Author's Notes:
*Disclaimer 1: All other characters, places, and events are completely fictitious and original creations of the author; any resemblance to real life persons, events, or places is unintentional unless intended as parody or satire.
*Disclaimer 2: Planets EE-L4, L0, L5, and L3 all use different calendars than that used on Earth. Hence, a date expressed on one world will not necessarily sync up to a date expressed on another world.
Event Horizon: Storm Of Magic - Prologue
TIMELINE 1: THE VOYAGE TO EPSILON ERIDANI
Day -180: Apr 04, 2154 C.E.
Atlas Station, in orbit over Earth, Sol System
The United Nations Space Vessel (UNSV) Belo Horizonte ISXCT-138 departs Atlas Station, under the command of Capt. Hans Ulrich Müller. Destination: Epsilon Eridani System. ETA: 180 days. Their mission: to explore and colonize three recently-discovered M-class planets that orbit the star and have been confirmed to possess gravitic, atmospheric, and climatological conditions perfectly suited to supporting Human life. To find one such planet is rare enough already; to have located three in the same system is stated by most astronomers and astrophysicists to be a "one-in-a-trillion-cubed" chance.
This mission is a joint collaboration between the United Nations Administration for Space Exploration and Colonization (UNASEC) and The Company™, a private multinational corporation with major investments in space exploration, mining, and colonization, all throughout the Sol and Alpha Centauri Systems. The UN has agreed to grant The Company™ exclusive trade, mineral, and colonization rights over the entire star system in return for co-financing all explorations of the system.
For the first leg of the journey, the Belo Horizonte is propelled by eight massive Centaur Z78 Ion Engines, powered by the ship's main matter-antimatter annihilation reactor. Each individual thruster produces a plasma contrail visible for tens of thousands of miles in every direction. Meanwhile, the ship's mighty Hyperion 8-class Tachyon-Shunt Trans-Light Drive (TLD) is activated and begins warming up as the ship's resident A.I. "Skippy" calculates the best hyperspace trajectory to reach Epsilon Eridani as quickly yet safely as possible.
Day -179
En Route to Epsilon Eridani
Most of the crew and passengers of the UNSV B. Horizonte enter cryogenic hibernation. Only a handful of crew remains awake in order to monitor the ship's systems while final preparations for the trans-light jump are made.
Day -178
En route to Epsilon Eridani
The last remaining crewmembers enter cryogenic hibernation. Due to the hazards posed when the ship crosses the lightspeed barrier, as well as due to time dilation, it is standard UNASEC practice for all crewmembers to be placed in cryo for the duration of the Trans-Light jump.
Day -177
En route to Epsilon Eridani
The UNSV B. Horizonte hits the lightspeed barrier. The entire ship is transferred into an alternate mirror state wherein the ship and everything within it are composed entirely of tachyons. Once having crossed the light barrier, the ship is hypothetically capable of infinite speed simply by shedding mass - however, the ship's maximum speed is limited by the amount of mass/energy needed to propel the ship back across the light barrier once it arrives at its destination.
Due to Doppler shifting of the light spectrum, lightwaves in front of the ship are compressed, creating a blue shift, while lightwaves behind the ship are expanded, creating a red shift.
Day -178
En route to Epsilon Eridani
After 5 days of acceleration, UNSV B. Horizonte finally reaches its cruising speed at 21.3c, or 6.39 million km/sec.
Day -146
Alpha Centauri System, 4.1 LY from Sol
The UNSV Joseph Conrad ISXCT-152, the newest, largest, and most advanced starship in the UNASEC fleet, completes its maiden voyage, arriving at Alpha Centauri to resupply Earth's Colonies in the system with additional personnel and colonists from Earth, food supplies and medicines, as well as specialized machinery, spare parts, and other goods that cannot yet be produced locally in the Alpha Centauri System. The ship will return to Earth with a cargo of several million tons of Iridium, Palladium, Yttrium, Neutronium, and other rare and exotic minerals that cannot be harvested locally in the Sol System in bulk quantities.
Day -124
Epsilon Eridani System, 10.5 LY from Sol
Deep Space automated probe Heimdallr 03 arrives in the system ahead of the Horizonte mission, and begins the most detailed exploration of the system to date, in large part thanks to the drone's latest ultra-high magnification lenses, that allow the probe to peer into each planet, down to almost ground-level.
Day -86
Alpha Centauri System
After having spent the better part of the last two months offloading supplies and personnel, and loading up with over 17 million tons of rare minerals, the UNSV Joseph Conrad departs Alpha Centauri back to Earth, under the command of Capt. Tallinn Kaurava.
Day -63
Epsilon Eridani System
Due to an unexpected spike in EM activity emanating from EE-L0's polar regions, contact with deep space probe drone Heimdallr 03 is temporarily lost. Mission control back on Earth cannot do anything more than step back and let the automated probe do its work by itself. Without further instruction from Earth, the little probe droid continues along its assigned route, scanning and surveying the planets of the Epsilon Eridani system by itself...
Day -45
Epsilon Eridani System
The EM activity in the system temporarily subsides, allowing mission control to reestablish contact with Heimdallr 03. The probe droid is able to beam back various data scans and video footage it shot and recorded while in isolation. What the team back on Earth sees surprises and shakes them to their very core.
Day -41
Tokyo, Japan, Earth
Top officials, executives, and representatives of both UNASEC and The Company are summoned to The Company's office in Tokyo, Japan for an emergency conference on how to deal with the new situation that has arisen as a result of the recent discoveries made by Heimdallr 03.
Day -35
Tokyo, Japan, Earth
After days of debate and deliberation between representatives of the UNASEC and The Company, it is decided to reveal the discovery of a living "Exo-human" civilization on another world to the general public. However, as a compromise, UNASEC agrees to reveal only one of the planets, as a way of gauging the public reaction before revealing the other two. A date is set for when the news will be made, but it is first agreed to show the news to top scientists and anthropologists for their input.
Day -24
Geneva, Switzerland, Earth
UN Secretary General Miguel Luiz Santos Da Silva reveals the footage in question of the natives of EE-L4 before a panel of selected scientists and anthropologists behind closed doors at the UN Institute of Advanced Sciences in Geneva, Switzerland. The stunned scientists are at a complete loss to explain what they see before them.
Despite the tight security surrounding the panel and the non-disclosure agreements signed by the scientists, word still somehow managed to get out to the general public through the Holonet. It is currently unknown who was the mole who leaked the information to the web, though computer analysts at The Company are working overtime to identify the leak.
Nevertheless, most people who heard the news were quick to dismiss it as a rumor at best, and a government conspiracy at worst. It wasn't until two days later that the "Great Discovery of EE-L4" made it to the headlines.
Day -22: Sept 09, 2154 C.E.
New York City, USA, Earth
UN Secretary General Miguel Da Silva announces to the general public the news of "the Great Discovery of EE-L4" at a press conference held at the UN General Assembly. As expected, the announcement generates shockwaves across the news media and around Earth and the Colonies.
Several prominent world leaders, incl. the President of the United States, the German Chancellor, the Chinese Premier, the Emperor of Japan, Her Holiness the Pope, and the Dalai Lama all release public statements commenting on the news and congratulating both The Company and UNASEC for this marvelous discovery.
In the wake of the announcement, the value of shares in the exo-planetary exploration sector skyrockets (no pun intended). The Company™, naturally, is the big winner of the day at the stock market, but other major space-faring corporations, like Nova Corp. and Guanlong Enterprises, also do very well.
Day -21
Various locations around Earth
No sooner does the revelation of "The Great Discovery of EE-L4" make headlines, when The Company™ already finds its offices in New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Sydney, Toronto, San Francisco, Luna, and Mars all besieged by protestors. Most of these protestors are angry at The Company™'s exclusive access rights to the Epsilon Eridani System, and are worried that The Company™ will exploit the locals. Higher-ups within The Company™ suspect that at least some of these protests are being secretly backed by their corporate rivals, including Nova Corp.
New Pyongyang, Mars
Premier Kim Suk Hwang of the Martian Remnant of the Former DPRK (aka "North Korea") announces that his regime will not tolerate any attempts by the "capitalist Earth pigdogs" to "invade and conquer" a planet that "rightfully belongs to the Glorious Korean people". He warns UNASEC and The Company™ that their continued activities in the Epsilon Eridani System will be met with repercussions. As with previous threats made by the DPRK in the past, most of these are unceremoniously ignored.
The Holy See, Italy, Earth
Her Holiness Pope Aurelia II convenes with her College of Cardinals to discuss the implications of "the Great Discovery of EE-L4" on the church and to try to interpret God's Will.
New York City, USA, Earth
UN Secretary General Miguel Da Silva is the main guest hosted by CyberOprah Winfrey 2.0 on her talk show, Oprah 3000, where he discusses the work UNASEC is doing and the lessons humanity can learn from the exploration of EE-L4. The episode breaks a new Holovision ratings record, beating out that set earlier that season by Earth's Got Talent.
Day 20
New York City, USA, Earth
In a desperate bid to stay on par with their competitors, Nova Corp. announces that they too have discovered a habitable planet in the Sirius System, and are now fast-tracking plans to send a colonization mission there. However, in light of the other news, hardly anyone bats an eyelid to Nova Corp., and those that do accuse Nova of trying to cash in on The Company's success.
Enthusiasm over "The Great Discovery" reignites an interest in the fantasy genre. The popular Throne Of Blood books by Latino author Jorge Ramón Ricardo de Martín (popularly known by his fans as 'JRRM'), and the Rings Of The Nibelung trilogy by Johann R.R. Von Tolkynen (an adaptation of the classic Germanic myth of the Nibelunglied) all make it into the Intergalactic Herald Tribune's Bestseller list for the week. Meanwhile, an operatic performance of Richard Wagner's Götterdamerung in Rome, Italy sells out within minutes.
Mr. Domenech E. Belleville, Executive Director of The Company™'s Space Exploration and Colonization Branch, appears as a panelist on The Hour on the Galactic News Network (GNN), where he engages in an extended heated debate with several other panelists over allegations of corruption and The Company™'s monopoly over all activity going on in the Epsilon Eridani System.
Day -19
Paris, France, Earth
A clash breaks out between anti-Company™ protestors and the French Gendarmerie nationale. 12 people are seriously injured and another 15 arrested.
New York City, USA, Earth
Over a dozen major international media conglomerates jostle to bid for the rights for shoot a documentary in Epsilon Eridani.
Bangkok, Thailand, Earth
Tulku 8734 "Tenzin" - the world's first A.I. to convert to a major religion and the founder of the Roboddhism spiritual movement (of robots and A.I.s who have converted to Buddhism) - gives a sermon to his fellow Robotkind and to an attending audience of gathered 300,000 cyborgs and humans on how "The Great Discovery" has the potential to help elevate Humanity's well-being and spiritual enlightenment.
Day -18
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Earth
Over 400,000 people gather at a New Age spiritual fest on Ipanema Beach to celebrate "The Great Discovery" ... with lots and lots of sex and drugs and other New Age spiritual shit.
Day -16
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Earth
After two days of intoxicated revelry, the event is forcibly broken up by the Policia Civil do Estado do Rio De Janeiro. Some of the participants, high on various 22nd century psychedelic cocktails, violently resist this move by the authorities. No deaths are reported, but at least 33 are injured in various ways, and over 40 arrests are made.
Day -15
Santa Fe ... Mars
The preserved cybernetic brain of famed late 21st century author Jorge Ramón Ricardo de Martín, pleased with the news of how well his books are selling in the wake of renewed interest in the fantasy genre, announces that he will begin work on the long awaited next book in his epic Throne Of Blood fantasy series.
Day -14
Salt Lake City, USA, Earth
Reverend Aladanel McRichards of the Church of Latter-Day Saints announces a new campaign among Mormons throughout Earth and the Colonies to petition UNASEC to allow a team of Mormon missionaries onto the follow-up mission to Epsilon Eridani - they believe that the Human inhabitants of Epsilon Eridani are members of the family of Lehi and the Mulekites who left Ancient Israel over 2,750 years ago.
Day -12
Geneva, Switzerland, Earth
Dr. Lana Del Rio publishes her paper Explanations For And Implications Of The Existence Of English-Speaking Xeno-Humans in which she highlights several, uh, explanations for and implications of the existence of English-speaking Xeno-humans on EE-L4.
Day -11
UNASEC Headquarters, Atlas Station, Earth
The UNSV Joseph Conrad is one of three "finalist ships" chosen by UNASEC for the follow-up expedition to Epsilon Eridani, along with the UNSV Nan-Shan, the UNSV Endeavor, and the UNSV Theodore Roosevelt.
Day -9
Atlas Station, Earth
The UNSV Joseph Conrad arrives back in the Sol System after the long voyage from Alpha Centauri.
Day -6
New Olympia Spaceport, Mars
While being maneuvered out of its dock for a routine voyage back to Earth, the UNSV Nan-Shan collides with a smaller ship, the tramp-spacer Starship Hooper. Both ships suffer damage to their hull plates, leading to 8 deaths and a couple dozen injuries. New Olympia Spaceport Authorities immediately launch an investigation into the cause of the accident. Meanwhile, the Nan-Shan is forced to return to drydock to undergo repairs, effectively eliminating it as UNASEC's top choice for the Epsilon Eridani Mission.
Day -5
En route to Epsilon Eridani
The UNSV begins preliminary stages of deceleration in preparation for its arrival in the system.
Day -4
Holowood, Los Angeles, Earth
The low budget, pornographic fantasy holomovie Barbarella 3: Hoard Of The Dragon Queen exceeds all expectations when it opens at Number 3 at the weekend box office, in spite of really, really shitty reviews. Surprised film critics, in retrospect, attribute this to the sudden surge in popular interest in anything Medieval or fantasy-related. Major holomovie studios take note of this latest trend.
Day -3
En route to Epsilon Eridani
The UNSV B. Horizonte crosses the lightspeed barrier during the deceleration phase.
Day -2
UNASEC HQ, Atlas Station
UNASEC announces the selection of the UNSV Joseph Conrad as the vessel for the follow-up mission to Epsilon Eridani.
Day 0: Oct 01, 2154 C.E.
Epsilon Eridani System
The UNSV B. Horizonte arrives in the Epsilon Eridani System. The crew are slowly but surely awoken from their 6-month hibernation. The news of "the Great Discovery" is broken to the crew during the post-hibernation mission briefing with UNASEC.
Day 1: Oct 02, 2154 C.E.
Epsilon Eridani System - orbit over EE-L4
Valkyrie 02 departs the UNSV B. Horizonte, bound for EE-L4 with 50 passengers onboard, incl. a squad of United Nations Colonial Marines, under the command of Sergeant Hawthorne. Company™ employees Mr. Frederick Kovacs and Mr. Daniel Zimmerman are the acting director and assistant director (respectively) of this expedition.
Valkyrie 02 makes landfall on EE-L4, landing in a remote and secure area of the planet's Western Continent in the early hours of the morning (local time).
Mr. Jonathan Teller convenes with First Lieutenant Archer, head of all Colonial Marine forces deployed with the Horizonte, to discuss a workable security solution, now that the variables have been altered, and The Company™'s in-system colonies could be facing up to a billion potential hostiles.
Day 2
Demilitarized Zone, Mars
An explosion is detected somewhere above the Martian Remnant of the Former DPRK aka "North Korea". Premier Kim Suk Hwang claims to the international news media that they were testing a new planetary defense weapon. However, UN intelligence analysts suspect that the DPRK was actually trying to launch their own mission to the Epsilon Eridani System, and that the ship exploded during trial runs, perhaps due to the shoddy construction techniques employed by the DPRK.