Series Resurrecta Fictions

Series Resurrecta includes a number of fictions, each preceding a mission on all of its campaigns. Many of the fictions are relevant to the SR campaigns themselves, while others try to answer big questions concerning the FreeSpace Universe. SR fictions use special fonts, depending on their nature (e.g., transcripts from books use a specific font, while excerpts from an Ancient excavation site report use a different style).

Current fictions have been written by mission designer Mobius, and have been proofread by lordhood117. Composer Rich Douglas created the Stories from a Perturbed Cosmos tracks which are played as SR fictions are shown on screen.

Please note that the following content may be spoiler for Series Resurrecta and, in particular, the Shadows of the Great War collection.

Gehenna's Gate

[July 10th, 2359] Speech to new Modern History graduates at Polaris Public University I

In a conflict where battlefields are as large as star systems, we must ask ourselves as to the point at which the term 'victory' would have the same meaning it possessed in the past.

Moreover, we must determine how that term changes depending on whether it's a war of conquest or defense. To do so would help define the meaning of a military’s claim to 'victory' on the scale of a battle over an entire system.

The days of the Great War are long gone. At that point, most of you weren't even born yet. Those among you who were, at best, infants were still learning how to walk and speak.

People like me do remember that unique sense of terror. We were coming out of fourteen long years of conflict, a conventional one, I might add, with another species. The odds of two species encountering each other in space, let alone fighting each other, were so miniscule we couldn't even calculate them.

Then the Shivans appeared. They redefined the concepts of threat, destruction, invasion, survival. They taught us what these words really meant, and made us realize that conquering a star system, winning a war with another species, is something intrinsically dependent and who's the winner. A winner like the Shivans won't just achieve space superiority. It will also drain all life and civilization out from a planet, just as it did with Vasuda Prime.

The sudden discovery of yet another species, the Ancients, allowed us to prevent Earth's fall to such a fate, the same homeworld you have never visited, yet perceive as something important but only remotely tied to your life.

The past is a key factor in shaping the future. Knowledge of the past will help the GTVA rise and maintain its glory. Some of you may have already heard the term 'Lost Generation.' It is increasingly used as a way to describe those like you who have never been in Sol. Worry not, for you are not Lost. You will lead the future of humanity, which no longer needs its homeworld to survive and prosper.

Let the new homeworld, our 'Neo Terra' of sorts, be every single place you'll be calling home in the days, months, and years to come.

Speech to new Modern History graduates at Polaris Public University I

[September 2nd, 2341] Report of Akheton Corporation Delegation to the Imperial Palace

To the attention of Emperor Khonsu II:

It is with great honor and pleasure that we introduce the finalized product of Project Sobek, a detailed and comprehensive model with all of its specifics. The tenth annex to this confidential document is focused on the possibility of implementing beam technology weaponry to this design.

As you are already aware, the concept of this design is based on declassified reports of the SCv Moloch, a 'corvette' class of warship encountered in the late stages of the Great War. At first erroneously interpreted as a large cruiser, the Moloch was something else, an intermediate class combining the speed and flexibility of a cruiser with the firepower and endurance of destroyers. It proved to be so versatile that, in the months that followed, joint ventures of Vasudan and Terran engineers analyzed all available reports on the few ships of this class that had previously been encountered, and officially introduced the whole concept of 'corvette' to strategists.

Unlike the Shivan design we based our work on, what will likely become the GVC-V Sobek lacks a fighter bay, as our reports and tests proved it would significantly decrease the hull integrity of the warship without actually adding any vital logistical capabilities other than hosting a wing of small-to-medium fighters.

Compared to the Moloch, however, its firepower is considerably higher and the sleek design is expected to make the Sobek more efficient in combat, both in attack and defense. This is a similar result to that of the Terran Deimos, which is also expected to be manufactured very soon. We believe the Sobek will fulfill a number of roles the Deimos may be too logistically complex to perform.

Both ships will be vital for the future of Vasudan and Terran fleets. In our effort to renew our fleets, the Sobek will be the key to efficiency in strategies, logistics and combat. Under the right conditions, as tested in the attached war simulations, two ships of this class can compete directly with any known destroyer and come out victorious.

The final production phase awaits Your approval, Emperor.

[March 5th, 2335] Epitaph in a devastated Ancient settlement in Altair IV

Discovered by Vasudan survivors from the Vasuda Prime massacre
"One survivor joined us two Glorious Homeworld cycles ago, the only survivor of an entire colony of our people escaping from a devastated system. It was truly a miracle."

"It was so unbelievable at first that, for a moment, we thought it was bait, one way for the Destroyers to expose our settlement of survivors and make its location well known. It ultimately turned out to be a genuine spacecraft of our own, coming from several star systems away."

"This survivor piloting it was severely wounded, but we managed to provide basic cures. Among the data and archives carried out in the approaching emergency spacecraft, testimonies themselves of a prosperity long gone, we discovered how the Destroyers employed [Trains of Doom] in that system, as well as in neighboring systems, which were difficult to detect and monitor. Days after their disappearance, these massive convoys of evil would be followed by large Destroyer armadas, attacking our people from flanks and even from behind, in systems one or two [Subspace] jumps away from the frontlines."

"The report from our people in that colony provided us with significant intelligence that, in many systems, the Destroyers have had hidden fleets capable of staying in stasis for millennia, before their reactivation by a Train of Doom. Once reactivated, the fleets would join their main force and eliminate whatever trace of our civilization in between."

"These same awakened fleets were seen employing a bombing tactic never seen before in the invasion, a weapon of terror that could use subspace to... [indecipherable due to excessive superficial damage.]"

"The survivor, messenger of a doomed branch of our fallen Empire, ultimately passed away of a disease we were no longer able to cure with what little we now have. Its treatment would have needed just minutes in our old, great epochs of prosperity and glory. If anything, unlike us, he will not have to live through the last few remaining days of existence, eyewitnessing our complete extinction not only as a civilization, but as a species."

[February 18th, 2320] Excerpt from "An introduction to subspace, the great physical wonder"

Subspace and gravity appear to be connected to each other, albeit in somewhat of a complex relationship. Although most of the features of subspace are still a mystery to us, we have observed a strong connection between it and gravitational fields. It doesn't necessarily mean that all of subspace requires the presence of gravity fields to allow travel, as vastly demonstrated by interstellar jump nodes, but it shows how, at the very least, the roots of this phenomenon are connected to gravity.

Since the very beginning of subspace exploitation, it has been noted that the amount of energy necessary for an intrasystem jump is proportional to the intensity of the gravitational field, and its distribution with respect to a given craft's route. Jumping towards the center of a star system does in fact require less energy compared to a journey away from said center. The difference in terms of energy required is negligible for modern subspace drives, but it was a major factor in early experiments. It has also been proven how the proximity to an interstellar jump node does not act as an auxiliary gravity source, therefore not affecting the energy required for a jump.

Intersystem jumps follow very different rules. The energy required for such jumps is way off the scale for small spacecraft, and a challenge for even the largest ships, but it is not proportional to the distance between two stable jump nodes. This leads one to assume, as described in greater detail in later chapters of this publication, that while intrasystem jumps are vastly affected by gravity, intersystem jumps actually rely on some kind of subspace ‘flow’ which, once entered, allows ships to pass through it with little extra effort beyond the energy expended from entering subspace. Gravity seems to play no role in this flow, as the gravitational field of connected star systems is negligible during the travel, for example, and there's no way it could play a role. There's no influence from external gravity sources, either, because the subspace flows pass through interstellar space, whose density is low. Further in the publications, hypotheses and experiments showing the existence of a subspace flow will be shown...

[April 13th, 2365] Excerpt from the book 'Tales of a Wounded Great War Pilot'

We maintained secrecy over the Iksura freighters and their colossal cargo capacity for quite some time. The reason? It was deeply counterproductive in post Great War time to admit how inferior we were compared to the Shivans in fields other than offensive power. Well, that's my own hypothesis, and who knows if there's something else behind it.

One thing I can tell for sure: facing them in combat was as frightening as facing a destroyer or similar warship. You're there, out in the void of space, pretending to be shooting at a sitting duck, except the sitting duck and its cargo are more well armored, armed and protected than one of our own Fenris-class cruisers. Think about that, let it sink in, then add one important factor to the equation: a jamming field whose strength and range would effectively prevent any sensor lock from being gained. No missiles that required a lock could be launched against these... Doomtrains. None at all.

A jamming that would not only compromise your offensive capacity, but it would also cut you off from your allies, their messages, their calls for help and so on. That was a powerful weapon, too, at times more frightening than defensive turrets. There was a drawback to the Doomtrains, however: as we suspected, and later tested directly in combat, the destruction of any of the components in the chain, including the towing freighter itself, would have triggered a chain reaction causing the immediate destruction of all following units. The mechanism by which this happened, according to undisclosed information, was probably due to an automated Shivan mechanism that would self destruct each lost component, thus preventing its capture by any kind of enemy.

We then assumed that only the most sensitive cargo would be carried by Doomtrains. Attempts to even try and scan the cargo proved impossible, due to the intense jamming field and the self-destruct mechanism. Never in our interstellar conflicts have we seen such a mysterious, deceptive and intriguing freighter. It's not the ship type we would normally link to all these characteristics, as we believe actual warships to be more than a threat. But what if the Iksuras were responsible for maintaining entire Shivan fleets with their precious cargo? That would make them second only to the Lucifer in terms of strategic importance. That's the lesson we learned at Ross 128.

[August 5th, 2337] Classified transcript from the interrogation of a Hammer of Light fanatic

"To what degree were you involved in the final efforts of the Alliance in countering the Shivans in Ross 128?"

"I was deployed by my guru to investigate Shivan activity in the system."

"How was this activity carried out?"

"I was the pilot of a retrofitted Seshat scout fighter. I had enough supplies in my spacecraft to perform a reconnaissance mission lasting an entire month. I then staged my loss in a reconnaissance operation, self destructed my craft, and provided my guru with the information he needed. One of our comrades picked me up and organized my transfer back to safe systems."

"What kind of information have you been able to provide, and by what means?"

"We learned that the Destroyers, as per our prophecies, were not defeated. There was something else besides the Lucifer controlling them. It was simply replacing the Lucifer's lost control. It then would have conquered Vasudan and Terran space, succeeding where the Lucifer finally failed."

"I see. Continue..."

"Those were rough times for our ideals. We seemed doomed, oblivion the only possible outcome. Millennia of prophecies almost seemed like painful illusions, yet the truth was even greater than our expectations. That truth had to be delivered back to our systems and stop the mass defections and suicides among Hammer of Light loyalists."

"Were you aware of other activities being carried out in the frontline?"

"Yes, I know that some of our own loyalists were onboard the PVD Imhotep. Others were spread amongst the members of the battle group. Every single ship had some of our faithful onboard. Some of us managed to slow down joint Vasudan-Terran operations, performing surgical strikes and driving PVE and GTA strategists into chaos. They were ultimately fooled into linking those failures to new Destroyer designs we hadn't seen before in the conflict. That allowed us to go unnoticed for weeks."

"Describe one such act of sabotage to joint Vasudan-Terran operations."

"It happened days after the destruction of the Lucifer. Some of our loyalists were sent to deal with a Cain cruiser, in Delta Serpentis, which seemed very well guarded for a ship of its class. We believed it was the sign of something greater, and the moment we saw the Shivans using a previously unseen weapon, we realized it was time to become messengers of a new truth. We haven't stopped ever since."

[January 24th, 2368] Civilian Media Investigation Report "Questions they won't let us answer about the Shivans"

Aired on most public GTVA channels

If we really want to get to the bottom of the problem, the reason behind all of the big unanswered questions, we have to go back to where everything started.

If you're guessing what star we're showing right now, you're guessing right, it's Ross 128. Don't be fooled by this fiery glow coming from a red dwarf. The mysteries that lay in this system are far greater than previously thought.

Some of you watching this episode are Capellan refugees, looking for a new place to call home. You might as well wonder what lies between the tragedy of your homeworlds' collapse and the source of the Shivan incursions in the Great War. To date, there are no clear - let alone official - explanations on how the Great War actually ended. There's the majestic, glorious end - that of the Lucifer - but there was an actual end to the war, the last encounter between a Shivan and a Terran or Vasudan ship.

Details on this last encounter are unknown. We have no idea how it took place, we know it happened in this system, somewhere in the void of space, yet it led to the disappearance of the Shivans for over three decades. We still hear from scientists who believe the Shivans used interstellar jump drives capable of not relying on stable jump nodes, proving how such drives may theoretically be possible, but how accurate are these hypotheses?

Furthermore, we believe that hiding the truth from honest GTVA citizens is an insult to the sacrifices committed by our loved ones in the past forty-five years of galactic conflict and challenging reconstruction efforts. We may be as resilient as phoenixes rising from ashes, but at what point do we accept the ignorance of the past, especially when said ignorance is driven by somebody? How can we possibly live our lives and even plan to reopen the Sol jump node using Knossos-derived technology, if we're so unsure about what's behind us?

Should we even plan to go this far, knowing that, even if it is sealed from the rest of colonized space, Sol is - as far as we know and can extrapolate - a safe place?

[November 14th, 2352] Memories of a veteran from the 53rd Hammerheads

Written on his personal diary, recovered by the heirs after his death, on September 18th, 2388

Shortly after our final victory over the Lucifer, I felt relieved about the possibility of not facing the Shivans ever again. This feeling has changed over the years, of course, effectively turning me into what I am right now. I am now obsessed, puzzled by what I, for a long time, believed was but a memory of the past. It now chases me, over and over, even in my dreams. I seem to be the only person around here who spends most of the day thinking about what lies beyond the sealed jump node.

The victory over such an enemy came at a price going far beyond the meaning of what we learned from past history, when it comes to conflicts. There was a military victory, at least a local one, and that was the moment the Lucifer fell to our attack aimed at its multiple reactors. But a seal was imposed, and one system had to be cut off from the others, dismantling decades of space colonization in fractions of a second. That was the ultimate cost of our victory.

We have no idea about the evolution of the conflict on the other side of the node. There are many possibilities, all driven by questions I will never be able to answer, as no one probably will for many years to come. I do wonder, however, if the war for survival on the other side had a similar ending to what happened here, in the form of a second, maybe a third or fourth, sealing of a system from the cosmic net of subspace flow.

Is this the lesson learnt from the Destroyers? Disappear into the oblivion of endless space, with your species going extinct, or merely slow down the process by self isolating? Is isolation the final solution over a galactic conflict with an enemy that won't come for your resources, instead overwhelms you with technology and numbers, then aims to cancel your entire civilization with no trace whatsoever of a contact, a will for peace?

Are the survivors on the other side, providing that they're still alive, in a chasing marathon with destiny, a fight for survival where cutting the branches of a colossal tree is the only way to preserve life?