Aeon Illuminate
From Supreme Commander Wiki
The Aeon Illuminate is the third faction in Supreme Commander. They are made up of humans that follow The Way, the philosophy of the Seraphim aliens found years ago before they were wiped out by Commander Smith-led xenophobic humans.
Contents |
[edit] History
During humanity’s second great expansion into galactic space, Commander Trent Smith of the Earth Empire led a group of scientists and colonists to Seraphim II, a planet approximately five times the size of earth. Here, for the first time, humanity encountered intelligent alien life. Commander Smith, following previously untested protocol for dealing with intelligent alien species, quarantined the planet and refused to establish communications so as not to reveal Earth’s position.
As recorded in CDR Smith’s log entries, he ordered the human colonists that were under his command to meet the aliens--who were dubbed Seraphim, as their actual name was unpronounceable by humans--with violence. The exact reasoning for his extreme reaction is unknown, but later examination of his psychological records show a marked tendency to react violently when dealing with unknown factors.
Smith’s violent reaction prevented any real discourse between the two species. The Seraphim simply avoided the humans whenever possible. However, the human colony’s biologist, Dr. Jane Burke, sought out and secretly befriended the Seraphim. Others joined her and soon a small group of humans were regularly visiting and learning from the Seraphim.
The Seraphim taught the humans advancements in quantum and temporal mechanics. More importantly, they introduced a philosophical viewpoint considered unimaginable by human minds, a way of peace and love so advanced that it completely shifted their perception of the universe.
After learning of Burke’s involvement with the aliens, Smith became convinced that Burke was brainwashed. He led the remaining Imperial colonists into a massive and suicidal campaign to destroy the aliens and Seraphim II. Despite purported millennia of peace and love by the Seraphim, the Earth Empire forces were surprised to encounter strange, yet superior, alien war machines.
Just before Smith’s forces fell to the superior might and numbers of the Seraphim’s warrior monks, Smith’s scientists succeeded in engineering a strain of virus unlike anything encountered on Seraphim II. The Seraphim were caught off guard and, despite Dr. Burke’s best efforts, were only able to slow the deadly effects. With the entire atmosphere saturated, not one Seraphim went unexposed.
During the last days between man and alien, the Seraphim decided to teach Burke as much as possible about their ‘Way.’ In the middle of one lesson, Burke experienced a vision of a galaxy torn apart; entire stars stripped of their resources and left to die, planets destroyed, and more life needlessly lost than could be imagined. At that moment Burke was convinced that the Seraphim’s “Way” was the only means to prevent the Empire from destroying everything.
Over 100 years later and after many lost Empire probes and expeditions to Seraphim space, a message made its way to Earth. The message was simple: The remaining Seraphim II colonists, now calling themselves the Aeon Illuminate, invited the Empire to embrace the teachings of the wise alien culture and to share in “something beautiful”.
As the Aeon’s visions predicted, the Empire immediately cut communications and sent military forces to quarantine Seraphim II. In the eyes of the Aeon, the Empire’s destiny as defilers and destroyers of worlds was sealed.
After the Seraphim arrive, Princess Burke, shocked by the coming Seraphim invasion, meets with Commander Rhiza and warns her that the Seraphim are not the Aeon’s “gods”; on the contrary, their warriors are here to destroy all of humanity. The Princess then goes into hiding while Rhiza reaches out to the remains of the Aeon command structure in an effort to warn them.
In the absence of the Princess, Evaluator Kael seizes control of the Aeon Illuminate and renames the faction to the Order of the Illuminate. The Evaluator then decrees that anyone who does not accept the Seraphim as gods will be cleansed. At this point, Rhiza offers to join the Hall's and Brackman coalition.
Rhiza’s overtures are initially rebuked, but after displaying her heroism and willingness to fight against the Order and the Seraphim, the coalition admits the Loyalists. From that point on, Rhiza and her forces fight not only to defeat the Seraphim, but to also defeat the Order and its corruption of The Way.
[edit] Timeline
[edit] Aeon Containment
- 2679—The newly enlightened humans from Seraphim II inform the Earth Empire that it must adopt their "way" in order to prevent galactic catastrophe. The Empire responds by establishing a quarantine around Seraphim II and dispatching military forces to put down the revolt and recover the alien technology.
- 2679.3—EarthCom military forces on Archon VIII, a border world near the quarantine zone, report civilian resistance. Soon, other border worlds are in revolt, and contact with those worlds is lost.
- 2679.8—Contact with all EarthCom forces in or near the quarantine zone is lost. To prevent the revolt from spreading, the Empire destroys all quantum gates near the quarantine zone.
- 2812—The Earth Empire has more than doubled in size with the establishment of new colonies. However, EarthCom is stretched to the breaking point. Already busy with the Cybran revolt, EarthCom is forced to pull forces away from the Aeon quarantine. The Aeon take advantage and break out of the quarantine zone.
- 2817—The Aeon launch a coordinated strike on nine worlds. EarthCom rallies and contains the offensive, but cannot make any headway against it. Both sides settle into a war of constant skirmishing along this front line.
[edit] The Aeon
- Rhianne Burke: Princess, leader of the Aeon Illuminate
- Rhiza: Crusader, Illuminate military officer
- Marxon: Avatar-of-War, highest-ranking officer in the Illuminate
- Abigail Toth: Evaluator, chief advisor to the Illuminate Princess
- Evaluator Kael: Evaluator, leader of the Order of the Illuminate
- Crusader Ariel : Illuminate military, follower of Marxon.
[edit] Doctrine
Aeon tactics rely on efficient, specialized attack vehicles with very powerful, yet narrow capabilities. Their weapons tend to be slower firing, but more damaging, than those of their rivals. The Aurora and Asylum, as well as other units, support this theory. Their weapons tend toward Seraphim-derived weapons, as well as other oddities such as sonic weapons. Aeon units are generally more aesthetically oriented than their UEF and Cybran counterparts - as a result of this, they possess a sleek, alien, organic and seemingly innocent form in neutral mode - but when in attack mode, they open up, revealing their weapons and giving the enemy cause for alarm.
[edit] Experimentals
"Galactic Colossus" Sacred Assault Bot: Little escapes the gaze of the Galactic Colossus. Mounted in the head of this walking behemoth is a single eye that focuses Quantum Energy into an incredible blast of destructive power. This Phason Laser sweeps across enemy units, causing unparalleled damage to anything with which it contacts. In addition, the Colossus is armed with a tractor beam that pulls in and destroys mobile enemy units. This toy can mow through a whole army, but will break if you get hit with a large amount of gunships/bombers/ artillery, so give it some AA and anti-artillery support and it will be able to mow through an enemy base with ease. Its weapons are useless underwater, so support in the form of subs are necessary.
"Tempest" Submersible Battleship: A top mounted Oblivion cannon combined with 6 Chrono Torpedo Launchers intended for self-defense, as well as the ability to construct T1/T2 naval units. This unit is able to destroy a fleet when surfaced, and has the virtue of being harder to detect. This experimental is a good choice for those maps with lots of water, where it excels at defense.
"CZAR" Flying Fortress: A center mounted Quantum Beam Generator dominates the CZAR, but is equipped with AA and Harmonic Depth Charges. If you can get this over the enemy commander, winning is virtually guaranteed, but the lack of health makes this hard to do. It will be destroyed if it comes under significant AA fire, so it is not as good as it looks for air assaults. Under the right conditions, however, this becomes a lean, mean, destroying machine. A note about this craft: it cannot be repaired by Aeon engineers due to it never landing, but it regenerates its health slowly. It can hold an entire wing of aircraft.
"Paragon" Experimental Resource Generator: Can generate a near infinite amount of resources. Explodes with the power of a strategic bomb upon death. Has a very low amount of health, the lowest of any experimental unit. Largest build time and resorce cost in game, more than even the UEF Mavor.
