Exosquad planets
Encyclopedia
The 1993-1995 sci-fi animated television series Exosquad
featured a number of planet
s, most of them being terraformed or alternate versions of real planets of the Solar System
, although some were definitively fictional. All descriptions in this article refer to the situation immediately after the end of the Neosapien War.
s lay between those of the Homeworlds and the Sun (that is, only Mercury
).
was the only planet that officially belonged to the Inner Planets after Venus was terraformed by Terrans. Its proximity to the Sun
made it an uninhabitable scorched world so the Homeworlds never really cared about it. When the Neosapien War started, the Neosapien
s took over Mercury without any effort but paid much more attention to it than the Terrans had, stationing a permanent garrison under Commander
Glycon there. Thrax, who later became a famous Neosapien pilot, also served in these Mercury Forces. These measures turned out to be reasonable but insufficient, when two years later, the Exofleet
retook Mercury and used it as a base to begin the reconquest of the Homeworlds.
, Venus
and Mars
. These planets comprised the old human empire destroyed by the Second Neosapien Revolt led by Phaeton, as well as the core of Phaeton's own Neosapien empire
. Being the political, industrial and economical core of the Solar System, the Homeworlds were the ultimate goal of both sides of the conflict. Whoever controlled them, controlled the entire known space.
.jpg)
Venus
has been terraformed extensively to make it habitable for humans and with time, it became the major agricultural center of the Homeworlds. Its entire poisonous atmosphere has been apparently replaced by one suitable for human respiration
and the planet became famous for its lush jungle
s as well as barren desert
s covering it. It still possed substantial cloud cover, probably re-engineered to mediate the heat and radiation dangers caused by the planets proximity to the sun. Before the Neosapien War, it has been off limits for the Neosapiens.
Venus fell into Neosapien possession roughly at the same time with Earth and the Venusians suffered greatly under the atrocities of highly paranoid Governing General Draconis assigned there by Phaeton: starving the Venusian resistance to death by systematically destroying all food supplies on the planet was only one example of his tactics. Simultaneously, Draconis was building a secret stronghold to take over Phaeton's position and exploited humans to the last degree (since he couldn't ask for additional Neosapien workers).
It was Venus where the mighty GRAF (GRAvitation Focus) Shield, an ultimate defensive weapon capable of crushing entire fleets approaching the planet, was invented by Professor Algernon and built by the Neosapien scientist
Xenobius. However, before the GRAF Shield could be turned on the Exofleet, the Able Squad extracted
Algernon, who then reprogrammed it to destroy the Neosapien ships instead. With Algernon kidnapped and Xenobius arrested and, most likely, executed for treason
, the Neosapiens deactivated the Shield fearing another malfunction.
After this first manifestation of Exofleet's power, the human resistance became more organized, now known as the Venusian Resistance Force headed by James Burns, whose sister Lieutenant
Nara Burns was a member and later, the leader of the Able Squad. Venus was the first Homeworld retaken by the Exofleet but it came at a great cost. James Burns sustained severe injuries in the battle for Vesta, the capital of Venus, and died shortly thereafter partly because of them. General Draconis, seeing that the battle was lost, ordered Thrax to trigger the nuclear explosives
planted beneath the city to kill as many Terrans as possible. Thrax decided to disobey this order, thus, saving thousands of lives.
.jpg)
Earth
was the cradle of Mankind and remained the political center of the Homeworlds even after Phaeton's forces captured it. The capital of Earth was Chicago
where Earth Congress, the supreme legislative and executive institution of the Homeworlds, operated from.
When Phaeton struck, Earth's ground forces have put up a considerable amount of resistance but without the Exofleet's assistance, they couldn't hold it for long. After Earth surrendered, Phaeton put his best General
, Shiva, in charge of it for, he knew, the Earth's Terran population was still the largest in the entire Solar System, which inevitably would lead to problems.
And it indeed has. Unlike Venusian Resistance Force, scattered and weakened by General Draconis' ruthless tactics, the Earth Resistance Cells, led by a former exotrooper and Chicago police
officer Sean Napier and armed with combat E-frames they were able to recover, kept frustrating Neosapien security forces for years. When Phaeton relocated his capital to Chicago and renamed it to Phaeton City, he brought with him security specialist Livanus, who was appointed the Chief of Earth Security - a measure unprecedented in Phaeton's regime.
However, every once in a while Neosapiens had to deal with new human uprisings, often using brute military force to crush them. The largest one was Nick Tyree's uncoordinated attempt to liberate Australia
. Despite lack of central coordination and weaponry, the human assault was only stopped when Neo Warriors were dispatched to the regions. If not for intervention of the Able Squad, the entire Australian Resistance Cell would have been eradicated at that time.
Overall, only a few regions of the planet Earth were shown in the series: mainly the territory of present-day USA, Canada
, Brazil
, Australia
as well as parts of Antarctica. Vast territories of Eurasia
and Africa
remained out of picture, although Europe
was mentioned occasionally. The reasons for this were never quite explained.
Towards the end of the war, Shiva was removed from his position of Governing General and Livia was appointed to it. Under her reign, the first Neo Lords were bred in Antarctica, the entire race of Neo Megas was eradicated because of treason and the construction of Phaeton's private underground fortress beneath Phaeton City began. The fortress was where Phaeton later kept his doomsday device
, constructed as a form of revenge for the destruction of Mars.
When Admiral
Winfield launched the reconquest of Earth, Phaeton, having wasted too many troops in the battle for the Moon, ordered all garrisons to fall back to Phaeton City and to defend it at all costs. As Exofleet was attacking from space and the fifth column
of the Earth Resistance approached Chicago on stolen Neosapien Hovertanks, Phaeton's resolve to activate his doomsday device grew stronger, but he was stopped by the Able Squad. In the final confrontation of the war, Lt. Nara Burns shot Phaeton down bringing the end to his regime and the Neosapien War.
Earth's Moon
was the location of the fiercest battle of the entire war. In the last days of the conflict, the Moon was considered the "doorstep to Earth" being crucial to the reconquest of the central Homeworld. Having lost Mercury, Venus and Mars already, Phaeton ordered an immense fleet and army under General Typhonus' command to protect the Moon at all costs. However, these measures turned out to be in vain, when a fatally wounded member of the Able Squad Alec DeLeon used Typhonus' E-frame to announce that the battle was lost, thus, nullifying Neosapien morale while tricking Pheaton into believing he was betrayed. Pheaton is enraged by the perceived betrayal of his own forces whom were rigged with remote detonation devices, for their believed betrayal he detonated the devices thus wiping out his own forces which result in turning the tide in favor of the Exofleet. DeLeon was buried not far from the Tranquility Base
, the landing site of Apollo 11
.
Mars
was the industrial
center of the Homeworlds, its population consisting almost entirely of Neosapien
s. Prior to the First Neosapien Revolt, most of the Neosapiens were slaves
on Mars and even after their official acceptance of their free will
, most of them remained living there in very poor conditions. In fact, Mars was the place most of them were bred in the first place, the largest facility buried beneath Olympus Mons
. This facility was destroyed by the Able Squad during the Neosapien War.
Phaeton, the leader of the Second Neosapien Revolt and later the Supreme Ruler of the Neosapien Empire, had been the Governor of Mars before the war (the only Neosapien in such high rank) and he has used his carte blanche to restructure the entire industrial complex of Mars to produce military machines like E-frames and space fighters in a matter of weeks after the Exofleet left to pursue the Pirate Clans
. Thus, Mars became the stronghold of the Neosapien regime and despite Exofleet's numerous attempts, it was never truly retaken.
After Phaeton's capital has been transferred from Mars to Phaeton City (formerly, Chicago
) on Earth, General
Typhonus, Phaeton's Minister of Battle Forces, was left in charge of maintaining its industry. When Admiral
Winfield negotiated with Jonas Simbacca, the Leader of all Pirate Clans, about an alliance, Mars was promised to the Pirates in return for their help against Phaeton.
Later, the Able Squad discovered an extraordinary extraterrestrial
installation (a facility or a giant living creature, which even Professor Algernon hesitated to identify) buried beneath one of Martian deserts. After several fruitless infiltration attempts by both Terrans and Neosapiens who followed them, the installation self-destructed, reducing Mars to another asteroid belt
and sending a signal into deep space
, which apparently attracted the attention of a new, aggressive alien race (whose nature wasn't explained in the series, since it ended with a cliffhanger).
Destruction of Mars was a heavy blow to the morale
of Neosapiens, but it also stirred a great lust for revenge in them. The Pirates, however, did not quit the alliance with the Exofleet even though its part of the deal was no longer possible to fulfill and fought along its side to the end. Pheaton would later believe that the destruction of Mars was purposely executed by Exofleet, leading to concoct a plan to destroy Earth as well in revenge. After the war, Professor Algernon modified his GRAF Shield to reconstruct the planet and with extensive terraforming, Mars was brought to its original shape.
, were the dominion of the Pirate Clans
. Jupiter
and Saturn
were not inhabited because of their gas
eous structure (although some of their moons were, see below) and Uranus
, Neptune
and Pluto
- because the Pirates lacked necessary technologies to terraform them. Apparently, the Homeworlds had plans to crush the Pirates and to colonize the Outer Planets before the Neosapien War.
itself was uninhabitable, but some of its moons
did serve as temporary military bases and battlefields.
, the innermost of Jupiter's Galilean moons
, served as temporary base for Admiral Winfield' s Exofleet remnant in the first years of the war. It became a critical home base for a time after the destruction of the Resolute and much of the fleet. The moon has seen several fierce battles but in the end, General Typhonus forced Exofleet to retreat further away from the Homeworlds. However, by then, Winfield has already allied himself with Jonas Simbacca, who provided him with a new base - Chaos.
was one of the farthest moons of Jupiter. "Sinope Base" was the location of Phaeton's top-secret super-weapon, Fusion
Pulse Cannon, designed to wipe out both the Pirate Fleet and Exofleet's base on Io. However, the Cannon only managed to fire roughly a dozen bursts at the Pirate Fleet before a combined Exotrooper-Pirate task force damaged the core of the weapon's "energy silo," causing an explosion which completely destroyed the cannon and obliterated Sinope. Its debris caused a "meteor swarm
" that heavily damaged the Neosapien fleet under the command of General Typhonus, who was on his way to directly attack the Pirates and Io Base. The Neosapiens were forced to retreat, which gave the Terrans enough time to evacuate.
itself was uninhabitable, but some of its moons
did serve as temporary military bases and battlefields. Prior to the accidental discovery of Chaos, most of the Jupiter and Saturn moons served as temporary bases for the Pirate Clan Fleets, where they were originally exiled and later abandoned.
, a moon of Saturn known to be one of the only three moons in the Solar System to be astrogeologically active along with Io and Triton
. This was the site of the second battle of the Exofleet's hunt to eliminate the Pirate Clans threat just prior to the beginning of the Neosapien War. The moon was heavily fortified and most of the facilities on the planet were underground tunnels, some of which were pressurized with breathable atmosphere.
, a moon of Saturn heavily mined before the "Golden Age of the Mankind". The Homeworlds used prison labor to mine it so extensively that by the time of the Second Neosapien Revolt, Tethys appeared tortured and irregular in shape. Prisoners were promised freedom after their terms of service on Tethys, but after the opening of the mines on Mars at the beginning of the Golden Age, both the moon and its prison work force were abandoned. These transported prisoners eventually became the Pirate Clans, and Tethys became their primary base of operation before the discovery of Chaos.
.jpg)
Chaos was an entirely fictional tenth planet (also known as Planet X
) of the Solar System composed primarily of dark matter
. Chaos was the stronghold of the Pirate Clans, protected by both its unknown location (in fact, no one save the Pirates and the ones they trusted knew it existed at all) and the cloaking properties of the dark matter. The latter were also used by the Pirates to construct cloaking device
s that kept their rather small fleet hidden from the Exofleet and later, the Neosapiens.
Clan-based society
of Chaos was extremely unstable, partly because of the emotional instability caused by dark matter syndrome which was typical for all Pirates, but eventually the constant danger of being eradicated by bigger enemies forced them to cooperate and to elect a ruler over all Clans. Jonas Simbacca was the leader of all Pirates during the war and when he allied the Clans with the Exofleet, Chaos became the first truly safe harbor for the Terrans.
Chaos vanished months after the end of the Neosapien War when an aggressive and extremely powerful alien civilization from beyond the Solar System wiped it from the face of the universe (which sets this apart from the destruction of Mars). Apparently, the only survivor of the attack was Wing Commander J.T. Marsh. Since the series was canceled shortly after this last episode, the true nature of the attackers remained unclear.
s - even large asteroid
s, such as Ceres
, often became battlefields.
in the Solar System and the only one located in the main asteroid belt
. The importance of the Neosapien facility there was apparently so great that Phaeton put General Drusus in charge of it. The reason of the importance of a base previously thought to be a "small listening post" by Exofleet remains a mystery. Professor
Algernon was on his way to Ceres to try to discern its importance when he was compelled to take a detour to Mars in order to investigate the alien construct. The Battle of Ceres is, however, where Exofleet first encountered Neo Megas although an unnamed Neosapien scientist, maybe, even Praetorius himself, has been seen criticizing General Drusus for sending the Neo Megas into combat. Whether Ceres was the brooding site of the first brood of Neo Megas, or was simply their first deployment in the field, is unknown.
Exosquad
Exosquad is an American animated television series created by Universal Cartoon Studios as a response to Japanese anime. The show is set in the beginning of the 22nd century and covers the interplanetary war between humanity and Neosapiens, a fictional race artificially created as workers/slaves...
featured a number of planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
s, most of them being terraformed or alternate versions of real planets of the Solar System
Solar system in fiction
The Solar System and its various bodies were the earliest objects to be treated as fictional locations in works of science fiction. Among these, imaginary voyages to and explorations of Earth's Moon are found in seventeenth century literature...
, although some were definitively fictional. All descriptions in this article refer to the situation immediately after the end of the Neosapien War.
Inner Planets
The term "Inner Planets" refers to the planets whose orbitOrbit
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...
s lay between those of the Homeworlds and the Sun (that is, only Mercury
Mercury in fiction
The planet Mercury has often been used as a setting in science fiction. Recurring themes include the dangers of being exposed to solar radiation and the possibility of escaping excessive radiation by staying within the planet's slow-moving terminator...
).
Mercury
MercuryMercury (planet)
Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
was the only planet that officially belonged to the Inner Planets after Venus was terraformed by Terrans. Its proximity to the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
made it an uninhabitable scorched world so the Homeworlds never really cared about it. When the Neosapien War started, the Neosapien
Neosapien
The Neosapiens , featured in the science fiction animated television series Exosquad, are a fictional race of genetically engineered sentient humanoids.-Background:...
s took over Mercury without any effort but paid much more attention to it than the Terrans had, stationing a permanent garrison under Commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
Glycon there. Thrax, who later became a famous Neosapien pilot, also served in these Mercury Forces. These measures turned out to be reasonable but insufficient, when two years later, the Exofleet
Exofleet
Exofleet is the name for all battle spaceships in the sci-fi animated television series Exosquad, built by the humans of the Homeworlds also known as the Terran space navy...
retook Mercury and used it as a base to begin the reconquest of the Homeworlds.
Homeworlds
The Homeworlds were the three planets terraformed and inhabited by both Terrans and Neosapiens: EarthEarth in fiction
An overwhelming majority of fiction is set on or features the Earth. However, authors of speculative fiction novels and writers and directors of science fiction film deal with Earth quite differently from authors of conventional fiction...
, Venus
Venus in fiction
Fictional representations of Venus have existed since the 19th century. Its impenetrable cloud cover gave science fiction writers free rein to speculate on conditions at its surface; all the more so when early observations showed that not only was it very similar in size to Earth, it possessed a...
and Mars
Mars in fiction
Fictional representations of Mars have been popular for over a century. Interest in Mars has been stimulated by the planet's dramatic red color, by early scientific speculations that its surface conditions might be capable of supporting life, and by the possibility that Mars could be colonized by...
. These planets comprised the old human empire destroyed by the Second Neosapien Revolt led by Phaeton, as well as the core of Phaeton's own Neosapien empire
Neosapien Commonwealth
In the 1993-1995 sci-fi animated television series Exosquad, the Neosapien Commonwealth was the commonwealth built by the Neosapiens under Phaeton's leadership after the Second Neosapien Revolt and their conquest of the Homeworlds...
. Being the political, industrial and economical core of the Solar System, the Homeworlds were the ultimate goal of both sides of the conflict. Whoever controlled them, controlled the entire known space.
Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
has been terraformed extensively to make it habitable for humans and with time, it became the major agricultural center of the Homeworlds. Its entire poisonous atmosphere has been apparently replaced by one suitable for human respiration
Respiration (physiology)
'In physiology, respiration is defined as the transport of oxygen from the outside air to the cells within tissues, and the transport of carbon dioxide in the opposite direction...
and the planet became famous for its lush jungle
Jungle
A Jungle is an area of land in the tropics overgrown with dense vegetation.The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala which referred to uncultivated land. Although the Sanskrit word refers to "dry land", it has been suggested that an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its...
s as well as barren desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
s covering it. It still possed substantial cloud cover, probably re-engineered to mediate the heat and radiation dangers caused by the planets proximity to the sun. Before the Neosapien War, it has been off limits for the Neosapiens.
Venus fell into Neosapien possession roughly at the same time with Earth and the Venusians suffered greatly under the atrocities of highly paranoid Governing General Draconis assigned there by Phaeton: starving the Venusian resistance to death by systematically destroying all food supplies on the planet was only one example of his tactics. Simultaneously, Draconis was building a secret stronghold to take over Phaeton's position and exploited humans to the last degree (since he couldn't ask for additional Neosapien workers).
It was Venus where the mighty GRAF (GRAvitation Focus) Shield, an ultimate defensive weapon capable of crushing entire fleets approaching the planet, was invented by Professor Algernon and built by the Neosapien scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
Xenobius. However, before the GRAF Shield could be turned on the Exofleet, the Able Squad extracted
Extraction (military)
Extraction , in tactical combat and special operations use, is the process of removing constituents from a targeted site when it is considered imperative that they be immediately relocated out of a hostile environment and taken to a secured area under friendly control...
Algernon, who then reprogrammed it to destroy the Neosapien ships instead. With Algernon kidnapped and Xenobius arrested and, most likely, executed for treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
, the Neosapiens deactivated the Shield fearing another malfunction.
After this first manifestation of Exofleet's power, the human resistance became more organized, now known as the Venusian Resistance Force headed by James Burns, whose sister Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
Nara Burns was a member and later, the leader of the Able Squad. Venus was the first Homeworld retaken by the Exofleet but it came at a great cost. James Burns sustained severe injuries in the battle for Vesta, the capital of Venus, and died shortly thereafter partly because of them. General Draconis, seeing that the battle was lost, ordered Thrax to trigger the nuclear explosives
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
planted beneath the city to kill as many Terrans as possible. Thrax decided to disobey this order, thus, saving thousands of lives.
Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
was the cradle of Mankind and remained the political center of the Homeworlds even after Phaeton's forces captured it. The capital of Earth was Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
where Earth Congress, the supreme legislative and executive institution of the Homeworlds, operated from.
When Phaeton struck, Earth's ground forces have put up a considerable amount of resistance but without the Exofleet's assistance, they couldn't hold it for long. After Earth surrendered, Phaeton put his best General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
, Shiva, in charge of it for, he knew, the Earth's Terran population was still the largest in the entire Solar System, which inevitably would lead to problems.
And it indeed has. Unlike Venusian Resistance Force, scattered and weakened by General Draconis' ruthless tactics, the Earth Resistance Cells, led by a former exotrooper and Chicago police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
officer Sean Napier and armed with combat E-frames they were able to recover, kept frustrating Neosapien security forces for years. When Phaeton relocated his capital to Chicago and renamed it to Phaeton City, he brought with him security specialist Livanus, who was appointed the Chief of Earth Security - a measure unprecedented in Phaeton's regime.
However, every once in a while Neosapiens had to deal with new human uprisings, often using brute military force to crush them. The largest one was Nick Tyree's uncoordinated attempt to liberate Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Despite lack of central coordination and weaponry, the human assault was only stopped when Neo Warriors were dispatched to the regions. If not for intervention of the Able Squad, the entire Australian Resistance Cell would have been eradicated at that time.
Overall, only a few regions of the planet Earth were shown in the series: mainly the territory of present-day USA, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
as well as parts of Antarctica. Vast territories of Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
remained out of picture, although Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
was mentioned occasionally. The reasons for this were never quite explained.
Doomsday device
A doomsday device is a hypothetical construction — usually a weapon, or collection of weapons — which could destroy all life on a planet, particularly the Earth, or destroy the planet itself, bringing "doomsday", a term used for the end of planet Earth...
, constructed as a form of revenge for the destruction of Mars.
When Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
Winfield launched the reconquest of Earth, Phaeton, having wasted too many troops in the battle for the Moon, ordered all garrisons to fall back to Phaeton City and to defend it at all costs. As Exofleet was attacking from space and the fifth column
Fifth column
A fifth column is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group such as a nation from within.-Origin:The term originated with a 1936 radio address by Emilio Mola, a Nationalist General during the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War...
of the Earth Resistance approached Chicago on stolen Neosapien Hovertanks, Phaeton's resolve to activate his doomsday device grew stronger, but he was stopped by the Able Squad. In the final confrontation of the war, Lt. Nara Burns shot Phaeton down bringing the end to his regime and the Neosapien War.
The Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
was the location of the fiercest battle of the entire war. In the last days of the conflict, the Moon was considered the "doorstep to Earth" being crucial to the reconquest of the central Homeworld. Having lost Mercury, Venus and Mars already, Phaeton ordered an immense fleet and army under General Typhonus' command to protect the Moon at all costs. However, these measures turned out to be in vain, when a fatally wounded member of the Able Squad Alec DeLeon used Typhonus' E-frame to announce that the battle was lost, thus, nullifying Neosapien morale while tricking Pheaton into believing he was betrayed. Pheaton is enraged by the perceived betrayal of his own forces whom were rigged with remote detonation devices, for their believed betrayal he detonated the devices thus wiping out his own forces which result in turning the tide in favor of the Exofleet. DeLeon was buried not far from the Tranquility Base
Tranquility Base
Tranquility Base was the name given by American astronaut Neil Armstrong to the landing site on the moon where the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle made the first moon landing....
, the landing site of Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
.
Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
was the industrial
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
center of the Homeworlds, its population consisting almost entirely of Neosapien
Neosapien
The Neosapiens , featured in the science fiction animated television series Exosquad, are a fictional race of genetically engineered sentient humanoids.-Background:...
s. Prior to the First Neosapien Revolt, most of the Neosapiens were slaves
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
on Mars and even after their official acceptance of their free will
Free will
"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
, most of them remained living there in very poor conditions. In fact, Mars was the place most of them were bred in the first place, the largest facility buried beneath Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons is a large volcanic mountain on the planet Mars. At a height of almost , it is one of the tallest mountains in the Solar System, three times as tall as Mount Everest and more than twice the height of Mauna Kea the tallest mountain on Earth. Olympus Mons is the youngest of the large...
. This facility was destroyed by the Able Squad during the Neosapien War.
Phaeton, the leader of the Second Neosapien Revolt and later the Supreme Ruler of the Neosapien Empire, had been the Governor of Mars before the war (the only Neosapien in such high rank) and he has used his carte blanche to restructure the entire industrial complex of Mars to produce military machines like E-frames and space fighters in a matter of weeks after the Exofleet left to pursue the Pirate Clans
Pirate Clans
In the 1993-1995 sci-fi animated television series Exosquad, Pirate Clans were the descendants of the human criminals who were exiled from the Homeworlds and forced to work as miners on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn . However, after the invention of Neosapiens, the Pirates' ancestors were...
. Thus, Mars became the stronghold of the Neosapien regime and despite Exofleet's numerous attempts, it was never truly retaken.
After Phaeton's capital has been transferred from Mars to Phaeton City (formerly, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
) on Earth, General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Typhonus, Phaeton's Minister of Battle Forces, was left in charge of maintaining its industry. When Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
Winfield negotiated with Jonas Simbacca, the Leader of all Pirate Clans, about an alliance, Mars was promised to the Pirates in return for their help against Phaeton.
Later, the Able Squad discovered an extraordinary extraterrestrial
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
installation (a facility or a giant living creature, which even Professor Algernon hesitated to identify) buried beneath one of Martian deserts. After several fruitless infiltration attempts by both Terrans and Neosapiens who followed them, the installation self-destructed, reducing Mars to another asteroid belt
Asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...
and sending a signal into deep space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
, which apparently attracted the attention of a new, aggressive alien race (whose nature wasn't explained in the series, since it ended with a cliffhanger).
Destruction of Mars was a heavy blow to the morale
Morale
Morale, also known as esprit de corps when discussing the morale of a group, is an intangible term used to describe the capacity of people to maintain belief in an institution or a goal, or even in oneself and others...
of Neosapiens, but it also stirred a great lust for revenge in them. The Pirates, however, did not quit the alliance with the Exofleet even though its part of the deal was no longer possible to fulfill and fought along its side to the end. Pheaton would later believe that the destruction of Mars was purposely executed by Exofleet, leading to concoct a plan to destroy Earth as well in revenge. After the war, Professor Algernon modified his GRAF Shield to reconstruct the planet and with extensive terraforming, Mars was brought to its original shape.
Outer Planets
The Outer Planets, the planets beyond the asteroid beltAsteroid belt
The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...
, were the dominion of the Pirate Clans
Pirate Clans
In the 1993-1995 sci-fi animated television series Exosquad, Pirate Clans were the descendants of the human criminals who were exiled from the Homeworlds and forced to work as miners on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn . However, after the invention of Neosapiens, the Pirates' ancestors were...
. Jupiter
Jupiter in fiction
Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is a popular backdrop for science fiction stories and films. Although Jupiter is now known to have no solid surface one could land on, and has long been known to have an atmosphere, temperature, and high gravity hostile to human life, some earlier...
and Saturn
Saturn in fiction
The planet Saturn is featured in numerous science fiction novels and films, although the planet itself usually serves more as a pretty backdrop than as the actual setting.- Literature :...
were not inhabited because of their gas
Gas
Gas is one of the three classical states of matter . Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point , boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons...
eous structure (although some of their moons were, see below) and Uranus
Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
, Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
and Pluto
Pluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
- because the Pirates lacked necessary technologies to terraform them. Apparently, the Homeworlds had plans to crush the Pirates and to colonize the Outer Planets before the Neosapien War.
Jupiter
For understandable reasons and as stated above, JupiterJupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
itself was uninhabitable, but some of its moons
Jupiter's moons in fiction
Jupiter's extensive system of natural satellites – in particular the four large Galilean moons – has been a common science fiction setting.- Satellite system :...
did serve as temporary military bases and battlefields.
Io
IoIo (moon)
Io ) is the innermost of the four Galilean moons of the planet Jupiter and, with a diameter of , the fourth-largest moon in the Solar System. It was named after the mythological character of Io, a priestess of Hera who became one of the lovers of Zeus....
, the innermost of Jupiter's Galilean moons
Galilean moons
The Galilean moons are the four moons of Jupiter discovered by Galileo Galilei in January 1610. They are the largest of the many moons of Jupiter and derive their names from the lovers of Zeus: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Ganymede, Europa and Io participate in a 1:2:4 orbital resonance...
, served as temporary base for Admiral Winfield
Sinope
SinopeSinope (moon)
Sinope is a retrograde irregular satellite of Jupiter discovered by Seth Barnes Nicholson at Lick Observatory in 1914, and is named after Sinope of Greek mythology....
was one of the farthest moons of Jupiter. "Sinope Base" was the location of Phaeton's top-secret super-weapon, Fusion
Nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is the process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, or "fuse", to form a single heavier nucleus. This is usually accompanied by the release or absorption of large quantities of energy...
Pulse Cannon, designed to wipe out both the Pirate Fleet and Exofleet's base on Io. However, the Cannon only managed to fire roughly a dozen bursts at the Pirate Fleet before a combined Exotrooper-Pirate task force damaged the core of the weapon's "energy silo," causing an explosion which completely destroyed the cannon and obliterated Sinope. Its debris caused a "meteor swarm
Meteor shower
A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories. Most meteors are smaller...
" that heavily damaged the Neosapien fleet under the command of General Typhonus, who was on his way to directly attack the Pirates and Io Base. The Neosapiens were forced to retreat, which gave the Terrans enough time to evacuate.
Saturn
As stated above, SaturnSaturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
itself was uninhabitable, but some of its moons
Saturn's moons in fiction
Several of Saturn's natural satellites have figured prominently in works of science fiction.- Saturnian system :Some works of fiction refer to several of Saturn's moons, or to no specific moon....
did serve as temporary military bases and battlefields. Prior to the accidental discovery of Chaos, most of the Jupiter and Saturn moons served as temporary bases for the Pirate Clan Fleets, where they were originally exiled and later abandoned.
Enceladus
EnceladusEnceladus (moon)
Enceladus is the sixth-largest of the moons of Saturn. It was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel. Until the two Voyager spacecraft passed near it in the early 1980s very little was known about this small moon besides the identification of water ice on its surface...
, a moon of Saturn known to be one of the only three moons in the Solar System to be astrogeologically active along with Io and Triton
Triton (moon)
Triton is the largest moon of the planet Neptune, discovered on October 10, 1846, by English astronomer William Lassell. It is the only large moon in the Solar System with a retrograde orbit, which is an orbit in the opposite direction to its planet's rotation. At 2,700 km in diameter, it is...
. This was the site of the second battle of the Exofleet's hunt to eliminate the Pirate Clans threat just prior to the beginning of the Neosapien War. The moon was heavily fortified and most of the facilities on the planet were underground tunnels, some of which were pressurized with breathable atmosphere.
Tethys
TethysTethys (moon)
Tethys or Saturn III is a mid-sized moon of Saturn about across. It was discovered by G. D. Cassini in 1684 and is named after titan Tethys of Greek mythology. Tethys is pronounced |Odysseus]] is about 400 km in diameter, while the largest graben—Ithaca Chasma is about 100 km wide and...
, a moon of Saturn heavily mined before the "Golden Age of the Mankind". The Homeworlds used prison labor to mine it so extensively that by the time of the Second Neosapien Revolt, Tethys appeared tortured and irregular in shape. Prisoners were promised freedom after their terms of service on Tethys, but after the opening of the mines on Mars at the beginning of the Golden Age, both the moon and its prison work force were abandoned. These transported prisoners eventually became the Pirate Clans, and Tethys became their primary base of operation before the discovery of Chaos.
Chaos
Planet X
Following the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846, there was considerable speculation that another planet might exist beyond its orbit. The search began in the mid-19th century but culminated at the start of the 20th with Percival Lowell's quest for Planet X...
) of the Solar System composed primarily of dark matter
Dark matter
In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is matter that neither emits nor scatters light or other electromagnetic radiation, and so cannot be directly detected via optical or radio astronomy...
. Chaos was the stronghold of the Pirate Clans, protected by both its unknown location (in fact, no one save the Pirates and the ones they trusted knew it existed at all) and the cloaking properties of the dark matter. The latter were also used by the Pirates to construct cloaking device
Cloaking device
Cloaking devices are advanced stealth technologies still in development that will cause objects, such as spaceships or individuals, to be partially or wholly invisible to parts of the electromagnetic spectrum...
s that kept their rather small fleet hidden from the Exofleet and later, the Neosapiens.
Clan-based society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
of Chaos was extremely unstable, partly because of the emotional instability caused by dark matter syndrome which was typical for all Pirates, but eventually the constant danger of being eradicated by bigger enemies forced them to cooperate and to elect a ruler over all Clans. Jonas Simbacca was the leader of all Pirates during the war and when he allied the Clans with the Exofleet, Chaos became the first truly safe harbor for the Terrans.
Chaos vanished months after the end of the Neosapien War when an aggressive and extremely powerful alien civilization from beyond the Solar System wiped it from the face of the universe (which sets this apart from the destruction of Mars). Apparently, the only survivor of the attack was Wing Commander J.T. Marsh. Since the series was canceled shortly after this last episode, the true nature of the attackers remained unclear.
Asteroids
The Neosapien War, which tore the Solar System apart, waged not only on larger planets and their natural satelliteNatural satellite
A natural satellite or moon is a celestial body that orbits a planet or smaller body, which is called its primary. The two terms are used synonymously for non-artificial satellites of planets, of dwarf planets, and of minor planets....
s - even large asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
s, such as Ceres
Ceres in fiction
As the largest body in the asteroid belt, the dwarf planet Ceres frequently appears in science fiction:-Literature:*In Garrett P...
, often became battlefields.
Ceres
Ceres (also designated "1 Ceres") is the smallest dwarf planetDwarf planet
A dwarf planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union , is a celestial body orbiting the Sun that is massive enough to be spherical as a result of its own gravity but has not cleared its neighboring region of planetesimals and is not a satellite...
in the Solar System and the only one located in the main asteroid belt
Asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...
. The importance of the Neosapien facility there was apparently so great that Phaeton put General Drusus in charge of it. The reason of the importance of a base previously thought to be a "small listening post" by Exofleet remains a mystery. Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Algernon was on his way to Ceres to try to discern its importance when he was compelled to take a detour to Mars in order to investigate the alien construct. The Battle of Ceres is, however, where Exofleet first encountered Neo Megas although an unnamed Neosapien scientist, maybe, even Praetorius himself, has been seen criticizing General Drusus for sending the Neo Megas into combat. Whether Ceres was the brooding site of the first brood of Neo Megas, or was simply their first deployment in the field, is unknown.