Today, we present the first entry in the Chronicles of Terranis, detailing what happens to Terranis at the end of the Judgment War, and how it becomes isolated from the rest of the galaxy.

AD 4304-6, AF 1-3: After nearly three hundred years of warfare, the Solar Alliance declares victory in the Judgment War. The homeworld of the Great Enemy, located in their dark alternate reality, has been destroyed, and the portals into their universe have been sealed.

However, hundreds of worlds have been reduced to smoldering ruins, and hundreds more bear the scars of war. Trace elements of the Great Enemy can still be found on many worlds, as well as in space, making life very dangerous. Dozens of worlds are still attacked across the span of 4304, including Terranis, a moon in the remote Delta Gamma Phi system.

A half-dozen ships of the Great Enemy invade the system, and what little spaceborne defenses present are mustered to meet this threat. The defense fleet is quickly overwhelmed, and only one of the Enemy ships is destroyed. The remainder pull into orbit over Terranis and its governing planet, Belladrix, and engage in a protracted bombardment of the two worlds. Belladrix receives the majority of the bombardment, and the communication satellite networks of both worlds are mostly destroyed in the process, along with many orbital facilities.

After several days of bombardment, and the lack of response to interstellar calls for aid (which is not surprising, given Terranis’ remote location, but may indicate broader troubles for the Solar Alliance), the local garrisons of All-Terrain Suits are able to mobilize and fly into orbit to meet this threat. The remaining ships of the defense fleet join them.

Following a protracted battle, two more of the ships are destroyed, and the others flee into a low orbit over the far side of Terranis. The pursuing human forces once again engage the remaining ships, and they crash land on Terranis. However, the ships crash-land in different locations, two landing on the eastern continent, and one landing on the western one. The ships also remain largely intact, and disgorge their hordes of demonic crew after landing. Ground-based forces engaging the monsters are unable to contain the spread of the monsters, and thousands of them disappear into the wilderness of Terranis.

Additionally, the remaining vessels of the defense fleet are destroyed in the final space battle, leaving only several squadrons of All-Terrain Suits as the only space-capable vehicles in the system. No contact can be established with Belladrix, and the destruction of the communication network has also cut off Terranis from the wider galaxy. Estimations of surface damage for Belladrix go as high as 80%, while Terranis suffers a much milder 20-30%.

Soon after the crash landing, strange energy readings are detected, consistent with previous readings taken during the Judgment War of the portals used by the Great Enemy to break into our universe. It is quickly discovered that the demonic host now invading the surface of Terranis is led by a powerful demon lord, capable of tearing through the fabric of space-time to summon more demons. This demon lord is identified as Astanathos, and it is resolved among the remaining military leaders that he must be destroyed at all costs.

A combined assault is launched against Astanathos’ position. At first it appears to prove successful, as the infantry and armored elements are able to overwhelm the lesser monsters, but the arrival of Astanathos on the battlefield quickly sways events in the monsters’ favor, and he unleashed terrible energies to destroy the infantry and lighter vehicles in droves.

All of the remaining All-Terrain Suits are called in to strike at Astanathos as one, and they immediately begin their assault. Among the four remaining squadrons of All-Terrain Suits is one squadron of the legendary Savior-class Suits, however even these mighty machines find the assault against Astanathos difficult almost to the point of impossibility.

After hours of fighting, most of the All-Terrain Suits have been destroyed, but Astanathos is weakened by the combat as well. The remaining suits launch a final assault against him, and the last remaining Savior suit is able to drive its phase glaive through Astanathos’ heart, defeating him. As Astanathos is torn from our reality and cast back into his, the resultant explosion of energy consumes the remaining All-Terrain Suits, destroying them, and the backlash of energy tears apart the surrounding countryside, reducing most of it to an ash-ridden desert.

The surviving monsters flee once more into the wilderness, to either hide from pursuing human forces, or to prey on smaller towns and vulnerable caravans traveling the roads of Terranis. The human government of Terranis, once unified under the Solar Alliance, is destroyed, as the capital city was annihilated in the conflict, and surgical strikes against many key facilities across Terranis before the destruction of Astanathos have all but destroyed its economic, industrial, and communication infrastructure.

The entire moon is thrown into anarchy, the long-range communication people once enjoyed is now gone, leaving every city effectively isolated except for physical couriers, and even this means of messaging is unreliable at best, for the roads in between the cities have become extremely dangerous from the monsters still present on Terranis. Most of the moon’s military was destroyed in the final battle against Astanathos, leaving only a few cities with the means to truly guarantee safety to its citizens.

Dozens of towns are razed and overrun by the monsters, and tens of thousands of humans are killed in the ensuing chaos. Stories spread of the viciousness and fury of the monster attacks, often growing exaggerated with each re-telling, but forcing citizens in the surviving cities to turn to increasingly extreme measures to try and ensure their survival. Industry in many cities is almost entirely given over to the manufacturing of arms and armor, though the sophisticated techniques required to produce more advanced weaponry such as pulse rifles or other energy-based weapons and armor is lacking in most cities, forcing them to resort to manufacturing more basic weapons such as swords and plate-mail armor.

Additionally, many advanced machines, their usefulness now removed or greatly reduced, are scrapped for their raw materials, and the overall technological level of Terranis quickly regresses. Within a few years, the continual destruction being wrought by the Great Enemy and the salvaging of advanced technology reduces Terranis to a technological equivalent of the early Middle Ages, give or take a number of exceptions.  What remaining advanced technology there is becomes jealously hoarded by those wealthy enough to obtain them.

Eventually, enough cities raise large enough armies to protect themselves from the predations of the Great Enemy, though by this time there are likely only several dozen cities left scattered around Terranis, the rest having been abandoned or destroyed.

Fortunately, one of the surviving cities is a large city called Saernis, which houses several great libraries. Though much of the city is razed by the ongoing conflicts, the repositories of knowledge contained within its reaches are largely preserved due to the efforts of several organizations, making these libraries the largest store of knowledge on Terranis, and the only link to its history before the Fall, which is the name given to the near-total destruction of Terranis and its civilization wrought by Astanathos. Thus the legacy of humanity and the knowledge of what it what once remains intact, to remind the people of Terranis what they once were, and what they could be again someday.

Over the next several years, scholars living in Saernis collaborate to establish the After Fall calendar, beginning in the AD year 4306. Though it takes nearly a century for this calendar to spread to Terranis, its use becomes universal.

Finally, after almost five years of chaos and turmoil, humanity stabilizes its position and halts the decline of both its population and its technology. The remaining cities become increasingly fortified against attack, and people flock to the protection of their walls. However, they remain isolated from one another, with little news passing between them, and the lands outside their borders continue to be extremely dangerous.

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