Maelstrom War

The Maelstrom War was an important and dark time in Nexus Force history. The Maelstrom was created and very nearly consumed the Universe, but was successfully beat back by the Nexus Force. Many lives were lost and much damage was done by the Maelstrom during this time.

## Timeline

### Beginning

The Maelstrom war was first created at 0 AC when the Four Explorers (Doctor Overbuild, Hael Storm, Duke Exeter, and Baron Typhonus) stumbled upon the Imagination Nexus. Though it had unlimited creative energy, Baron Typhonus used this energy to create chaos in his desire for control.

   This resulted in the creation of the Maelstrom, an uncontrollable chaotic force that corrupted the Baron and turned him into the Darkitect. The Maelstrom multiplied and spread so rapidly that it corrupted the entire Imagination Nexus, blowing the planet they'd discovered (Crux) apart into hundreds of smaller chunks. The new center was made of a Maelstrom black hole that became the source of all Maelstrom activity.

The chunks of Crux turned out to be inhabitable, and many minifigures moved from Earth to live on these world chunks. At first, it was unknown how big of a threat the Maelstrom would be, but it was quickly realized that the new inhabitants would have to fight for their homes.

### Early

In the early period of the Maelstrom War (years 0-2 AC), many chunks were still being discovered and the Nexus Force was still gearing up and trying to figure out the best way to fight the Maelstrom. Soldiers were plentiful, and morale was high. Many even doubted the seriousness of the approaching conflict.

### Mid

   The Middle period of the war took place from 2 to 5 AC. As the war truly started to heat up, more minifigures joined the Nexus Force. The weight of the conflict and the realization that winning is not guaranteed begins to set in. More minifigures come in to help fight. The Maelstrom evolves and starts to produce or infect its own spacefaring vehicles, taking the war into the skies. It starts with starships and later evolves into full-size Maelstrom Cruisers the size of buildings. It is a dark time for the Nexus system and its inhabitants, and many lives are lost. Troops are getting harder to find, and the Maelstrom is more vicious than ever.

### Late

The Late period of the war took place from 5 to 6 AC. After years of fighting with their backs against the wall, the Nexus Force finally starts to make some headway. Due to an unknown event related to the Darkitect, development of new Maelstrom adaptations stopped entirely, allowing the Nexus Force to finally turn the tides. The Maelstrom was still able to spread by infecting healthy creatures and consuming imagination, but its "technology" so to speak was at a standstill now. Regaining morale, and with better technology and weapons than ever before, the Nexus Force was finally able to beat the Maelstrom's massive numbers on land and in space.

### End

Eventually, Nexus forces were able to beat back the remaining Maelstrom all the way to the Maelstrom black hole. With no new generations coming, and not being able to infect anything new, the last of the Maelstrom quickly died off, leaving the Universe finally free from its threat.

## Clean up

   However, the Nexus Force was by no means done. Thousands if not millions of Maelstrom creatures were still left living in various parts of the Universe. Though it wouldn't be as hard as fighting a full scale war, the Nexus Force needed to stamp out as much of this Maelstrom as possible to keep it from spreading again.

This led to the Nexus Force enacting a program for Maelstrom clean up that lasted from 6 AC to 7 AC. Many members of the force retired at this point, and focused their efforts on rebuilding. Those who stayed on were deployed to a variety of different worlds, fronts where the last of the Maelstrom fighting happened.

At the end of this period, all known Maelstrom had been eliminated. It is currently believed that no Maelstrom exists outside of some high security labs. Occasionally, some Maelstrom that has managed to survive resurfaces briefly, but these instances get rarer and rarer as time goes on. The Universe is truly safe again -- at least from Maelstrom.