The First Consolidation War
The routes of the main warfleets in the First Consolidation War
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The First Consolidation WarThe routes of the main warfleets in the First Consolidation War |
The
Taurus
Nexus was established on the remains of an abandoned wormhole
network that was established by a mysterious group of ahuman
AIs in the early interstellar period. Almost nothing is known about
this group; they appear to have achieved a state of transaturation
ascension and vanished, like later groups such as the De Sitter Project
at NGC
6755.
The first capital of the Taurus Nexus, at Xi Geminorum, was superseded
by Corona
in 2350, when a new, long range wormhole was constructed between that
world and the extensive abandoned ahuman network more than eighty light
years away. Corona, already a thriving and diverse world became the
main gateway to the Taurus Empire. As the new empires of Metasoft
and the Solar
Dominion began to emerge, they used Corona as a point of
contact with the thriving humanocentric Taurus worlds. Corona also had
good links to the rest of the Inner
Sphere.
From 2350 to 3260 the Taurus Nexus was one of the finest examples of
humanocentric interstellar civilisation ever to emerge. The diverse
Coronese culture and influence percolated into the Nexus in many forms;
the ritualistic sacrifices of the Alto
Stisboi religion for instance were in stark contrast with the
Academic culture of the great universities. And hedonistic, austere,
libertarian and authoritarian societies arose on the many worlds strung
out from Pisces to Gemini, in Aries and among the Hyades. Cyborgs
and Vecs
and many kinds of provolves were also drawn to the Taurus worlds, some
seeking to escape the emerging rule of the archai. In many ways the
Taurus Nexus was becoming what the First Federation failed to achieve;
an interstellar empire where individuals and information could pass
from star to star with relative ease. Very few transapients above the second
toposophic level were to be found in the Taurus systems, but
the quality of life on many worlds was exceptionally high.
In Gemini and along the counterspinwards edge of the Nexus the
su-cyborg empire of the Conver
Ambi was emerging; this was a much more monolithic
civilisation, expansive and militaristic. Several worlds in the Nexus
such as the old capital Xi Geminorum had large colonies of Conver
devotees; by 2900 several of these worlds had become pure Conver worlds.
Towards the Inner Sphere, several worlds including the unimaginatively
named ‘New Earth’ at 104 Tauri considered
themselves to be the last remnants of the old Federation; calling
themselves the Terran
Federation they were closely aligned with, but
never formally joined the Taurus Nexus itself. Like many of the other
emerging empires, the Terran Federation was an archaiocracy, ruled by a
being of the third toposophic (‘Yave’,
later to
ascend two more levels to become one of the middle ranking
archailects). This archai-led culture began to affect the geometric
heartland of the Taurus worlds, subtly changing the societies of the
Hyades volume.
Another, even more pervasive archai-led empire was infiltrating the
very capital of the nexus itself. The Non-Coercive Zone with its
libertarian philosophy was very attractive to the naturally
individualistic Coronese. Instead of an archailect with apparently
human-like attributes, the NoCoZo was guided by a vast coordinated
network of high-toposophic market and corporation archai, which
together formed a distributed archailect of an indeterminate nature. By
3260 the majority of the population of Corona desired to join the
NoCoZo, preferably taking the rest of the Nexus with them. But this
prospect did not appeal to the Hyades worlds, influenced by the Terran
Federation and the Yave cultists; nor to the Conver Ambi influenced
worlds in Gemini. Many worlds in these volumes declared independence
from the Taurus Nexus, leading to conflict and chaos on many. Loyalist
Nexans fought fiercely to remain aligned with Corona on many worlds,
and so did certain pro-Coronese Alto
Stisboi sects, some of which adopted the practice of sacrificing their
enemies at any opportunity. But the capital was too distant; and the
Hyades soon was dominated by the rebels.
At this time the Solar Dominion annexed the world of Xil and the
Nexus-owned continent of Locos on Shamash,
ostensibly to
protect the population from social anarchy. The centralist Dominion was
diametrically opposed to the NoCoZo, at least on the level apparent to
modosophont citizens. In the Aries Volume Metasoft also began to take
Taurus worlds under their protection; some fought back against the
vecs, but were invariably defeated.
Now the Coronese revealed their first interstellar warfleet, built in
secret among the Iotan asteroid belt. For a hundred years this fleet
and others like it, arrowed towards the worlds of the Hyades to reclaim
the lost worlds of their former empire. Meanwhile a number of lesser
fleets were launched in the opposite direction towards Corona by
the rebels to force the old
capital world to accept the new Nexus paradigm (which was now
largely defined by Terran Federation sympathisers). The two opposing
forces passed each other by in interstellar space, as they were
separated by more than ten light years even at closest approach. The
various fleets went on instead to wreak havoc on their target worlds.
In the whole conflict very few actions were fought in interstellar
space; the relative speeds were too great for the vessels of that time
to make any significant contact.
The Corona System had a very efficient industrial base, and numerous
defences; most of the rebel warships sent to that system were
destroyed; but those few that got through caused great destruction on
the homeworld. In the opposite direction, many of the less-developed
worlds of the Hyades did not put up much resistance to the Coronese
fleets, but over time the fleets were depleted by attrition and the
great
distance traveled, cut off from any resupply.
Smaller Alto Stisboi
fleets were launched in the Taurus heartlands, but were generally
unsuccessful in their attempts to bring the rebel worlds back into the
fold; except in the twin systems of Theta-1 and Theta-2 Tauri, which
became the centre of the pro-Coronese faction in the Hyades.
Relentlessly, Conver Ambi fleets were encroaching from the
counterspinwards direction, even taking over some worlds newly won by
the Terran Federation and Metasoft; the Convers were fierce, but would
later falter in the Second Consolidation war against the
archai-led empires. However the rescue of the Conver world of Crescent
by Terran forces led to a strong pro-TF contingent in the Conver Ambi,
and hostilities between these empires ceased.
Finally the last remaining Coronese fleet was destroyed, still thirty
light years from the Theta Tauri stars which they had been heading for
in a vain attempt to link up with the Altos. By 3435 Corona
abandoned any attempt to recover the Nexus worlds, and formally joined
the NoCoZo. A series of treaties were drawn up dividing the fringes of
the Nexus up between the Conver Ambi, Metasoft, the Solar Dominion and
the Non-Coercives, with the Hyades largely remaining in Terran
Federation hands.
