> Please list all notable events on the date April 17th 2369...
- 10th anniversary of Tau Ceti III colony's founding
- Construction begins on the first Pisces-class destroyer
No other notable events found for this date.
> What was the Gemini Offensive?
The Third Shivan War began in 2382. Incredible numbers of Shivan ships simply appeared on the edge of Terran space and began to systematically destroy everything in their path. The GTVA fought back at enormous cost. Although by this time technology in weapons and ships was a credible match for the Shivans, the Shivans had overwhelming numbers on their side. Most of the war was fought in desperate actions around jump nodes, trying to contain the Shivans before they could break through and flood a new system. Once a system was taken by the Shivans, it was rarely recovered.
The Gemini Offensive was a carefully planned and timed operation. In late 2384, the largest single Terran fleet ever created was assembled, then launched in a blitzkrieg assault against the Shivans. The Gemini fleet smashed through Shivan battle lines. Instead of attempting to regain territory as previous attacks had done (and failed), they continued pushing deep into enemy territory. Their goal, as understood by the fleet, was to reach one of the Shivan command centers, normally held far behind the front lines, and destroy it. The hope was that, like the destruction of the Lucifer in the Great War, destroying a command center would cause the remaining Shivans in the area to lose their ability to fight cohesively, and buy time for the GTVA to push back.
In reality, the goal was much more ambitious. Destroying the command center was the backup plan: the primary objective was to take advantage of all of the research that had been done on Shivan psychology, biology, and communications over the years. This was the culmination of an effort that began before the GTI rebellion, continued with Bosch's ETAK, and further developed through experimentation on captured Shivans. The result of all of this was essentially a psychological virus: a set of communication codes that could break into and reshape the Shivan psyche. Their creators had left avenues of control; humanity was able to find and exploit them.
When the Gemini fleet finally reached a command center, after weeks of near non-stop fighting and tremendous casualties, the command center was boarded and the virus implanted, resulting in it being broadcast to all Shivans within it's influence. Within minutes, they had all ceased to fight. The effect cascaded from one command center to another, and as far as is known,
all Shivans everywhere. The war was over.
Follow-up "directives" were later implanted and broadcast, making the Shivans first docile, then subservient. The Shivans had not merely been defeated: they had been tamed, and were now fully under the control of humanity. What should be done with them has been one of the defining questions of the past decade.
> Please outline the details of the disbanding of the GTVA. Was it a peaceful one, or did it involve hostility between the Terrans and Vasudans?
The taming of the Shivans was, naturally, extremely controversial. Most people were elated by the guarantee that the Shivans would never be a threat again. Many believed that the Shivans should be destroyed altogether, and a few argued that having demonstrated our power over them, we should leave them in peace. Many more were simply uncomfortable with the idea of turning their former enemies into slaves, either out of mistrust or guilt.
Ultimately, though, the factions in favor of "taming" prevailed, for two main reasons. First, in case there were other races who could provide a threat to Terran interests, the combined might of the Shivan fleet network would guarantee victory. Second, the economic opportunity was too great to ignore. Without the Shivans, the Terran reconstruction could have taken painful decades. While the debate over whether or not to free the Shivans raged, they were used for reconstruction... and were shown to be extremely effective, reliable, and efficient in doing so. In addition, the Shivans had knowledge and control of a vast network of subspace nodes and systems, all of which could be exploited for the further expansion of humanity. Terran-controlled space would be expanded by an order of magnitude or two... nobody was quite sure how vast the Shivan holdings truly were. The "sad necessity" of destroying the Shivan mind would be turned to good use, rebuilding the destruction the war caused and fueling new commerce and colonization.
In the end, the debate simply lost momentum instead of coming to a decisive resolution, leaving the factions in favor of taming as the de facto winners. Public sentiment against it was simply not strong enough to overthrow something that was undeniably responsible for a quick recovery and a new age of prosperity and growth.
As mentioned, the decision was far from universal. The Vasudans, in particular, wanted no part of this new empire. They had probably been planning their full separation for a while, but the prospect of this new galactic empire, both in terms of scope and means, was too much for the pacifist, non-expansionist Vasudans. In early 2387, the "Vasudan Exodus" began. Vasudans retreated to a set of systems accessible through only a few subspace corridors, then constructed gates that inhibited intersystem jump nodes instead of stabilizing them. They officially withdrew from the GTVA, announced their intentions, and set a deadline for Terrans in their territories to evacuate. A number of human colonies behind Vasudan space elected to remain with the Vasudans, but most chose to leave. On the scheduled date of October 3, 2388, the switch was thrown and all access to Vasudan territories was cut off. No Vasudans have been seen since that day.
