Serendip Belt: History

5151AD The Martyrdom of Marcus Sensorops

In early 5151AD the chain of events that would inexorably lead to war were set in motion. At the time, no one could have imagined that the actions of a small number of peaceful fanatics could lead to such dire consequences.

Faust is a medium sized miniworld, which was informally aligned with Glitter. The Bridge Crew had been building up a huge fleet of warships for five years. This programme was so expensive that taxes, and popular dissent, had risen to unprecedented levels.

The revolution, when it came, was lead by a small group of Spiritist monks; but it enjoyed the support of a large majority of the miniworld’s disillusioned population. The Bridge Crew were overpowered and imprisoned within two days.

The monks were lead by Marcus Sensorops. He declared that war was discordant, and that war-craft were ‘entropic’. All of Faust’s warships and weapons were swiftly dismantled. A year after the revolution, the last of Faust’s weapons were gone. Sensorops announced that the miniworld was at last free of entropic influences. Stasis had returned.

No sooner had stasis returned to Faust, than the first of the assault boats from Glitter began to arrive. Shock troops poured through the habitat, ruthlessly crushing all resistance. Within three days, Faust was completely under the control of Glitter’s military. All of the monks were summarily executed. Sensorops was spaced; his final, noble moments were captured by a news camera crew and watched by millions throughout the system.

It swiftly came to light that Shard had supported Glitter’s military takeover. Weapons and supplies from Shard had been extensively used, and it was rumoured that even some of the troops had been Sharders in Glitter uniforms.

Several miniworlds responded by imposing sanctions on Glitter, and its new colony. Eventually it became clear that mere sanctions would not free Faust; Shipyard and the C-Jammer started a military blockade of Glitter. Within six months, the whole Belt was cast into general war.

5153AD General War

It had been coming for sixty years. Every miniworld and bubbleworld in the Belt was affected by the war. Hundreds of thousands died, yet the whole thing lasted for less than a year.

Shipyard, and C-Jammer lead one side. They were supported by Harvest and Prism, and in the Outer Belt, by Honeycomb.

The other side was lead by Shard and it’s huge colony Lucifer. Glitter and it’s colony Faust lent their support, as well as Waystation in the Outer Belt.

There was a great deal of conflict on Michael. Gabriel’s neutral status protected the Belt’s most populous habitat from conflict.

The war ended abruptly when Lucifer was badly damaged in a major assault by Shipyard. 150,000 were killed, and Shard’s ability to supply its forces there was seriously curtailed. Shard sued for peace, and was forced to sign the “Pact of Two” (the year was ST 3002, in the Crew reckoning). Shard agreed to repair Lucifer at its own expense, and then to relinquish all control over the bubbleworld. Lucifer was free!