This timeline tells the story of the Outsider War and humanity's eventual occupation by these powerful aliens.
(This is a list of events taking place during Star Conquest's downtime and redevelopment.)
June 2304 - Several unregistered pilots are sighted in alliance space, seemingly friendly. After some discussion, alliance leaders, notably EAOS leader James Korie, meet with them behind closed doors. The outcome of this meeting is not known, but it's counted as a sign of certain things to come.
July 2304 - The famed expedition starship "Percival Lowell" unexpectedly launches after a complete refitting. The ships heads Rimward under phased wormhole drive.
July 2304 - James Korie vanishes from public view and is not heard from again.
October 2304 - Several Outsider warships arrive. The Outsiders declare that the Coalition has violated some term of the occupation agreement. They declare human and Jinu independence over. The "Percival Lowell" expedition is blamed.
October 2304 - The long-range beacons (also known as "munroujuhk") are destroyed by the Outsiders, cutting off wormhole travel between human and Jinu space. An organized defensive fleet attempting to protect the beacons is also lost in the process.
December 2304 - No human has had contact with any Jinu individual for two months. The Coalition attempts to restructure itself with an all-human leadership, putting it into turmoil.
February 2305 - Outsiders begin systematically destroying human technology in space, including the League Shipyards and EAOS Experimental Research Structure. Every alliance rouses defensive fleets in response, but all are defeated.
July 2305 - Most non-residential space stations are now blasted, dark, and lifeless. The remnants of the Coalition declare the defense a failure and abdicate leadership to the four sovereign alliances.
September 2305 - The Outsiders begin systematic orbital bombardment of planetary factories and shipyards. Individual alliance resistance fleets have some limited success in reducing the rate of damage. Several minor planets are occupied by the Outsiders. Human production ability wanes.
March 2306 - As the resistance flags, a large fleet of unregistered vessels emerges from Rimward space and augments the defense. They bring with them the cheaper weaponry and electronics that they have invented out of necessity. They provide this assistance unconditionally, declaring that the preservation of the species is more important than old animosities.
August 2306 - All four alliances now officially recognize the Sovereign Mutuality of Disparate Freemen, a new alliance of formerly unregistered individuals.
December 2306 - The Martian Defense is broken, surviving ships scattering to the AEU and Fringe. Old Earth is bombarded thoroughly and subsequently occupied by the Outsiders. A few forays on the surface against the Outsiders result in failure.
February 2307 - The Outsiders find the Torus virtually abandoned, and spend several days bombarding the massive space station. They do relatively little damage and eventually abandon the attack.
April 2307 - The elite Candelarian Navy is defeated. All ships were destroyed in its last stand, refusing to surrender or retreat. Several more Fringe planets fall to the Outsiders. Outsider ships push toward Chetumal, which is defended constantly by the now-famous Chetumal Orbital Defense.
May 2307 - The Mutuality fleet has sustained heavy losses throughout the resistance. A handful of survivors fall back to their distant home sectors, hoping to remain hidden from the Outsiders.
May 2307 - New Earth falls. Much of humanity fears a chain reaction has started and that defeat is imminent.
June 2307 - Chetumal Orbital Defense is crushed under overwhelming force. More ships have not been seen in one sector before or since. The Fringe capital falls.
July 2307 - Several attempts at launching new defensive fleets are destroyed from the surface by weaponry of the Outsider occupation. Only a handful of warships remain in human hands, and none are spaceworthy.
July 2307 - An Outsider virus is unleashed into all major planetary networks, erasing nearly all human research. Information is frantically transferred to hardcopy or offline storage, but much is lost.
August 2307 - The Outsiders tighten their grip on the human worlds, cracking down on independent research, controlling production, putting humans to work for their own ends.
November 2307 - Limited interplanetary trade is allowed to resume. A handful of humans are granted the right to fly clunky supply shuttles. Many of these pilots formerly flew for the Coalition.
2307-2309 - Things continue in this state. Nothing is heard of the Jinu. The fate of the EAOS is unclear. IFS invasions are repelled efficiently by the Outsiders. The alliances have little contact with one another, especially the Mutuality, from which nearly nothing is heard.
Early 2309 - Groups of humans are seen muttering to each other, then drifting apart when an Outsider enforcer wanders near. There have been rumors, alleged sightings of a ship. Something has thrown the Outsiders off-balance. Everywhere, humans seize on the idea that perhaps, finally, things are about to change.
