The Tiberium Effect: Historical Timeline
Historical archive accessed, auto-translating to your preferred language. Note due to noted calendar differences dates will be given in Human notation, BE (Before Exodus) and PE (Post Exodus).
16 BE - With the end of the Third Tiberium War the GDI turns its attention once again to reclamation and rebuilding efforts. This was hampered by the extreme numbers of political officials either killed by Kane's followers or compromised by Scrin infiltration units. As a result of this Blue Zone, 9 (South Eastern Australia) was put under the 'temporary' control of Commander Black for his success in defeating both Kane and the Scrin Invasion.
15 BE - Due to rapidly worsening conditions The Commander sends a research team to the remains of a forward base near an area where the worst of the Scrin conflict occurred.
14 BE - The final report from the science team is received and it is damning. Ecological collapse is accelerating. They projected that earth will no longer be able to support human life within twenty to thirty years. Looking at the political situation The Commander decides to seal the report rather than passing it on to central command. He then ordered his scientists to focus their attention on to the Scrin craft's means of propulsion.
13 BE - The Commander begins "Operation Self Sustainability" which he promotes as a plan to enhance the Blue zones' ability to protect its citizens from Tiberium contamination as well as the number of people they can safely house through the use of specially designed domes and sonic generators. To ensure his operation did not affect the financing of other blue zones he requisitioned four M.A.R.V.s (Mammoth Armored Reclamation Vehicle) as well as launching a massive production run of harvesters. These were used them to open paths to strip nearby yellow zones of as much raw materials as possible.
12 BE - Concerns were raised over the effect of The Commander's policies as it was feared that he might provoke riots in the nearby yellow zones. To allay these concerns the commander invited the ZOCOM command to oversee these operations and even went so far as to base them inside one of the domes under construction.
11 BE - Several new databanks containing complete records of all NOD technology and research Were found near reclamation operations in the Yellow zones. These data banks not only included the raw data but included the personal notes from the various scientists. These data banks were notably free of any Nod emblems or markings instead each of them bore a single phrase written on the side. "Humanity Suffero".
Harvesting operations began to find unexpected previously prepared stockpiles of materials ready to be sent back to base in the yellow zones.
10 BE - The Commander launches new "Trans Atmospheric Harvesters" (T.A.H.s) claiming that their purpose was to clear orbital debris from the war. This debris was beginning to deorbit and posed a threat to several blue zones.
The Commander also turned down offers from several council back companies to help with the "Operation Self Sustainability" stating that he had enough engineers and that their efforts would be better put to use in other blue zones. In response, the council requested the plans for "Operation Self Sustainability" dome design which The Commander provided.
8 BE - The Commander releases the design for a zero-emission power plant, in this case, zero-emissions referred to it releasing no Tiberium contamination. He orders all power plants in his zone to be upgraded to this new standard.
This is also the year that Tiberium spread began to restrict food production in most blue zones. In response, the Commander ordered a large number of "clean" farms and Parks to be domed.
6 BE - Food riots begin in a number of blue zones as farmland is corrupted by Tiberium. Several differences are noted between the domes nearing completion in Blue Zone 9 and those in other blue zones. When the Commander was asked he blamed the differences on construction companies cutting costs with the designs.
This year was also when the domes in Blue Zone 9 began to receive their population. Every person and all materials allowed entrance to the domes were first screened intensively for Tiberium contamination.
4 BE - Food riots continue to intensify worldwide with the sole exception of Blue Zone 9. Oddities were noted by the GDI council concerning the Commanders' behaviour resulting in The Commander being recalled to answer these questions but he was unable to comply as several Tiberium tainted hurricanes were spawned in the oceans around Australia.
3 BE - Several precision raids hit the world's genebanks. It was noted that these raids were carried out by what appeared to be Zone Raiders using Nod Stealth Technology.
2 BE - Communications was lost with Blue Zone 9 but due to global unrest no troops were available to investigate.
The construction of domes around the world suffers a series of disasters. Upon investigation, these were blamed on the plans missing vital sections of important technical information.
1 BE - Sensors sight a large unknown structure being constructed in orbit above Blue Zone 9. This structure did not respond to any form of communication.
Forces are sent to re-establish communication with Blue Zone 9 but contact was lost on route. The Commander is declared Rogue by the GDI council.
0 BE - Large-scale GDI forces are deployed to take Blue Zone 9 but to their surprise, the Domes begin to lift into orbit at their approach. The attacking commanders found that the T.A.H.s had disabled their orbital assets. This meant the dome once in orbit were beyond their reach.
The sole exception to this pattern was the central dome which had suffered damage to a power plant and was unable to launch on schedule with the other Domes.
Forces under the Commander launched a series of delaying attacks on the GDI armies succeeding in slowing them down but not by enough to ensure the safe launch of the last Dome.
Just before the GDI could attack the central dome directly they came under suicidal attack from all sides by mutants supported by what appeared to be scavenged NOD and GDI vehicles. These attacks while not doing much damage to the GDI forces did manage to bog them down long enough for repairs to be made and the central dome to launch.
As the dome launched a single transmission came from the forces attacking the GDI. It shows Marcion with obviously advanced Tiberium infestation. Marcion salutes the camera with a hand nearly completely consumed by Tiberium before uttering a single sentence "Humanity Suffero." The signal then cuts off as the command vehicle charges the GDI lines then detonates. By the time GDI forces reorganized from the loss of their commander, The Domes were out of their reach.
Several outlying Tiberium fields were noted to take off over the next several days all in places too far away for the GDI forces to find or intercept. During the same time period, the function of the orbital construction was discovered as various domes docked with it. The resulting station began to move away from earth slowly at first but continuously accelerating. The Tiberium field accelerated away from earth at a much higher rate and on a slightly different trajectory.
The remaining Domes quickly offloaded most of their population to the now named ARK Station before broadcasting back to earth on all frequencies. Commander Black opens the broadcast by apologizing for his failure. In his own words "I took the position of commander in the GDI to save all of humanity and our homeworld. In the end I failed that duty and was only able to save a small portion of the population and nearly nothing of our world."
He continued on to say that he would be colonizing Mars and that the domes still in orbit, as well as the remaining T.A.H.s, would remain to pick up as many people as the could before leaving earth orbit. He then openly transmitted the findings of his scientists that he had received all those years before.
This caused open panic in the blue zones which prevented the GDI forces from intercepting the T.A.H.s during their final earth to orbit transits. It was noted that while the T.A.H.s picked up people they did not allow possessions on board. This was by The Commanders' orders to both prevent Tiberium contamination as well as to stymie any potential saboteurs.
Once the Domes were filled the Commander made one last broadcast. The broadcast was short and there is no surviving record of the reaction of those on earth.
It opened to the Commander in full dress uniform saluting the camera with Taps playing in the background. He then spoke two sentences. Those sentences were "I promise you this is not the end of humanity. As a brave man once said before giving his life to give us a chance 'Humanity Suffero', Humanity Endures."
This event later comes to be called the Exodus and is used as the starting point of their new calendar.
1 PE - The Tiberium fields reach Mars orbit where most of them were used to seed Deimos with Tiberium. The remaining fields were placed in the outer orbit of Mars.
3 PE - ARK Station arrives in Mars orbit. The T.A.H.s are split between the construction of habitation domes and underground facilities on Mars and harvesting the outer orbit Tiberium fields. To prevent Tiberium from contaminating Mars no T.A.H. that harvests Tiberium ever enters Mars atmosphere and all resources generated from them are screened dozens of times before being shipped down to Mars.
5 PE - The first series of Mars domes were completed and the population begins to be moved planetside.
10 PE - Most of the population was now housed on Mars. Those that remain in orbit do so to maintain and run the Tiberium industry.
11 PE - Military observers tasked with watching earth in case of pursuers witness multiple nuclear explosions. No new radio traffic is observed from Earth after that point.
12 PE - The Commander publicly and officially recognizes that earth is a dead world and tries to tender his resignation for his actions. His resignation is refused by the population.
To quote his second in command "With the deepest respect, Sir. You bloody well got us this far, like hell I'm letting you quit halfway. Now get back to work and finish the damned job."
21 PE - The Domes containing wildlife parks are detached from the ARK and integrated into a series of massive domes that became the seed for the now-famous "Terran Preserves" of Mars. These domes continue to be tended and expanded to this day.
30 PE - Humanity experiences a massive population boom. The Commander welcomes his first grandchild to Mars.
32 PE - Commander Black is finally allowed to pass the reigns of government on. The new civilian government makes "Humanity Suffero" the governments' motto and promise to make it a reality.
38 PE - Ex-Commander Black passes away in his sleep at the age of 93.
42 PE - A fleet of specially modified T.A.H.s was built and tasked with searching the system's asteroid fields for ice-rich asteroids and returning them to Mars orbit for processing. Waste material is dumped on Deimos for Tiberium conversion.
52 PE - An abandoned alien outpost was discovered on Mars causing fear that Humanity is about to come under attack again. Military production and recruitment were stepped up.
53 PE - The alien outpost is dated to have been abandoned sometime in humanity's prehistory relieving fears of immediate attack but causing concern over what had happened to the builders. Several storage chambers of an unknown material are discovered. Due to the level of containment already used on the material, it is decided to leave it sealed until the data banks are decrypted.
54 PE - The outer orbit Tiberium field brought from earth was finally depleted. Tiberium harvesting operation now focuses on Deimos.
55 PE - Scientists manage to partially decrypt the data banks. The material was Identified as Eezo although the engineers began calling it "Magic Space Rock" once its properties were unlocked.
63 PE - Attempts to decrypt the data banks finished. While most of the information was too damaged to be recovered there was enough to jumpstart the development of Eezo based technology. More importantly, there were three major pieces of information recovered.
First, there was a galaxy-spanning network of relays that enabled FTL travel. Secondly The moon Chiron was actually one of the relays. And Finally that the aliens (now known to be the Proteans) were wiped out by hostile outside forces.
This information sparked chaos for years to come and humanity's reaction to it shaped humanity's future to this day.
64 PE - Due to the health risks even a small amount of eezo could cause in the limited human population eezo is classified as a hazardous material on the same level as weapon grade radioactive materials and is subjected to many of the same screening methods as Tiberium.
67 PE - Humanity's government put forth a multi-pronged plan for the future. First the development of long-range spacecraft would be prioritized both using Scrin technology as well as eezo. While that was ongoing the military would be updated and a significant portion of humanities production would be set aside to maintain that status as well as provide the needed material for orbital building, Once both those goal were reached two groups of long-range scouts would be sent out to survey for habitable planets as well as resource-rich systems. The first would use Scrin deprived drives to search away from the relay network while the second fleet using Eezo drives would begin searching the relay network for the same.
Due to fear of an enemy reverse-engineering their technology a policy of incorporating self-destruct devices in all spaceships is put into place.
69 PE - A plan for static orbital defenses is put forward by students of The First Engineering College of Mars. The plan involved four separate types of defensive satellites linked to a heavily armed and armored Orbital Fortress. This formation would be known as "The Human Fist" after the Human/Turian War. The satellites making up this formation were a mix between those armed with missiles, those armed with Ion cannon, those armed with mass drivers, and finally those armed with laser weaponry based on NODs Obelisk of Light.
Upon receiving these plans the military pushed for their implementation until they were successful. To quote Treasurer Ethan Boil "I never thought a military man would use puppy eyes while asking for something but I swear I was faced with the entire upper echelon of our military doing just that."
Also, Humanity's emphasis on expanding its numbers is pushed to an even greater level. This resulted in the average becoming 5 children per family.
72 PE - Mars's orbital defense network is completed. A similar network is started around Earth as a militarily vital strategic resource.
74 PE - Earth's defensive network completed. Chiron defensive satellites are built but not put in place until after the Chiron relay is activated.
91 PE - The first two scout fleets are completed. Each fleet is composed of four ships. Chiron Relay is activated and its defences are put in place. The scout fleets are dispatched. Construction of colony ships as well as armed escorts is started.
93 PE - Alpha Centauri is classified to possess a habitable planet. A colony ship with escorts is dispatched to colonize the world along with the necessary defensive satellites to create a minimal defensive network. They also take a small amount of Tiberium to seed on a small and otherwise useless moon.
This pattern of behaviour is continued until contact with the council races.
197 PE - Shanxi is colonized.
211. PE - A Turian patrol group encounters a human scout fleet opening Relay 314 and opening fire on the then-unknown ships. The reason for this choice is unknown as the admirals' flagship is destroyed in the resulting brief but fierce firefight along with three of the human ships and five Turian escort ships.
TBC
Editorial note: For those not familiar with the ancient earth tongue called Latin the phrase Humanity Suffero roughly translates to Humanity Endures.