Before the crystals were discovered
2021
The world's largest commodity corporations sign a secret agreement, bypassing their governments, on the Coordination of Economic Struggle (CES) for the international energy market.
2030
Manufacturing companies join the CES agreement. From then on, the market for raw materials, their derivatives and the machinery of the "golden billion" countries is quietly controlled by private capital and no longer by any government, not even those of the largest economies of the Western world.
2031
The developing countries respond to the threat of economic pressure that bypasses governments. Major capitalists who dislike the idea of a CES monopoly try to sign a treaty to resist the monopoly being forced upon them. But their interests differ too much: the signing falls through, and what they do agree on is no adequate answer to the monopolist's challenge.
2032
Attempts at state intervention and the threat of equal competitors push the members of the CES to drastic measures: funded by their generous investments, a series of mass tenders is launched to create more private military companies. From now on, the CES commands the largest contingent of mercenary armies.
2033
The members of the CES legalise their status and officially announce the founding of a corporation, which they name Antaeus.
Antaeus declares that a global economic monopoly must be established to distribute fuel and valuable production resources more efficiently and rationally.
To reach this goal, the free market must be abandoned, which means that no business may exist outside the corporation.
To reach this goal, state control over the economy must be abandoned, which means that the corporation must take in entire states and abolish the political borders between them.
To reach this goal, both economic instruments and force must be used to remove obstacles.
And so 60% of the world economy took the name Antaeus and set itself the task of uniting every holder of capital in the corporation. Over the next 15 years the corporation conquers the world, crushing the pockets of resistance to the monopoly one by one, by force or by economic means.
2037
Unidentified objects are recorded in the solar system. At first they are classified as comets.
2042
The unidentified objects ("comets") change their behaviour. Scientists take this as a sign of deliberate navigation through space, but find no further evidence for their suspicions.
2045
The first prototypes of combat vehicles under the common name Tank "X" are built.
Tank "X" is an unmanned tank-type combat vehicle, built to fight in the extreme conditions of a hyper-aggressive environment.
The key goals of the Tank "X":
- no crew: one remote operator takes its place;
- quick production of a combat unit from prefabricated parts in a mobile factory;
- parts that are easy to combine, so that a unit can be adapted to its task with little effort.
2047
Antaeus announces a Military Council within its structure. It is to reform the organisation's armed forces, remove the risks of having many separate paramilitary groups and become the foundation of a new society.
2049
Antaeus holds almost 100% of the world economy, does away with the state as a model of governing society and becomes the sole guarantor of the development of human civilisation.
2055
Antaeus begins to disband, one after another, the private military organisations that remained outside the new armed forces.
2056
Antaeus meets discontent among some of its former structures, which the reforms leave no place for. Armed clashes with scattered opponents of the reforms break out in various parts of the planet.
2060
The opponents of the reforms and the economic opposition to Antaeus found the Frontier corporation.
Frontier sets itself the task of standing up to the monopoly and returning the world economy to a free market.
To reach this goal, the Antaeus corporation must cease to exist.
To reach this goal, Frontier must seize the initiative in the extraction and production of the most important resources.
To reach this goal, Frontier must become a military force equal to Antaeus in its capabilities, and so the enemy's own weapon becomes its main instrument of war: the Tank "X".
Frontier's advantage is that most of the engineers and scientists who took part in developing these tanks stayed on its side.
2064
Frontier briefly manages to take the initiative in battle and to support its followers in Latin America, Russia, India and Africa.
2069
The unknown space objects ("comets") set off meteorite bombardments of planets throughout the solar system. A huge number of asteroids suddenly change course and head for Earth.
Communications are destroyed, some cities and space stations perish. Antaeus and Frontier are forced to all but stop fighting and turn to the survival of humanity.
For a decade humanity sinks into the chaos of the catastrophe. Antaeus and Frontier carry on, but are busy securing their own future. Local battles are still fought, on a very small scale. Yet the Tank "X" technology is improved rapidly amid the cataclysm.
2074
All over the surface of the Earth, growing crystals of extraterrestrial origin are found in meteorite craters.
2079
Research on the new mineral shows that it is exceptionally effective for producing fuel and materials. Its incredible uses make the crystals humanity's most important resource in a time of global cataclysm.
But the new resource has a dangerous property: the crystals grow out of control, and as their mass increases they can change the climate radically, cause storms and tempests and change the temperature over large areas.
The rare "alpha veins" (no more than 2–3% of all the mineral found) are the heart of the crystal masses. They are hard to find and even harder to mine. The fight for valuable deposits becomes a new stumbling block in the struggle between Antaeus and Frontier.
After the crystals were discovered
2080
Humanity studies the crystals intensively and tries in vain to stop the change of the Earth's climate and geography. But the changes cannot be undone: the polar ice caps shrink visibly, the water level rises around the world, coastal cities are flooded, and crystals cover vast areas, forming new mountain ranges, plateaus and islands.
Mass resettlement leads to a series of conflicts as people fight for habitable land. Antaeus and Frontier own the most resources and lead this struggle.
Most of the largest cities are abandoned: the rival organisations have moved their populations to platforms in the ocean and to land fit for farming.
Ever since the crystals' most important properties were discovered, Antaeus and Frontier have been looking for industrial uses for them and mining the mineral haphazardly all over the planet.
2087
Frontier's forces capture Silence, a research complex built as a prison. In the prison laboratories they find the notes of Antaeus scientists on how crystals affect various materials. One of the documents is titled "Field Scattering", and its contents will become the basis of a major technological breakthrough.
2089
The wild growth of the crystal deposits slows down sharply. From now on the planet's geography hardly changes, and the resettlement comes to a halt.
Antaeus and Frontier secure parts of the Earth's habitable land for themselves, build the crystals into humanity's technological and economic development and adopt the technology of mining crystals on an industrial scale.
They also build the crystals into their military programmes: technologies based on them (weapons, armour, fuel and more) go into the Tank "X" project.
Crystal deposits are found on the sites of many cities abandoned during the resettlement. This draws part of the population back to mine the most valuable mineral on Earth.
2091
A scientific group of Frontier specialists and hired staff completes a large-scale study based on the document seized in Silence. Field scattering is discovered: a technology for transporting cargo and vehicles.
The analysis of Antaeus's experiments became the basis of a research project by a team of specialists led by Frontier's finest minds. A year and a half of research and development produced a technology that moves objects with a crystal coating over great distances. In military use it allows Tanks "X" to be delivered to the combat zone straight from the factory, skipping transport and the dangerous landing stage.
The Frontier scientists who carried out the original research went on working secretly for Antaeus along the same lines, and very soon mercenaries all over the world had field scattering at their disposal.
2092
In Russia, west of the Ural Mountains, Antaeus founds West Prime, the world's first crystallurgical complex. Within a year the technology for mining crystals is successfully completed. At the same time Frontier starts permanent crystal mining in the Andes.
Antaeus needs more and more crystals, and that drives it to dangerous experiments to stimulate their growth. West Prime becomes the first victim of its owners' greed: the rapid growth of the mineral sets off crystal storms, and the surroundings of the complex become unfit for any crystallurgical infrastructure. Antaeus is forced to abandon its property for an indefinite time.
The present
2094 (map Iran)
The Iranian conflict. Antaeus discovers Frontier's crystallurgical complexes in Iran and moves large forces from Europe to seize the deposits. This forces Frontier to pull its troops out of North America to the sand dunes of Iran.
2099 (map West Prime)
Frontier discovers the crystallurgical complex West Prime. The storm in the region has died down, and the crystal deposit, already developed, can be worked again. Frontier's expeditionary corps gets there before the complex's former owners. But Antaeus has no intention of giving up its valuable assets without a fight: the battles for West Prime begin.
2101 (maps Area 159 and Area 104)
In this secret laboratory, the Antaeus corporation tested advanced developments built on the Tank "X" technology. Every new model had to go through careful testing and calibration. The forces of Frontier would never have learned of this underground complex, code-named Area 159, had it not been for data captured by chance during the battle for West Prime.
Antaeus's mistake was to leave its installations for testing field scattering unprotected. Frontier's engineers hacked the system and set up the teleportation of their forces straight onto the enemy base to get hold of the secret technologies. Now the laboratory has become the scene of fierce fighting.
Area 104 is a laboratory of the same type as 159, built a couple of years before it. No research is done there now, and the premises mostly serve as a warehouse. But Antaeus remembered the attack on Area 159 and spent a long time plotting its revenge. By planting agents among the enemy, the corporation managed to tap unnoticed into Frontier's tank teleportation system. Soon afterwards Frontier intercepted information about an Antaeus attack on one of its bases, never suspecting that its teleported tanks would not arrive where they were sent but in a trap: Area 104.
2102 (map Ares)
Ares, the first Martian training ground, was built on Mars in 2102 on the orders of the head of the Frontier corporation, after Antaeus had firmly established itself on Moon Silence. The base was built in strict secrecy and, unfortunately, did not bring the results hoped for: there were no X-crystal deposits near the training ground, although expeditions to other parts of Mars had some success. The size of Ares allowed the base to serve both as an X-crystal store and as a centre for exchanging red crystals for blue ones. The base became an unofficial hub of the mineral trade among the factions not controlled by Antaeus. Of course, such a huge black market could not go unnoticed by the earthly corporation, and enemy tanks arrived on Mars…
2102 (news report)
Breaking news! The military corporation Frontier has developed new manoeuvring engines for Tanks "X" that keep a tank from flipping over in extreme driving. The opposition planned to put the new tanks into production soon, but it was not to gain the upper hand in battle. The international corporation Antaeus declassified intelligence on the project code-named "Roly-Poly", and as a result the new engines will be tested right away in hot spots on both sides of the front.
Order "On measures to increase the advantage in manoeuvres" of 6 July 2102
To all operators of the unmanned combat vehicles of the Tank "X" series. Test the new manoeuvring engines in all types of battle and on all fronts. In one week, report on their use and give the alliance your recommendations on whether this technology should be used in the future.
2103
Fierce battles between Antaeus and Frontier go on throughout the solar system. The research into energy crystals on other planets has paid off: the mineral from Mars, put through certain chemical reactions, has become more stable and no longer threatens climate disasters. And because of their denser crystal lattice, the X-crystals have become lighter in colour.
After testing, Antaeus carried out a large-scale replacement of the red mineral with the new, golden one. Frontier, for its part, did everything it could to keep this from affecting the economy, and the enemy corporation failed to raise the price of the super mineral.
Thanks to this kind of crystal and the invention of teleportation over extreme distances, the Tank "X" now has a larger energy reserve. The tanks' super abilities, varied and powerful modules, come to the fore. Antaeus released the Spider Mine, Frontier answered with the Turret Drone. And the spread of the Force Field, EMP and other developments changed the tactics and strategy of battle completely. A new chapter of history has begun: the arms race.
2104
Five years have passed since the battle for West Prime and two since Frontier founded its Martian base Ares. Although some of the fighting has moved to other planets, the Earth remains the main battlefield.
The economic giant Antaeus builds up the defences of the sites where it mines and processes crystals. Airships cruise over the territories it controls, each a base for whole tank platoons. These tank carriers are placed so that important points of the region stay within teleportation range for their tanks, which lets Antaeus respond quickly to Frontier's attacks and stop them.
The first of these ships bears the name of the head of Antaeus, Vladimir Repin. By tracking the ship for a long time, Frontier managed to calculate its course. With this data in hand, the faction's command decided to teleport part of its army onto the enemy ship at once, while it was in flight.
Tank carriers are transport ships, not built for combat. Frontier's plan of attack relies heavily on the jump pads: gravity platforms that Antaeus uses to move cargo and tanks quickly around the ship.
Will Frontier manage to capture the tank carrier Repin and get the chance for a series of attacks on the enemy's resource-rich ground territories, now left without protection? That depends on the Frontier fighters' faith in their victory and on Antaeus's readiness to stand up to the enemy's daring plan.