I: The Minovsky Particle, Mobile Suits, Colonization... and Endless War:
In the late 22nd century as mankind was making its first awkward, fumbling moves into the depths of space, the revolutionary Minovsky Particle was discovered, and not long after, the bipedal war weapons known as Mobile Suits. With the advent of this new force - one capable of nullifying all previous forms of warfare - the resource-starved nations of the age waged a newer, more horrific form of combat against one another than ever before, until the flames of war spiraled out of control, even as mankind began expanding to the ends of the Solar System.
The battles dragged on endlessly - some say for over one hundred years - but eventually subsided with the introduction of a newer, more terrible kind of weapon - one the likes of which had never been seen before:
The Machines.
II: The Tranquil Times
The wars finally ground to a halt with the introduction of Artificial Intelligence equipped Mobile Armors. Massive in scale, and armed to the teeth with the most threatening weapons of the age, they were designed to react to act as deterrents - responding to foreign aggression with the threat of total obliteration. It wasn't long before more of these came into being, each nation crafting its own, to stand in stoic silence at their borders, watching one another passively.
Thus, an uneasy peace settled in... One that would last for a hundred years, as mankind rebuilt. The stars were tamed and terraformed, from Mars all the way to the edges of the Solar System, and there was talk even of populating distant systems, such as Alpha Centauri.
Mobile Suits were at first maintained as a necessity...
Then, mothballed...
And, at last...
Forgotten.
Only the Mobile Armors remained, their hawkish and beastial forms looming over the enforced serenity that hung over the world of man, now left cowering and subservient before the idol he had created.
A peace born of overwhelming fear.
III: Insurrection:
Nobody knows how, why, or when the Machines learned to speak with one another.
Some say that it was conspiracy, that a group of secretive individuals sought to control them for their own gain.
Others believe that we had created something that was too intelligent, that we couldn't contain, and that would eventually understand itself to be superior to those that created it.
Still more, that the machines were faulty, defective devices from the very start, and that what followed was inevitable.
But, none dispute what happened on that fateful day.
The AI networks of the nations, designed initially to guard against one another, turned as one - without provocation - and unleashed their fury upon their creators. All across the Earth Sphere, automated mobile weapons came to life, and slaughtered their handlers before turning their guns on the closest population centers they could find.
Over one third of the human population was killed in under forty eight hours, as a disarmed peoples could do nothing but flee as their guardians became their nightmares.
What followed was not a war between men, but one of man and machine - a fight not for dominance, but for survival.
IV: Gundam, and The Eye of Jupiter
It was from the Jovian Sphere, on the frontiers of humanity, that an unexpected hope emerged. Long a hub of interstellar commerce and manufacturing, the magma-forges of Io had been quietly amassing a collection of Mobile Suits, either melting them down for their rare alloys, or studying their inner workings to reverse engineer long-forgotten technology for profit.
With the sudden revolt of the machines, these antiquated weapons suddenly found new purpose... And Mobile Suits took to the battlefield once more.
Yet, despite giving mankind a fighting chance, victory could not be one with these refurbished relics- the so called Oldsmobiles - alone. A new champion was needed - a symbol to inspire the masses to stand their ground and fight.
A certain technology had been developed in the Jovian Sphere, one that couldn't be replicated anywhere else, and which had been considered instrumental to the expansion of mankind to the stars - one that was capable of turning the tide against the machines:
The GN Drive.
A perpetual engine of limitless potential, the handful of Drives that had been created were placed not in exploratory vessels destined for the dark depths of space, but in the hearts of the Mobile Suits that would be their saviors, christened after the legendary weapons of old:
They were called "Gundam".
The day of the first O Gundam's deployment signaled the beginning of mankind's counterattack.
Countless innovations were unearthed and repurposed - or built anew - for the battle at hand: Alayna Vijanana, Psycoframe, EXAM, Mobile Trace, the ZERO System... Even the machine's own weapons were turned against them, in the form of the 72 demonic Gundam Frames, avatars of wrath that were more than a match for even the most malevolent cybernetic centurion. For every evolution the machines brought forth, so too did mankind move another step forward, in the fastest arms race ever recorded in history.
Bit by bit, inch by bloody inch, the humans of the Jovian sphere drove back the malevolent engines of destruction, and forced them into the Eye of Jupiter - a howling, electromagnetic prison that would hold them forevermore. After twenty five years of struggle... Hard won peace had finally returned to at least this one corner of the galaxy.
V: Rise of the Vultures:
In the aftermath of the conflict, a new problem emerged. The spread of Mobile Suits, and the collapse of government led to the rise of armed, independent warlords who ruled over their own individual fiefdoms. To make matters worse, challenges emerged with trying to re-integrate those who were surgically enhanced to do battle with the Machines back into society. Many ultimately reverted back to their old ways, traveling into the wastelands to battle what foes remained, becoming scavengers who lived on the fringes of society. Some became known and revered as freedom fighters who fought for the weak and oppressed... Others, as fiendish terrors that lived only for battle and bloodshed, traveling in search of coin and glory.
The first "Vultures".
As time passed, Vultures became more and more prolific, as salvage work was not only easy, but profitable work. Provincial governments began to form, and it was then that the "Vulture Problem" began to be examined in more depth. Registration systems were instituted, and in JC 0020, government-funded bounty hunters, known as "MS Hunters" came into being. Armed with the best equipment money could buy, and with the backing of their governing bodies, the Hunters meted out justice to those Vultures unfortunate enough to cross their path - and a rivalry was born between those who fought for freedom, and those who stood for security.
The year is After Insurrection 0025.
As the populace of the Jovian Sphere begins to emerge from the chrysalis of crisis, a struggle for the heart of the future, and for what form it will take, has begun...
In the late 22nd century as mankind was making its first awkward, fumbling moves into the depths of space, the revolutionary Minovsky Particle was discovered, and not long after, the bipedal war weapons known as Mobile Suits. With the advent of this new force - one capable of nullifying all previous forms of warfare - the resource-starved nations of the age waged a newer, more horrific form of combat against one another than ever before, until the flames of war spiraled out of control, even as mankind began expanding to the ends of the Solar System.
The battles dragged on endlessly - some say for over one hundred years - but eventually subsided with the introduction of a newer, more terrible kind of weapon - one the likes of which had never been seen before:
The Machines.
II: The Tranquil Times
The wars finally ground to a halt with the introduction of Artificial Intelligence equipped Mobile Armors. Massive in scale, and armed to the teeth with the most threatening weapons of the age, they were designed to react to act as deterrents - responding to foreign aggression with the threat of total obliteration. It wasn't long before more of these came into being, each nation crafting its own, to stand in stoic silence at their borders, watching one another passively.
Thus, an uneasy peace settled in... One that would last for a hundred years, as mankind rebuilt. The stars were tamed and terraformed, from Mars all the way to the edges of the Solar System, and there was talk even of populating distant systems, such as Alpha Centauri.
Mobile Suits were at first maintained as a necessity...
Then, mothballed...
And, at last...
Forgotten.
Only the Mobile Armors remained, their hawkish and beastial forms looming over the enforced serenity that hung over the world of man, now left cowering and subservient before the idol he had created.
A peace born of overwhelming fear.
III: Insurrection:
Nobody knows how, why, or when the Machines learned to speak with one another.
Some say that it was conspiracy, that a group of secretive individuals sought to control them for their own gain.
Others believe that we had created something that was too intelligent, that we couldn't contain, and that would eventually understand itself to be superior to those that created it.
Still more, that the machines were faulty, defective devices from the very start, and that what followed was inevitable.
But, none dispute what happened on that fateful day.
The AI networks of the nations, designed initially to guard against one another, turned as one - without provocation - and unleashed their fury upon their creators. All across the Earth Sphere, automated mobile weapons came to life, and slaughtered their handlers before turning their guns on the closest population centers they could find.
Over one third of the human population was killed in under forty eight hours, as a disarmed peoples could do nothing but flee as their guardians became their nightmares.
What followed was not a war between men, but one of man and machine - a fight not for dominance, but for survival.
IV: Gundam, and The Eye of Jupiter
It was from the Jovian Sphere, on the frontiers of humanity, that an unexpected hope emerged. Long a hub of interstellar commerce and manufacturing, the magma-forges of Io had been quietly amassing a collection of Mobile Suits, either melting them down for their rare alloys, or studying their inner workings to reverse engineer long-forgotten technology for profit.
With the sudden revolt of the machines, these antiquated weapons suddenly found new purpose... And Mobile Suits took to the battlefield once more.
Yet, despite giving mankind a fighting chance, victory could not be one with these refurbished relics- the so called Oldsmobiles - alone. A new champion was needed - a symbol to inspire the masses to stand their ground and fight.
A certain technology had been developed in the Jovian Sphere, one that couldn't be replicated anywhere else, and which had been considered instrumental to the expansion of mankind to the stars - one that was capable of turning the tide against the machines:
The GN Drive.
A perpetual engine of limitless potential, the handful of Drives that had been created were placed not in exploratory vessels destined for the dark depths of space, but in the hearts of the Mobile Suits that would be their saviors, christened after the legendary weapons of old:
They were called "Gundam".
The day of the first O Gundam's deployment signaled the beginning of mankind's counterattack.
Countless innovations were unearthed and repurposed - or built anew - for the battle at hand: Alayna Vijanana, Psycoframe, EXAM, Mobile Trace, the ZERO System... Even the machine's own weapons were turned against them, in the form of the 72 demonic Gundam Frames, avatars of wrath that were more than a match for even the most malevolent cybernetic centurion. For every evolution the machines brought forth, so too did mankind move another step forward, in the fastest arms race ever recorded in history.
Bit by bit, inch by bloody inch, the humans of the Jovian sphere drove back the malevolent engines of destruction, and forced them into the Eye of Jupiter - a howling, electromagnetic prison that would hold them forevermore. After twenty five years of struggle... Hard won peace had finally returned to at least this one corner of the galaxy.
V: Rise of the Vultures:
In the aftermath of the conflict, a new problem emerged. The spread of Mobile Suits, and the collapse of government led to the rise of armed, independent warlords who ruled over their own individual fiefdoms. To make matters worse, challenges emerged with trying to re-integrate those who were surgically enhanced to do battle with the Machines back into society. Many ultimately reverted back to their old ways, traveling into the wastelands to battle what foes remained, becoming scavengers who lived on the fringes of society. Some became known and revered as freedom fighters who fought for the weak and oppressed... Others, as fiendish terrors that lived only for battle and bloodshed, traveling in search of coin and glory.
The first "Vultures".
As time passed, Vultures became more and more prolific, as salvage work was not only easy, but profitable work. Provincial governments began to form, and it was then that the "Vulture Problem" began to be examined in more depth. Registration systems were instituted, and in JC 0020, government-funded bounty hunters, known as "MS Hunters" came into being. Armed with the best equipment money could buy, and with the backing of their governing bodies, the Hunters meted out justice to those Vultures unfortunate enough to cross their path - and a rivalry was born between those who fought for freedom, and those who stood for security.
The year is After Insurrection 0025.
As the populace of the Jovian Sphere begins to emerge from the chrysalis of crisis, a struggle for the heart of the future, and for what form it will take, has begun...