///From the author: the story of Rebirther is another one of many anthology tales within the Spacers Saga universe, inspired by such sci-fi classics as The Forever War and Starship Troopers. In the same vein of these stories of young men coming of age against a backdrop of military misadventure, 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 flagship Spacers Saga era 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]
Focuses on Eduardo Alejandro “Eddie” Martinez - born in 2507 in Aldrin City on Mars, he joined MARSCOM in 2526 as part of the surge in patriotism which followed the outbreak of the Kuiper War. Following two years of advanced training, he deployed to Alpha Centauri in 2528 and served with Martian special ops for four years after arriving in 2533. In 2537, he was mortally wounded and expected to die - but instead he was recruited into the secretive Special Reconnaissance Group, and was a covert operative from 2538 on as part of Mars’ response to infiltration of the local government. During this period, he saw service across the Rigil Kentaurus system between his first infiltration mission and end of the war in 2557.
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.
Martinez is deployed undercover on Talvan as part of Mars' response to the rebellion there. While there, he becomes awakened to the shortcomings of the Martian Federation by seeing things that make him question the morality of the conflict throughout the frontier, especially the way Mars tramples the society developing in the Centauri cluster and other extrasolar systems as part of a “new colonialism” that only serves Mars. In short, while Martinez 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.
The Setting
[Annotated map of Talvan, including ten most populous settlements]
Critical Stats:
First reached by humans: October 2311 (crewed - part of the Wayfarer Program)
2538 Population: approximately 22.3 million, including orbitals (est. per the 2536 census)
Capital: Aurora City (population - approximately 2.1 million)
Current gov't: Confederation of Talvan (established March 2386)
Affiliation: the Interplanetary Cooperative Administration (ICA)
Government: federal parliamentary constitutional republic (seat of government is Federal Manor in Aurora City); current Prime Minister - Alfredo Herrera (since 2534); current Solar Union ambassador - Yulia Kondabalu (since 2535); current Martian Federation ambassador - Derek Simonov (since 2531; Martian seat of government is the Red House in Utopia)
Primary industries: agriculture/fishing (Talvan is a major source of foodstuffs for the Rigil Kentaurus system); manufacturing (especially prefabricated goods)
Largest settlements:
(1) Aurora City
Population: 2.1 million
Founded: 17 May 2324
Affiliation: Solar Union
(2) Utopia
Population: 1.7 million
Founded: 29 August 2326
Affiliation: Martian Federation
(3) Hua-Xiang
Population: 1.4 million
Founded: 30 April 2317
Affiliation: Martian Federation
(4) Durandal
Population: 1.1 million
Founded: 23 September 2349
Affiliation: Solar Union
(5) New Melbourne
Population: 920 thousand
Founded: 7 July 2361
Affiliation: Solar Union
(6) Isaiah
Population: 840 thousand
Founded: 18 June 2368
Affiliation: independent
(7) Knifetip Bay
Population: 780 thousand
Founded: 3 February 2365
Affiliation: independent
(8) Amaterasu
Population: 710 thousand
Founded: 22 October 2371
Affiliation: Martian Federation
(9) Uhuru
Population: 620 thousand
Founded: 3 November 2314
Affiliation: Solar Union
(10) Callum’s Prospect
Population: 530 thousand
Founded: 17 March 2382
Affiliation: independent
The Story
[Infographic on the major locations on Talvan, Eddie's main area of operations]
Talvan, the largest moon of Caliban (official name for Alpha Centauri Ab), was first reached by humans in 2296 as part of the Interstellar Consortium’s Project Wayfarer, which aimed to establish a human presence on worlds outside the solar system by the end of the 23rd century. After a thirty-seven-year journey, the roughly 12 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, however, the thriving society in the Centauri cluster had become the center of a proxy conflict that was part of the larger Kuiper War raging back in Solar Space. This conflict between the Solar Union and the ascendant Martian Federation raged on for more than twenty-five years across the outskirts of humanity’s Solar civilization, pitting each side and its allies against the other in a battle for control of outer solar system resources, and spread beyond the bounds of Solar Space by as early as 2531.
[Map showing the climate classification of regions on Talvan]
The Centauri branch of this war ignited as a result of Martian attempts to control more of the Centauri cluster, which had been a major point of contention ever since the Crimson Revolution, when MARSCOM military officers led by Colonel Sanyar Galvani stormed the Martian Parliament to demand a reformation after decades of economic decline. As the new Martian Federation broke with the rest of the ICA, fighting in the Rigil Kentaurus system broke out as agents of Mars and the Titan-led Solar Union fought each other and a local rebel cell called the Centauri People’s Front which aimed to evict both from their space.
By 2538, the roughly 350 thousand spacers of the Martian Exosolar Command active in Centauri space have insinuated themselves into the local society, especially the members of the elite Special Reconnaissance Group (SRG). This unit was devised to infiltrate local populations to gather ground-level intelligence on enemy forces (in this case, Centaurist rebels and spacers of the Union 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 Martinez was a member of the SRG for roughly two decades of the Centauri War, and spent most of his time living in and among the local populations of the Rigil Kentaurus system. This included nearly five 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 else deserted instead of returning home, and most of them settled in the Tres Islas Paraísos. It is from here where Eddie contacts a Titan Herald field reporter named Ricardo Jansky in 2561 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 mid-26th century. When the story was published in 2563, 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?