The Unified Terran Nations, once a proud and propserous unity of nations, was destroyed by inhuman forces spreading through subspace in a matter of hours. The fires of a hundred burning worlds raged for cycles from Aftershock, billions of lives extinguished in a blinding flash of fate that would re-shape humanity's fate forever.
Eridonia
Eridonia, the former capital world of the UTN and the seat of the Federation's Government and Senate was almost entirely destroyed. Her surface, a once sprawling metropolis, now a planet-wide ruin. A post-apocalyptic wasteland testament to just how fragile human way of life is in the eyes of the universe. Eridonia's atmosphere was all but blasted away into space by charged particles travelling through sub-space rifts carried by the Aftershock. Her population of 18 billion were mostly turned to ash in the process.
With the Senate on Eridonia gone, and the Eris Tiers now a battered ruin, the task of rebuilding human civilisation in Aquarius now fell on one of the other two Core Worlds, whom may have fared better than the Capitol.
Coron
Coron already barely had an atmosphere; its surface a barren lavascape of volcanic activity and pits of molten rock. Coron's immense natural resources - critical in ship building, including one of the largest reserves of Polaryte in the Aquarius Cluster, meant this seemingly inhospitible world was primed for a Core World. Coron's population of 2 billion people lived on enormous floating cities that hovered kilometres over the molten surface, held in place by Magneto-Repulsors counter-acting the volcanic planet's powerful magnetic field generated by tectonic activity deep within its core.
This magnetic field acted to shield the world from the harshest exposure of the Aftershock, directing much of the charged particle radiation back into space. Orbital infrastructure not contained within the field was almost entirely destroyed. Despite this natural protection, many charged particles still reached the surface and disrupted the magneto-repulsors on the floating cities; resulting in them crashing to the surface.
It is within the ruins of these fallen mega-cities that survivors emerged; some of the atmospheric containment systems were still intact. Approximately 30 million people survived from a population of 2 billion. However, Coron's close proximity to the Angel Nebula resulted in an influx of criminal elements and pirate factions vying to prey on the remains of the nation and her worlds. Protected from the Aftershock by the Nebula's immense gravitational forces, the pirate faction known as the Tiger Sharks began a relentless campaign to occupy the ruins of the Coron System.
They were met with little to no resistance. The Federal Navy was all but gone, long since moved to Lorentis for one final stand against the encroaching Radacri. Any remaining ships had been disabled or destroyed by the Aftershock. Under the pirate cartel control, there was no hope for Coron to try and rebuild the Federation.
Lorentis
Lorentis bore the brunt of the Aftershock, being the closest Core System to the Tempest Ridge at the time of the Fall. The former Headquarters and primary shipyard of the Federal Navy, its strategic location as a gateway into Aquarius meant an enormous military presence was within the boundries of the system during the Aftershock. Despite the system being directly in the path of the oncoming sub-space surge, a miracle of natural phenomenon had shielded the densely populated garden world from the worst of the effects.
Lorentis's moon, Lorei, was passing through a direct eclipse of the origin point of the Aftershock beyond the Tempest Ridge when the shockwave hit. The moon's thin atmosphere was blasted away and its surface scorched and bleached clean of all infrastructure, but the massive moon cast a shadow upon the exposed surface of Lorentis. Combined with Lorentis's naturally strong magnetic field - a similar trait it shared with Coron - the world was spared the same fate as Eridonia.
A population of 6.5 billion, 3 billion people were killed by radioactive debris falling from orbit on the exposed side of the world. But with 3 and a half billion human lives left intact, in the Shadow of Lorei and the dark side of the world; Lorentis was a prime candidate for the rebuilding effort.
The Lorentian government, industry and infrastructure remained largely intact since the Aftershock. Panic was contained and the Republic began to take control of the situation. After communication attempts with the other Core Worlds failed, the Lorentian Government issued an emergency order. Remaining elements of the UTN Federal Navy's 1st and 2nd Home Guard, 1-7th Reactionary and 20th Expeditionary fleets that were stationed in orbit, shielded by the planet, rallied to begin the relief effort.
Within 2 years the Lorentian Government's Planetary Govenor issued a statement that the Nation would seek to rebuild the System and discover the fate of the Core Worlds. Reports came in that multiple smaller factions had arisen from the ashes, all vying for control of the former space of the UTN, now known as the 'Wasteworlds'.
On the 7th of Julus, 4042 A.D / 1804 Federal Standard Date, 1804 years after the foundation of the Old Federation, the Terran Loyalist Alliance was formed from the planetary governments of the Lorentis System and a small number of surrounding star systems that had also survived. The Terran Loyalist Alliance, named so to stand out from the seperatists, to stand at the forefront of the effort to rebuild humanity in Aquarius.
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