After Ether: Legacy of Wiseman

Historical Background: In the decades following the Fifth Reflex War and the disastrous Murklim Incursion, the Endus Federation fell into a malaise that allowed a political vacuum large enough for the shadowy SIDEREAL organization wizard-spies to grow into and take de-facto control of the Federation through fronts such as SOLAR and influencing appointments to both Frontier and Battlefleet. By [date] the architect of the SIDEREAL takeover, Rotirimus Seaborne, oracle and chief of SOLAR had concerned himself with the only threat to his rule, and engaged in a shadow civil war of small unit actions against the dissidents within SIDEREAL and Frontier Fleet. This conflict proved to be costly as it had left open Sariel's Gate defenses to be weakened.

Known only to upper echelons of SIDEREAL, the magic circle of the 4th planet of Endus system was in fact the material aspect of sealing circle of immense power containing and confining a greater astral being of even greater power, dating back to the pre-Paradisum days of the old Kingdom. However, a Ban Uchar shaman, seeking power for internal conflict back at her homeland had discovered hidden secrets of the gate and using unlikely assortment of allies and mercenaries infiltrated the gate, and broke the seal while eyes were elsewhere in the system, punching a hole into an hellish and eldritch anti-reality.

The resulting Six Months War against the astral hordes and their demonic masters saw the spiraling civil war stopped and the reunification of SIDEREAL as they lead an effort to retake the planet and seal the gate, which they did and in the process, saw conflicting archmages and oracle lost either trapped in the hell dimension or in some other bubble of space.

The resulting Sixth Reflex War as its was called, has served as wake up call to Endus Federation, which has broken the complacency of the surviving leadership. Troops are no longer trained to perform well in parade duties but for for full combat, the Senate has in the last five years past several major arms modernization and expansion bills, and SIDEREAL, the kingmakers since days of the Senate War was formally disbanded citing the destruction of its leadership and concerns about SOLAR (also disbanded) actions during the conflict, and two new SDFs have been ordered (though only is under construction) in addition to taking over all the new major construction projects of SOLAR which was higher end then average Endus units.

Having survived yet another existential crisis by the skin of their teeth, the Endus Federation is however still not stable, the lack of a kingmaker did not mean there was no would-be kings. As the public masses cry out for increase Panhelios control over strategic magic, a hidden war is occurring over those seeking to gain an edge to be the new power behind the Federation either hidden or public.

Factions

Senator Ibrahim Raziel: Former Frontier Fleet rear-admiral, he represents the political aspiration of the Sixers, the officers who came into their own during the Six Months War, elected from the Mosonadin Basin Region, home to major training facility and housing for service members.

Interim Goals: Embarrass his rivals

Major Goal: Clean out the old guard, prevent wizard-spies from getting power again, increase Endus Federation power at expense of Panhelios (weak they didn't help at all!)

Forces: 95th Frontier Squadron, Low-Observation Battlecruiser squadron, complete with organic Ibris [GM] units, AJAX Spec Ops, 185th PanAssault Division,

Chairman Renton Vlček: Admiral during the conflict with the Rmasters, he represents the remnants of the old guard, a cagey political operator survived by making alliances with the top dogs till they got ousted, killed or sealed in another dimension. Chairman of the Senate's Armed Forces and Military Industry Committee.

Interim Goals: Recover SIDEREAL Black Book, the book of dirty secrets,

Major Goal: Secure his party future by using the Book as kingmaker, maintain the Panhelios system,

Forces: 13th Independent Mobile Squadron around the Battlecarrier Red Lily, 5th Amphibious Task Group, 20th Raider Battalion,

Senator Haughten-Rhys

Interim Goals: Recover the relics of SIDEREAL

Major Goals: Recover SIDEREAL leadership from the void (including his brother and nephew),

Forces: Remants of the Black Fleet, some wizards

President Antonnia Leonard

Interim Goals: Recover relics of SIDEREAL and the blackbook

Major Goal: Turn the weak presidency into a strong executive, willing to use either Panhelios or native Endus power to do it.

Forces: Global Military Police, Federal Battleship Resolute, 1st XXX (Gundam) wing, 1st AWGSTU Unit

Organizations

The Enduscaran Senate
The highest governing body of the entire Enduscaran Federation, the Senate has been something of a rubber-stamp body for the various Select Committees for much of the last four decades. Only the fall of SIDEREAL in the aftermath of the Sixth Reflex War and some high-profile housecleaning has seen the Senate fumblingly regain some of its authority. Nonetheless it is still an institution dominated by a few driven individuals riding herd over the hundreds of aparachiks. These individuals, thanks to their position, can act with near impunity.

Battle Fleet
The senior of the Federation's military bodies, Battle Fleet was a relatively small organization for much of its history - by hullcount, anyway. This was deceptive because at any given time Battle Fleet had between three and five superfortresses, each one among the most powerful weapons built in the last millenia. It was only with the Fifth Reflex War and the last fifty years that Battle Fleet became the immense force it is today. Once dominated by the superfortresses and their escorts, today Battle Fleet is more known for its many squadrons of mass-produced battleships, carriers and mobile suits.

Horizon Fleet
Originally a semi-independent scouting and exploration arm, after the First Reflex War it was officially reconstituted as the Horizon Fleet. Guided by a mandate to seek out those who might do harm to the people of Endus, the Horizon Fleet soon became something of a militarized explorer corps. For generations their workhorse has been various models of 'Explorers', multimission capital ships capable of handling everything from enemy cruisers to spatial anomalies to medical outbreaks and missions of mercy. More recently as part of the Federations' general outward-facing military stance the Horizon Fleet has assumed a much more constabulatory role; special forces and airmobile forces operating off high-speed transports becoming a significant component of the overall fleet and budget allocation.

Spoilers

SIDEREAL
SIDEREAL is down but hardly out. Generations of being the power behind the throne has given them a map to all the buried skeletons and the very nature of a secretive wizard-police organization has provided them with plenty of black sites and boltholes. The loss of their overt authority and the disappearance of much of the inner circle has definately put them in a bind though and they are splintered into various cliques and cells. Some wish to rehabilitate SIDEREAL and put the excesses of Seaborn into the past, while others want to bring the entire edifice down, yet others simply want it all back the way it way. Most are somewhere in between.

ORIGIN
An ultrablack operation inside SIDEREAL to make a memory clone of the Wiseman himself, Savan Thriceborn. It may even have succeeded, but ORIGIN cut ties with SIDEREAL long before the 6th Reflex War.

Mizum
They have floofy 80s hair, are probably 2/3rd clone and are snooping around Endus just in case the people behind the EEF decide to finish the fight.

The Vox Aurea
Totally Harmless Comstar. Honest.

Railstar
A state-owned megacorp that manages and operates the ground-based world gates and the rail links that connect them. Hugely rich and powerful, generally believed to be extremely corrupt and manipulative. There are rumors they have a handful of additional small-caliber world gates they use for discrete movement of people and manipulating trade.

Demon Worshippers
Alignment: Chaotic Renegade

Misc

Relics:

• Black Book of Dirty Politics
• GRIMORE of Rortimus ( The O mobile armor casting chamber)
• Astral Jump Core of the Wiseman
• Random Mid Season Ugly Superweapons and random magic artifacts
• FILIBUSTER (SOLAR controlled SENIOR SENATE device)

Battlefortresses

Mobile Strategic Fortress, more commonly simply known as 'battlefortresses'.

MSF-1 Victory (Scrapped after 2nd Reflex War)

MSF-2 Titanic (Sunk, 2nd Reflex War)

MSF-3 Protector (Scrapped after 3rd Reflex War)

MSF-4 Valiant (Converted to stationary defense platform after 4th Reflex War)

MSF-5 Audacious (Sunk, 3rd Reflex War)

MSF-6 Defender (Scrapped after 5th Reflex War)

MSF-7 Dauntless (In service)

MSF-8 Resolute (Sunk, 5th Reflex War)

MSF-9 Tenacious (Presumed Missing)

MSF-10 Inflexible (In service)

MSF-11 Inexorable (In service)

MSF-12 Implacable (In service)

MSF-13 unnamed (destroyed in shipyard)

MSF-14 Defiant (in service, EEF)

MSF-15 Resurgent (under construction)

MSF-16 unnamed (proposed)

Active Battlefortresses

• MSF-4 Valiant

The Valiant was one of the earliest battlefortresses to be built and served with distinction in the second, third and fourth Reflex War. Unfortunately its aged systems led to exploitable vulnerabilities and its engines were crippled in fierce fighting. While the battle was a victory, the Valiant's by-then obsolete and unique engines could not be repaired or replaced. Instead she was patched up and towed to a position in orbit of the gas giant Camael to act as a stational defense battery. Still serving in this role to the day, the Valiant has degraded to a rather shabby mass of turrets, armor and docking bays

• MSF-7 Dauntless

The oldest operational battlefortress, the Dauntless is a veteran of every major conflict since the 3rd Reflex War. Constructed using many of the still functioning core components of the original MSF-1 Victory, the Dauntless was exceptionally potent when built. Eventually deployed as the flagship of the EEF, the Dauntless was lost in the Astra along with the rest of the EEF for over 25 years. She eventually returned to Endusspace during the 6th Reflex War as part of the Army of Light. Battered and aged over well over half a century of hard service, there are plans to replace the Dauntless with either the MSF-15 Resurgent or the as yet unnamed MSF-16.

• MSF-10 Inflexible
• MSF-11 Inexorable
• MSF-12 Implacable

The Three Is (Inflexible, Inexorable and Implacable) are the closest thing to a serially produced battlefortress, each one built as an ultimately unsuccessful plan to gain efficiencies by producing multiple ships at the same time. While this worked for smaller ships, the sheer scale of battlefortresses meant that the costs involved with setting up a production line overwhelmed anything saved by doing do. This does however mean that unlike all other battleforts the three sisters are visually indistinguishable outside of fitting details.