Ir'vaki-Human Relations
| Ir'vaki |  The Coalition |
|---|---|
| Diplomatic mission | |
| Ir'vaki Embassy, Mars | Coalition Embassy, Rothak |
| Envoy | |
| Ambassador Kru'ul Arrasaz | Ambassador Mathias Isaksen |
Relations between the Ir'vaki and humanity have varied over the course of several centuries, ranging from opposition to cautious allyship. First contact was marred when BioCorp committed atrocities on Ir'vaki diplomats sent over concerns of humanity's exophysical activities, resulting in a short interstellar conflict in 2214 where the Ir'vaki used a psionic weapon on the Solar System. The overwhelming defeat humiliated humanity and forced it to extradite the scientists responsible, as well as to return the remains of the diplomats and all Ir'vaki genetic material. The Ir'vaki withdrew from diplomacy in the subsequent decade, citing their distrust. In the late 2200s, a mutual crisis acted as the catalyst for the two civilisations to reestablish contact and set aside their differences. In the present day, they work together as peers, but the Ir'vaki remain distrustful of humanity as long as their power structures and corporations continue to operate in the same way.
History
Human Observation
The Ir'vaki have long observed humanity from afar, watching Earth with long-range telescope equipment and gathering information about humanity's culture from its radio emissions. Due to humanity's relative level of technological advancement, the Ir'vaki opted to wait until humanity matured to establish diplomatic communications. However, humanity's discovery of exophysics in the early-21st century and its recklessness leading to a causality paradox that triggered Precursor galvatron arrays to activate forced the Ir'vaki to attempt diplomacy with humanity in efforts to warn them and prevent them from causing further damage to their star system.
Due to the information about humanity's exophysical activity taking approximately 31 years to reach Rothak, the Ir'vaki only realised the situation by 2058. As the round-trip delay for radio transmission (62 years) was long and assumed humans would respond immediately, the Ir'vaki opted to send six diplomats in suspended animation on a shuttle towards the Solar System, a journey that would take only 37 years with their antimatter propulsion technology.
Transport Crash
The Ir'vaki shuttle reached the Solar System in 2092, passing Europa in late March. However, as it passed near to the planet, it was engaged by automatic anti-asteroid batteries in a Paradigm research base on the moon's surface. The ship, which had its shields and cloaking generators disabled as a show of goodwill, sustained heavy damage, gravely injuring the diplomats inside. The ship's remains, which were originally thought to be an old satellite the guns had accidentally engaged, were brought down to the surface for analysis. When the base personnel realised what it was, and found the diplomats still just barely alive inside, it caused widespread panic, with the facility director ordering comms to be cut to ensure secrecy.
The Paradigm base happened to be a joint base with BioCorp, who were investigating theorised marine megafauna in Europa's oceans. Paradigm struck a quiet deal with the company, selling it the remains of the diplomats in a deal to make their problem go away. At BioCorp's facility, the diplomats were cryogenically frozen to prevent them from dying, and the next month they were transported to BioCorp's top-secret Site 18 Research Facility in Serbia.
BioCorp Atrocities
After the shuttle crash, BioCorp kept the diplomats on ice for nearly 43 years at the Site 18 Research Facility, unable to resurrect them, while studying and scanning their bodies to analyse their biology. In 2150, BioCorp experienced a breakthrough with the recent advancements in forcefield technology, allowing them to begin to repair the damage to the diplomats' bodies through an experimental version of the Spatial Cell Control system.
By 2153, the company had by all accounts succeeded in reviving the Ir'vaki. However, they were treated not as diplomats, but as test subjects. In the subsequent decades, BioCorp cruelly experimented on the diplomats, repeatedly dissecting and repairing their bodies and extracting their genetic material. BioCorp saw the commercial opportunities in Ir'vaki biology, which enabled them to develop wetware computing technology by replicating their unique neural architecture and use their bodies' energy-storage capabilities in power systems. In 2159, BioCorp began in vivo experiments with cloned Ir'vaki genetic material, combining Ir'vaki cellular material with entropic radiation from a powerful cavity reactor in attempts to create extremely powerful sapient anomalies. These experiments led to the birth of several anomalies, including Exon.
As they grew, Exon and xer siblings were constantly experimented on and tortured in attempts to understand their psionic abilities. In 2175, Exon, alongside xer fellow test subjects, led a catastrophic containment breach from Site 18 that resulted in the facility's complete destruction. A Calamity Mitigation fireteam, called to the site, fired upon the group, who fought back. Several of the anomalies were killed as they were pursued through the nearby city of Belgrade, causing severe damage to the city. Eventually, they managed to lose the CMI forces, finding temporary sanctuary in east Lithuania. This group is what evolved into the early Anomaly Rights Coalition just a few years later.
Operation Blackwell
The malfunction of the shuttle's wormhole relay was a calculated possibility. However, after waiting more than 31 years past the expected check-in date for standard radio communications with no reply, the Ir'vaki began to express concern that the shuttle might have been destroyed by a manifold distortion field, as they knew the situation in the Solar System had the possibility of getting out of control. In 2146, the Ir'vaki fired a high-energy laser at the system in an attempt to communicate, which reached it in 2177, being picked up by a top-secret Anomaly Detection SIGINT base on the surface of Pluto. Raven, which had realised what had happened after raiding BioCorp's Site 18 facility after the incident two years prior, developed a plan to convince the Ir'vaki that manifold distortion in the solar system had in fact destroyed the shuttle.
The full reason for the operation was much more insidious - Raven planned to use the opportunity to establish exclusive communication and prevent the Ir'vaki from sharing information directly with humanity, which Raven feared would compromise their monopoly on scientific knowledge. After receiving the signal, Raven took five years to build a laser transmitter powerful enough to reach the Ir’vaki, only managing to complete it in 2182. However, in 2183, the operation was sabotaged in the first operation of the budding Anomaly Rights Coalition. Infiltrating the base, Exon injected evidence of BioCorp's atrocities into the transmission. By the time Raven realised, the message was sent, and it was too late.
Ir'vaki Conflict
When the evidence of BioCorp's atrocities reached Rothak in 2214, the Ir'vaki were shocked and horrified to discover what humanity had done to their diplomats. The opinions of the different Ir'vaki clans varied wildly, with some advocating for no action and the cessation of communications, while some wanted all-out war. Eventually, the Council of Clans came to a verdict; they would seek justice for the diplomats, and force humanity to experience the suffering they inflicted.
On 12 November 2214, nine clans came together in Cerulos Ra'ath and communed to activate The Conflux, a massive psionic amplifier that, with the combined efforts of millions of Ir'vaki, allowed intent to be broadcast faster than light. The signal resulted in all humans, except the small number of Raven personnel in areas under grid control, being forced to experience the diplomats' suffering, for five continuous minutes. After the signal was shut off, a message was beamed psionically to every human to surrender immediately and comply with their demands.
The signal caused mass panic on Earth. Planes fell out of the sky, infrastructure failed, and Raven was put on high alert. When it subsided, no human wanted to experience the signal again. The Coalition's politicians had no choice but to comply with every human demanding acceptance of the surrender. Raven immediately raided the headquarters of BioCorp and Paradigm. Thousands of people held responsible were detained. The decision by Raven to comply with the demands of the Ir'vaki without taking into account public opinions divided humanity, significantly damaging its PR.
The Ir'vaki sent more detailed instructions later for the handover of the prisoners, and remained very paranoid over any interactions with humanity. Eventually, it was agreed that the Central Martian Space Agency (CMSA) would launch the prisoners into deep space in suspended animation, where the Ir'vaki would retrieve them using a shielded military frigate. This exchange was completed successfully in 2251, and the BioCorp scientists were sentenced on board. Some were executed then and there, while others were returned to Rothak. In any case, no human saw them again.