superiority over Earth is rendered moot, giving humanity a chance to fight the aliens on equal footing.
February 8th, 2043: Operation Strong Arm is conceived.
While the Ethereal navy remains in high orbit, XCOM High Command knows that as long as said fleet remains around the Earth, the tide of war could change at any moment. To remedy this issue, Operation Strong Arm is conceived. Over the next two months, the XCS Assassin is built and commissioned with a singular purpose. With speed and stealth as its only defenses, the Assassin is little more than a glorified troop transport. Its sole mission is to sneak past a distracted Ethereal defensive screen using its cloaking device, and board the Temple Ship in high Earth orbit. Once the boarding is complete, XCOM special forces would storm the hostile ship with the intent of killing all Ethereals onboard. The end of EWII proved that the death of an Ethereal is all but guaranteed to cause devastating psionic backlash through their local network, which would in turn allow for XCOM forces on Earth to fully repulse the aliens on the planet.
June 10th, 2043: Operation Strong Arm commences.
At exactly 13:00 hours UTC, XCOM forces initiate Operation Strong Arm with the launch of thirty 200-megaton fusion bombs into space. While these warheads are too high-yield to equip with Oxygen-shell technology, reducing their out-of-atmosphere effectiveness significantly, the EMP effects of the blasts are enough to temporarily bedazzle the Ethereals' conventional sensors. As these warheads are detonating, six hundred F-49 Aerospace fighters, which had been bloodied in the battle of New Rome, are launched from their underground silos. The thick, nuclear-winter inducing clouds over Earth hide the launches, allowing the aircraft to reach orbit undetected. These fighters are to serve as a diversion. The pilots are all volunteers, who all know of the mission's suicidal nature. Their purpose is to engage the Ethereal capital ships, and to draw them away from the Temple Ship.
Meanwhile, as the fighters are ascending to space, the XCS Assassin finishes its launch countdown and prepares to embark on its own mission. It is to stealthily approach the Ethereal temple ship, before deploying its boarding parties. Once again, all on-board personnel are volunteers, their mission suicidal.
At 13:43 UTC, the Human fighters make their presence known, splitting into two groups. One group engages the Ethereal frigate picket line, while the second attempts to sneak around to engage the Temple Ship. All oxygen-shell nuclear warheads are spent within the battle's opening minutes, with one such missile detonating near the Temple Ship itself. The diversion is a success, and the retreating Human fighters are pursued by the vast majority of the Ethereal fleet.
Meanwhile, the XCS Assassin successfully bypasses the outer picket line, its stealth system working well against the small Ethereal frigates. However, in spite of the experimental Mind Shield technology used by the transport's crew, the vessel is detected by psionic sensing devices onboard the Temple Ship. Under heavy fire, the Assassin's captain orders the troops onboard to abandon ship, before gunning the engines well past their intended limit and ramming the Temple Ship. The XCOM Special Operatives, now stranded in space, use cold-gas thrusters to spacewalk into the breach left by the Assassin's ramming strike. The two hundred volunteers meet little opposition at first, but their location is soon pinpointed and they are engaged. What happens next is unknown to XCOM forces, as the troops lose contact with Ground Control, but at approximately 15:22 UTC, the Temple Ship explodes. Immediately afterward, the Ethereal fleet retreats from Earth orbit to Mars, while their forces on the ground mill about, their chain of command disrupted. Humanity's own armies waste no time in taking advantage of this, and by the end of the year, Ethereal forces on Earth have once again been annihilated.
However, while the battle for Earth is over, Ethereal forces remain in orbit over Mars, out of humanity's reach. Even before the victory celebrations are over, High Commander Bradford orders the construction of the XCOM New Navy. With the Ethereals busy consolidating their position on Mars, Humanity is afforded a moment's respite from war, and the preparations for the continuation of war are immediately begun.
November 30th, 2044: Ares Offensive begins.
After more than a year of reconstruction and preparation, the XCOM New Navy, composed primarily of cheap, lightly armored, unarmed transport ships, is ready. On November 30th, a fleet of five thousand human ships, four thousand of which are transports, leave Earth to take part in Humanity's first interplanetary offensive. Four million military personnel sail with the fleet, three and a half million of which are members of the ground forces. It is an all-out assault, with a singular objective: Kill the Ethereals.
After three days in flight, the XCOM fleet arrives in Mars orbit, and the battle begins almost immediately. Only three hundred of the involved human vessels are capital ships, with the vast majority of the human fleet being either fighter carriers or troop transports. Facing nearly one thousand Ethereal capital ships, the Human combat vessels are doomed from the start. However, they accomplish their job, and allow two thirds of the involved troop transports to land directly on top of the Ethereal base of operations on Mars. As luck would have it, the presence of an Ethereal on the planet's surface forces the Ethereal forces in orbit to hold off on orbital bombardment, although they do not hesitate to land what troops they have onboard to reinforce the beleaguered facility's defenders.
The final, climatic battle of the Third Ethereal War took all of five days once the troops were landing. Unwilling to risk the life of the Ethereal on the planet, the Ethereal fleet refrains from killing the remaining Human infantry, allowing human forces to slowly but surely secure the facility. On the final day, however, Ethereal forces suddenly and unexpectedly retreat from battle. Unusually, the Ethereal on the ground is left behind, and it is quickly killed, along with the rest of the alien forces on Mars.
Ultimately, the Ethereals retreat, not just from Mars, but from the entire Sol system. It is later discovered that they have established a blockade two light years away from Sol, but for the moment, the victory on Mars is hailed as the end of the Third Ethereal War. Privately, though, XCOM's high command is concerned. The cause behind the Ethereals' sudden retreat is unknown, and remains unknown to this day. However, regardless of the circumstances, the Third Ethereal War is declared over, and the survivors of the Ares Offensive are welcomed back as heroes, and Humanity makes the most of the subsequent peace.
The ensuing reconstruction is significantly aided by the captured Ethereal base on Mars. Among the many examples of Ethereal technology recovered from the base is the required instruments for the production of Elerium, which finally ends the crippling shortage of the vital substance that had existed since the Second Ethereal War.
Tragically, two days after the victorious troops return to Earth, General Peter van Doorn, who commanded the ground forces during the Ares Offensive, dies of radiation poisoning. High Commander Bradford would suffer the same fate five years later, while inspecting the progress of initial efforts at environmental reclamation.
January 18th, 2050: XCOM Navy rebuilt.
On January 18th, 2050, the XCS Sarah Sullivan is launched, becoming the one thousandth capital ship in the newly rebuilt XCOM navy. This ship is far from the last ship built at the newly-constructed Ares Shipyards over Mars, but it is the first human vessel equipped with an FTL drive. However, the drive proves useless aside from short-distance in-system jumps, and the installation of such devices is shelved in favor of the Elerium Rail network. The Elerium Rail network is a network of small-scale Gravitational Sling stations designed to propel ships between planets at FTL speeds. By 2060, the rail network extends out to Saturn, with its end terminus being over a newly-colonized Titan.
Meanwhile, the universal conscription policies of EWIII have not been repealed, while reproduction laws are passed into being alongside the release of new medical technologies. Human population explodes over the following years, with the excess population being shipped to the various Solar colonies. The environment on Earth is slowly but surely cleaned, with above-ground settlements sprouting up once more in safe zones, although many families, remembering the war, choose to stay in the Arcologies.
The reconstruction of Humanity would continue until the mid 2080s.
March 29th, 2084: Micronoid War begins.
Often referred to as the Training War, the Micronoid War begins nearly forty years after the end of the EWIII. On March 29th, multiple extradimensional gateways open over Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto, with the Micronoid invasion force pouring through them. The organic Micronoid ships have a huge numerical advantage over the Human navy, and their disruptor shields give them an incredible durability advantage over the unshielded Human warships. However, these ships are armed almost exclusively with short-range Disruptor cannons, which gives Humanity an immense advantage in terms of standoff distance in naval combat. Tactics are hurriedly adapted, and the Micronoid assaults on Jupiter and Saturn are quickly repelled, with minefields deployed at the portal entrances, which are soon closed from the other end. However, while the Jovian and Saturnian portals are quickly neutralized, the fleet around Pluto is able to enter Human space without any major resistance, while the Martian portal opens directly within the planet's atmosphere, over the Martian Planetary Capital of Mega-Primus. Messy street-to-street fighting erupts as the colony's residents grab weapons and join the planetary garrison in defending the planet.
April 3rd, 2084: Second Battle of Saturn.
The Micronoid fleet that exited the Plutonian portal arrives at Saturn, intent on invading the Human colony of Titan. However, Human forces are prepared, and the battle between the two forces, while drawn out, is one-sided, with the vast majority of the Micronoid forces never reaching Titan's orbit. The few that do are quickly neutralized, and the short range of Micronoid weapons means that Human casualties are low.
Meanwhile, the situation in Mars orbit has similarly stabilized, with any captured sections of Mega Primus being bombarded from orbit, denying them to the enemy and allowing XCOM forces to quickly retake the craters. Unable to gain anything on land or in orbit, the Micronoid forces retreat from Mars by April 5th. Human losses are minor, both on land and in space, and the aliens leave behind plentiful examples of their technology, including Disruptor shields and various forms of weaponry.
However, while the Micronoids never invade Earth, a small-scale rebellion begins by so-called 'Freedom Fighters' within the New Harare Arcology. Local XCOM Peacekeepers are quickly able to put down the rebellion with the aid of thousands of loyal citizens, suffering minimal losses. However, autopsies of the rebel corpses reveal them to be a cult of ExAlts that had either managed to escape the Purges of 2035, or were planted by Ethereal forces during EWIII. This discovery kicks off a new wave of purges, with new genetic screening technology allowing for easy detection of surviving ExAlts. Just over ten thousand ExAlts and other seditious individuals are executed during the second purge. In the wake of the purge, the two of the three Secret Police branches are formed, with the Anti-Sedition Police and Ordermen formed to prevent further ExAlt mutinies, eliminate disloyal and seditious activity, and prevent internal strife within the XCOM Administration's ranks.
April 9th, 2084: Asteroid Belt Offensive.
With their foothold over Pluto tentative at best, and their forces removed from all other initial assault locations, the Micronoids attempt a delaying action by opening several portals within the Asteroid Belt, landing troops on the many armed mining colonies therein. The Jovian and Martian fleets move to protect the human installations, and they succeed in repelling the majority of the Micronoid fleet, but Micronoid forces would remain entrenched on multiple asteroids until early 2085, long after the rest of their forces have been driven from the system. By the time the last alien holdouts are blasted from the surface of 6537 Adamovich, these mop-up operations have been reduced to simple weapon tests, with the Adamovich Engagement being used to test Toxin C-based space-station clearing bombs. However, while the Micronoid war was infinitesimally small in scope when compared to the Ethereal Wars, the experience and technology gained from the conflict would serve Humanity well in the Fourth Ethereal War.
April 21st, 2084: Battle of Pluto. Discovery of Charon Relay.
While the Jovian and Martian fleets were busy clearing out the Asteroid Belt, the Saturnian fleet prepared for a counter-offensive on Pluto, intending to drive the invaders from the Sol system once and for all. On April 21st, the fleet arrives in Pluto's orbit, weapons blazing. As usual, Micronoid forces attempt to desperately rush the Human fleet, but they are once more cut down by fusion lance fire before they can get into range. The portal over Pluto is closed, but not before fifty Human ships are able to reach it and enter. None of these ships ever returned, but no further Micronoid portals were detected after the Battle of Pluto.
However, during the battle, a small force of Micronoid warships attempted to flank the Human fleet, using Charon's shadow to mask their position. Fortunately for the Saturnian fleet, this force runs directly into a swarm of Human fighters who were directed to flank and engage the Micronoid forces. During the battle, stray fire blasts away a portion of Charon's surface, revealing an alien device of unknown origins embedded in the surface of the moon.
After the Battle of Pluto is over, the device is unearthed by Naval engineers. XCOM Scientists rush to investigate the device, but strong psionic fields onboard the device proper almost immediately force their retreat, while psionic specialists are brought in. The device is thoroughly analyzed, and while its origins remain unknown, its function is discovered. It is determined to be an FTL relay, similar in function to the Elerium Rail stations, albeit on an immensely larger scale. Its destination is determined to be the star Arcturus.
The knowledge gleaned from the Mass Relays would eventually allow humanity to design the Elerium Sling stations, which, while slower than the Mass Relays, are not limited to a set network of destination systems, and are now used as the primary method of inter-stellar travel within Human space.
March 1st, 2085: Micronoid War is declared over.
The Abramovich Test successfully eliminates the last Micronoid holdouts within the Sol system. Reconstruction of Mega Primus has long since been completed, and the few losses sustained by XCOM's military have been replaced as well.
However, the discovery of the Charon Relay catapults Human plans for a counter-offensive against the Ethereals forward by several decades. The XCOM fleet of the Micronoid War is gradually retired or refitted with FTL drives, while the gradual build-up of the human military is accelerated. Over the next twenty years, the XCOM navy nearly quintuples in size, a trend mirrored or surpassed by the rest of XCOM's military branches. As early as 2090, humanity is acutely aware of the fact that another war is on the horizon.
March 1st, 2100: Operation Chateau Gaillard. Fourth Ethereal War begins.
On the 85th anniversary of the First Ethereal War's beginning, the XCOM First Fleet activates the Charon Mass Relay, using it to bypass the Ethereal blockade of the Sol system. Then, once in Arcturus, the Human fleet jumps back to Earth with conventional FTL, while the XCOM Second Fleet jumps to engage the Ethereal fleet from within the Sol System. The two fleets engage within minutes of each other, and the Ethereal forces, attacked from multiple directions and unable to consolidate, suffer heavy losses before retreating. The Fourth Ethereal War begins with a devastating Human victory, and Human forces rapidly expand out of the Sol System, seizing a sphere of space thirty-six light years in radius with next to no resistance.
This concludes the history of the Alien Wars within the Sol System. For an up to date history of the Fourth Ethereal War, please visit the XCOM Ministry of Education home site. All citizens are reminded that these successes in war were only possible thanks to the collective efforts and loyalty of all humanity to the XCOM cause, and that all future victories are dependent on the same. Every human must fight, be it on the battlefield, in the factory, or in the administration. Vigilo Confido.
A/N: And that's a wrap! In retrospect, I really should not have gone so overboard with information that will likely be referenced in passing if at all in the actual story. As it is, the length of this update has necessitated the cut of the history of EWIV, which I may provide via a later special update if enough popular demand exists. In addition, a desire to get back to the actual story has necessitated the cut of the XCOM Technological Codex. Instead of one big codex dump, all relevant information on human technology will be included at the end of each chapter for your continued enjoyment.
Finally, as I passed the 10k mark, I decided to make the Micronoid much more of a curbstomp than it was originally intended. However, that does have significant basis in canon, as the Ethereals took over an entire world, and in my canon, they very nearly managed to do so twice. Meanwhile, in XCOM Apocalypse, the Micronoids attempt to take a single city (Mega Primus), and are taken out by an XCOM that is effectively reduced to glorified law enforcement, using conventional weaponry (Lawpistols, M4000, etc.) and a few specialized plasma/laser guns. I mean seriously, XCOM's driving around in glorified sports' cars instead of actual military vehicles, and the Micronoids still get their asses kicked (To add insult to injury, the time in Apocalypse is measured in weeks instead of months, meaning that the Micronoids got defeated in a matter of weeks rather than months).
Still, I hope you enjoyed this update in spite of its unexpected length. I will endeavor to make future updates no more than 10k words in length, to ensure that they are satisfyingly long to compensate for extended times between updates. After all, I am currently juggling three separate active long-term projects with two more on the backburner. I am attempting to implement an update schedule to manage my projects more efficiently while maintaining a regular update rate, so hopefully that will keep updates coming.
I hope you all enjoyed this timeline update, and that it clears up most of the uncertainty posed by the prologue. The next update will bring about a transition into the actual story. Remember, a loyal, patient citizen has nothing to fear from the ASP. Vigilo Confido!
