///From the author: the story of Rebirther is an anthology tale within the Spacers Saga universe, inspired by The Forever War and Starship Troopers. Much like those stories dealt with young men coming of age against a backdrop of military intrigue, Rebirther deals with the story of one Martian's time in Alpha Centauri during the vicious proxy war between the Martian Federation and the Solar Union which forms a major part of the backstory of the Spacers Saga era called INFINITUM. This document is intended to give a primer on the world Rebirther inhabits, so that anyone who picks it up someday will know what's what going in
The Story
[Eddie over the years - original art credit to Logan Stahl]
Eduardo Alejandro “Eddie” Mendoza, born in 2487 on Mars, joined MARSCOM in 2506 as part of the troop surge which followed the outbreak of the Centauri War, and was deployed to the Centauri Cluster in 2508 after being selected for and completing special operations training. He arrived in the Rigil Kentaurus system in 2513 and served with MARSOC until he was mortally wounded in 2517. Instead of dying, he was cloned and recruited into the Special Reconnaissance Group (SRG) and was a covert operative from 2517 on.
The Martian Exosolar Command (EXOCOM), unofficially called the Centauri Command after its primary arena of operations, is the most self-contained combatant and independent command in MARSCOM, and is devoted to the enforcement of Martian legislation beyond the confines of Solar Space. It is also well-known as the most unorthodox of MARSCOM’s combatant commands, as the roughly 800 thousand spacers of EXOCOM are necessarily an elite, insular community due to the conditions under which they must operate.
Mendoza is deployed undercover on Talvan as part of Mars' response to the rebellion by the Centauri People's Front. During his deployment, he realizes the faults of the Martian Federation after seeing things that make him question the morality of a conflict he once thought black and white, especially the way Mars tramples the native Y'Varis society in the Centauri cluster and other extrasolar systems as part of a new wave of colonialism. In short, while Mendoza is embedded among the citizens of the frontier, he starts to see them as a significant people in their own right, which challenges the dogma of the Martian Federation.
Ultimately, Mendoza walks a fine line between supporting the MARSCOM status quo and giving aid to enemies of Mars, especially a nascent insurgent group called the Centauri People’s Front, which seeks to evict the Martians from Centauri space. Between 2524 and the end of the war, Mendoza used the very same network of connections that he established within the Special Reconnaissance Group in order to wage his own private war. When the war ends in 2527, he goes AWOL and defects to the Republic of Talvan, as did many other Martian and Solar Union spacers upon discovering that the war had been abandoned by their superiors.
The Setting
Talvan, largest moon of Alpha Centauri Ab
[Annotated map of Talvan in 2517, showing the ten largest cities and zones of control]
Critical Stats:
First reached by humans: October 2297 (crewed - part of the Wayfarer Program)
2517 Population: approximately 640 million, including orbitals (human population: 19.3 million)
Capital: Aurora City (population - approximately 2.3 million)
Affiliation: the Centauri Union (official); Solar Union/Martian Federation (unofficial)
Government: split (ongoing Talvan Civil War means that roughly half is aligned with the Solar Union, while the other half is a colony of the Martian Federation)
Republic of Talvan: federal parliamentary republic (seat of government is the Golden Manor in Aurora City); current Prime Minister - Jacques Herrera (since 2512); current Solar Union ambassador - Yulia Kondabalu (since 2513); population - 11.2 million
Federal Protectorate of Talvan: one-party republic; colonial protectorate of the Martian Federation (seat of government is the Red House in Utopia); current Governor - Dietrich Simonov (since 2503); population - 8.1 million
Primary industries: agriculture (Talvan is a major source of foodstuffs for the rest of the Rigil Kentaurus system); industrialized/large-scale manufacturing (especially for prefabricated goods, spacecraft, and other complex hardware)
Largest settlements:
(1) Aurora City
Population: 2.3 million
Founded: 6 May 2321
Affiliation: Solar Union
(2) Utopia
Population: 1.4 million
Founded: 19 August 2326
Affiliation: Martian Federation
(3) Hua-Xiang
Population: 1.2 million
Founded: 30 April 2317
Affiliation: Martian Federation
(4) Durandal
Population: 1.1 million
Founded: 23 September 2342
Affiliation: Solar Union
(5) Knifetip Bay
Population: 940 thousand
Founded: 7 July 2358
Affiliation: Martian Federation
(6) Isaiah
Population: 860 thousand
Founded: 11 June 2365
Affiliation: Martian Federation
(7) New Melbourne
Population: 780 thousand
Founded: 3 February 2369
Affiliation: Solar Union
(8) Amaterasu
Population: 710 thousand
Founded: 22 October 2371
Affiliation: Martian Federation
(9) Uhuru
Population: 570 thousand
Founded: 4 November 2314
Affiliation: Solar Union
(10) Callum’s Prospect
Population: 440 thousand
Founded: 25 June 2382
Affiliation: Solar Union
The Story
[Infographic on the major locations on Talvan]
Talvan, the largest moon of Caliban (official name for Alpha Centauri Ab), was first reached by humans in 2297 as part of the Interstellar Consortium’s Project Wayfarer, which aimed to establish a human presence on worlds outside the solar system by the en of the 23rd century. After a twenty-five-year journey, the more than six thousand passengers of the four Wayfarer vessels that made the crossing from Sol set up a colony in the Rigil Kentaurus (Alpha Centauri A) system, which grew rapidly in the following centuries thanks to an influx of rogues and pioneers aching for new opportunities and, more often than not, seclusion.
By the early 26th century, the thriving society in the Centauri cluster has become the center of a much more incendiary series of events, as part of a proxy conflict called the Centauri War. This war between the Solar Union and the Martian Federation would ultimately rage on for more than twenty-five years across the outskirts of humanity’s interstellar civilization, and as of 2517 it is reaching a new height of complexity as each combatant struggles to wrest control of the interstellar regions from the other.
[Map showing the climate classification of regions on Talvan]
This war ignited as a result of squabbles over Centauri trade routes, which had been a major point of contention ever since the MARSCOM military officers led by Colonel Sanyar Galvani stormed the Martian Parliament to demand a reformation after decades of socioeconomic decline–the Crimson Revolution. As the new Martian Federation broke with the rest of the Solar Union, fighting in the Rigil Kentaurus system broke out as agents of Mars and the Solar Union deployed to secure their interests. Now they fight each other and a local rebel organization called the United Centauri Front, which aims to evict both superpowers.
By 2517, the roughly 500 thousand spacers of the Martian Extrasolar Command active in Centauri space have insinuated themselves deeply into its society, especially the members of the elite Special Reconnaissance Group. This unit infiltrates the local population to gather ground-level intelligence on enemy forces (in this case, Centaurist rebels and spacers of the Solar Expeditionary Corps) and facilitate their being targeted and neutralized by more traditional special operations forces within EXOCOM.
[Infographic comparing three major worlds in the universe of Rebirther]
Eddie Mendoza was a member of the SRG for over a decade during the Centauri War, and spent most of his time living in and among the population of Rigil Kentaurus. This included several years embedded with the population of Talvan, which became his home after the war ended. Thousands of Martian soldiers either went AWOL during the war or deserted after it ended instead of returning home, and most of them settled in the Tres Islas Paraísos. It is from here where Eddie contacts a Solar Herald field reporter named Ricardo Jansky in 2531 to come and profile him for a piece about the Centauri War.
These interviews form the basis of Rebirther, as the stories Eddie tells about his experience with SRG allow a rare peek behind the curtain of Martian Federal military power in the 26th century. When the story was published in 2534, it painted a target on Eddie's back, as both the Federation government and the thousands of deserters living on Talvan saw him as a threat to their status quo. That is not to say that Eddie regrets the decision - if anything, it only increases the size of his personal myth, and gives him the ability to organize a more effective resistance when Mars renews its bid to control Centauri space.
More to come, when it's ready...
This is in the same timeline as Spacers Saga?