Triumvirate War

**The Human-Triumvirate** war was a decades-long conflict that took place between the United Earth Government and the alien faction that identified itself as the Triumvirate. The conflict also marked Humanity’s first real contact with an alien species. The war officially began when an outer colony world was attacked, and concluded with the Battle of Haven.

## History

#### First Contact

On September 2020, contact with one of Humanity’s outermost colony worlds was lost. A fleet sent to investigate the situation managed to broadcast a call for help before being utterly destroyed by an unknown threat. A larger fleet was then dispatched and upon arriving at the planet, found it completely decimated. The home fleet lay in ruins in orbit around the planet, its orbital defenses in pieces, its surface burnt to glass and the planet’s population massacred.

A similar attack later took place against another colony world. Response time from the Unified Defense Force was a lot quicker this time, and it was there that Humanity ascertained who they were fighting. The alien faction, having assimilated Human language with superior technology identified themselves as “The Triumvirate” and deemed Humanity’s destruction the “divine will” of their deities. After a brief conflict between the UDF and Triumvirate fleet which resulted in the annihilation of the Human forces, the UEG officially declared war against the Triumvirate.

For the years that followed, the Triumvirate proved themselves to be superior technologically in terms of both space and ground warfare. The UDF army and marine troopers were no match against the physically and technologically superior Triumvirate soldiers who outmatched them in tactics and weaponry. Their energy shields rendered most Human weaponry ineffective, while their energy-based firearms nullified any defense personal Human armour would provide for its user.

After securing ground victories against the Human forces, the Triumvirate would then pull back and reduce the planet’s surface to molten lava and glass through mass orbital bombardment with energised starship weapons. UDF fleets that attempted to prevent these invasions were quickly made short work of by the Triumvirate warships, which were also equipped with energy shielding, superior FTL drives and anti-ship plasma weapons. Victories against Triumvirate forces were rare, with Human ships having to vastly outnumber the opposition’s ships in order to barely secure a victory.

#### Space Marines

In response to the prior 500 Year War, the Colonial Intelligence Agency had commissioned Humanity’s first super soldier program. The project was aimed at creating a physically enhanced super soldier that would, in future potential conflicts, prove a greater asset to the UDF than conventional ground forces. The project targeted Human children as the best possible candidates to indoctrinate into the program, and as such a hundred children were abducted across UEG space. The most notable among them was a boy who would later become known as Aaron-157.

As the Human-Triumvirate war continued, and several colonies had already fallen, the UDF began to extensively deploy the Space Marines on crucial operations against the alien threat. On ground, the Space Marines proved to be victorious against their opponents, almost always prevailing over them in ground combat. Numerous weapons and technology were retrieved by the Space Marines, which Humanity began to reverse engineer and learn more about their foe and develop weapons to combat them.

#### Later Years

Unfortunately, there were too few of the Space Marines to truly turn the tide of war. While they were victorious on ground, the UDF’s naval ineptitude against the Triumvirate rendered these victorious moot as they would simply bombard the planet from a safe distance. Over the years, UEG territory had decreased exponentially and by 2545, almost all outer colonies were lost. The remaining fleets had been recalled to the innermost worlds that held the utmost importance to Humanity. At the centre of these six worlds was Earth, Humanity’s homeworld.

However, the Triumvirate again showed their superiority in intelligence gathering, as through unknown means they had discovered the location of four of these six worlds and despite having a greater number of defenses in comparison to the outer colonies, all four fell within the span of a few days. Only two worlds remained now: Outreach and Earth, and UEG officials were desperately developing multiple contingency plans in event that the Human species lose all of their worlds. Those that were on Earth began plans for specialised colony ships that would rally up the entire population of Earth and escape the planet in the event that it would be found by the Triumvirate. However, those that were on Outreach developed a different plan.

#### Project: SUPERNOVA

In early 2552, UEG scientists unveiled a secret project they had been working on for several years: the Supernova Bomb. When detonated, this bomb was capable of destroying an entire planet within seconds, shattering its structure completely and reducing it to bits of rock floating in space. The proposed plan was to gather the last of Humanity’s Space Marines, and send them upon the suicide mission of capturing a Triumvirate ship, and using an advanced Artificial Intelligence known as Sheila to pilot it to whatever the Triumvirate considered their homeworld and destroying it using the Superrnova.

Thirty surviving Space Marines were recalled to Outreach and briefed on the mission. They were also provided with their own specialised warship: the Destiny’s Harbinger to embark on this mission. After making final preparations for the mission, the 30 Space Marines made their way towards the Harbinger in three different dropships when suddenly, a Triumvirate fleet appeared over Outreach. Panic ensued on the entire planet, as the invasion began within seconds. Two of the three dropships instantly turned back towards the surface of Outreach. One of them was struck by one of the Triumvirate starship’s weapons and crash-landed on the surface, killing almost all of the Space Marine occupants inside. Those that did successfully make it dispersed across the surface of the planet and began guarding key locations as well as overseeing the evacuation of civilians.

The first group of Space Marines that had already docked with the Harbinger were prohibited from leaving under orders from Captain Ronald Whitley. Under pressure, he was commanded to perform a randomised warpspace jump out of the system, as the planet fell.

#### Artificial World

The random jump lead the Harbinger to an artificial world in orbit around a star. The world had the diameter of three Earths. Soon after, a Triumvirate battle group arrived and engaged the Harbinger, seemingly to prevent it from landing on the planet. The Harbinger managed to hold off the group thanks to its experimented weapons and shielding technology, long enough for almost all of the crew to escape the ship and touch down on the artificial world. Captain Whitley then manually crash landed the Harbinger on the planet’s surface.

For several days, the several dozen marines and ten Space Marines scattered across the planet engaged in guerilla warfare tactics against the Triumvirate, who landed several ships on the world and began hunting them down. It was soon clear to the Humans that the Triumvirate viewed the artificial world with some sort of reverence, which prevented them from orbitally bombarding the Humans and thus forcing them to engage the Humans on the ground. This proved advantageous in the Humans’ favour, due to the presence of the Space Marines.

Eventually, the Humans managed to gather into two major groups, one of which had secured the Harbinger’s crash site while the other set up a makeshift base in a large jungle. Aaron-157 was among the second group. He lead 6 Space Marines and several other regular marines across the planet’s surface, fighting through Triumvirate forces and eventually reaching the Harbinger within three days. It was here that the entire crew saw their opportunity: they could still commandeer one of the Triumvirate ships that had landed on the surface and carry on with their original mission.

The mission was largely almost a success until a larger Triumvirate fleet consisting of several hundred thousand ships arrived over the artificial world. Billions of Triumvirate troops touched down all over the planet, which caused the Human forces to quickly retreat back to the Harbinger. As the fleet continued to land troops, the Human troops got to work in repairing the Harbinger. Thankfully, the damage was not extensive as the ship’s energy shielding absorbed most of the impact, and the Harbinger was quickly repaired. Upon escaping the planet’s surface, a group of seven Space Marines had secretly left the crew with the Supernova bomb in hand. Aaron-157, who was on the Harbinger with the two remaining Space Marines, ordered them to pull back and await a dropship pickup. However they refused the order and warned the Harbinger to quickly distance itself from the planet.

After several minutes of holding out the millions of Triumvirate troops that had surrounded them as a distraction for the Harbinger to escape, the Space Marines detonated the Supernova bomb. The ensuing explosion destroyed the artificial world, killing the millions of Triumvirate troops in the process and destroying most of the Triumvirate fleet that was in close proximity to the planet. This was the biggest victory Humanity had ever secured against the Triumvirate.

#### Following Years

The destruction of the artificial world dealt a severe blow against the Triumvirate, and they had disappeared from Humanity’s radar for five years. In this time, Humanity began to rebuild what they had lost. Salvaging Triumvirate technology leftover from the war, as well as locating several more ancient artifacts that were discovered thanks to the data recovered by Sheila while on the artificial planet, the UEG made several improvements to all of their technologies as a whole. They also discovered that these ancient worlds were made by a race of beings known as the “Precursors” who had been extinct for thousands of years. A new supersoldier program had also been developed and a thousand second generation Space Marines were produced.

Meanwhile, as a result of the artificial world’s destruction, the Triumvirate experienced a massive civil war. This internal conflict drastically lessened the alien faction’s strength in numbers and eventually, a new leadership was appointed.

In early 2557, what remained of the Triumvirate reappeared and reignited the war against Humanity. Several attempts were made to destroy the rebuilding colonies, however Humanity’s upgraded arsenal enabled them to hold them at bay for the time being. Meanwhile, the UDF discovered a particular Precursor world which they would eventually come to know as Haven.

#### Haven

Haven was different from the other Precursor worlds in that the entire planet was covered with an artificial shell that prevented anyone from landing on its surface. The UDF established several orbital platforms around the planet as research continued, and a fleet of UDF ships constantly orbited the planet.

The Triumvirate sent several small fleets to attack the UDF presence there and wrench it from their control. These fleets were promptly annihilated by the greater UDF presence there. However, on January 2558, a massive Triumvirate fleet appeared over Haven and engaged the UDF. A huge battle took place in the space above the planet. During several UDF and Triumvirate ships were sucked into a portal generated from somewhere underneath Haven’s shell. The battle promptly ended with the Triumvirate fleet pulling out of the engagement.

Three months later, the UDF was successful in causing another portal to open up, and several ships passed through into the planet where they discovered a lush green world with several artificial structures populating the landscape. However they were secretly followed by three cloaked Triumvirate capital ships. The UDF forces were however successful in rescuing survivors who had been sucked into the planet three months prior, and then deactivating the planet’s shell, allowing for the rest of the UDF fleet to descend and annihilate the Triumvirate capital ships.

#### Endgame

Soon after, another massive Triumvirate fleet appeared over Haven and descended down onto the planet’s surface. In response, the UDF sent out a distress call which caused a large percentage of Humanity’s overall fleet to arrive ane enter Haven’s atmosphere and engaged the Triumvirate head-on.

In response, an unknown Precursor AI reactivated Haven’s shell covering, trapping both the Humans and Triumvirate inside. The AI then activated the planet’s internal defense system - billions of sentinels. Soon, a three-way chaotic battle ensued in the skies and ground of Haven.

The battle lasted for several weeks and shifted between multiple locations. One major event was when the Triumvirate leader managed to gain control of Haven’s primary, hidden weapon from a control room in the planet’s core, and destroyed a rebuilding Human colony. However the Precursor AI seized control of the planet and engaged the Triumvirate forces in the control room, causing them to retreat.

The Human forces determined that the Triumvirate leader fired the weapon from Haven’s main control room that was located at its core, which was accessible from a special building that was located in a massive canyon somewhere on Haven. The remaining Human forces traveled to the location, which had been found thanks to Sheila and realised that the Triumvirate were already there and attempting to enter the building to re-access the core.

Thankfully, Haven’s sentinels were holding them at bay for the moment. The Human forces joined the battle, eager to gain access to the core first. A final three-way battle ensued which resulted in major casualties for both the Humans and Triumvirate. A few Humans and Supernaturals managed to gain access to the core first but were followed by several thousand Triumvirate troops.

While inside the core room, it was discovered that the Triumvirate were actually after a fleet of Precursor warships that they wanted to gain control of. However it was too late, as the Triumvirate troops soon entered the core with them and surrounded them. Suddenly, a group of several thousand sentinels arrived, under the control of Sheila, and decimated the remaining Triumvirate troops. They then proceeded to deactivate Haven’s shell and escaped onboard a rescue ship that had arrived just in time.

The Triumvirate had been officially destroyed, and Humanity once again began to rebuild.