The seventeenth to twenty-second Cycles - The PAX PHOENIXUS

The wave of expansion begun during the fifteenth Cycles continued well into the next era of Forerunner History. By the middle of the eighteenth Cycle, the Confederacy had reached the border limits of the Old Imperium, and continued to grow beyond them. But, as had occurred during the Consiliar and Imperial periods, the strains of governing such a massive territory was beginning to show on the coherency of the Confederate Administration. It was only a matter of time before they, too, would succumb to a growing paralysis of their drive to expand - the only thing that kept their increasingly unrepresentative government afloat.

Yet, there was a difference THIS time; the Confederate government had - with the co-operation of various important member state - instituted a body of the historical reasons for the collapse of both the Consillium and the imperium. The study group was massively funded, and had as an extra part of its brief a requirement that they also attempt to formulate methods to preventing a recurrence of the things that had caused the previous collapses. By the nineteenth Cycle - after over three thousand years of study - they delivered their findings to the Phoenix Confederacy's High Council.

The findings were fairly obvious to us, as we have past examples to guide us in our evaluation of the rise and decline of star-spanning civilisations. Basically, they stated that, as the size of the area ruled by any single state grew beyond the capacity of its communication and transportation system to provide a reasonable response time in communication between the Capital and the furthest provinces, that state would eventually self destruct. They further stated that, even though such a process may take thousands of years, it was virtually irreversible once it had started - as the system developed a negative feedback that was multiplied by the effects of an ineffective transportation/communication network. Finally, they concluded that the Phoenix Confederacy had almost reached the upper limits of its growth, and would "soon" (in historical terms, anyway) begin to collapse back in on itself in the millennia long fall into another Dark Interregnum.

Needless to say, the high Council was shocked by these findings and asked the Research team that conclusions they had come to regarding ways of avoiding this seemingly inevitable fate. Two options were presented - one being that the Confederacy develop a form of interpersonal communication that would reduce the semantic based problem of misunderstanding to almost nil - in other words, Psionics! (and by doing so, increase the effectiveness of the EXISTING communication systems. This, it was acknowledged, was at best, a temporary solution. Though "temporary" might well mean an extension of the life of the Confederacy by thousands of years, perhaps by even a full Cycle! ). The second option was that they develop some method of speeding up Interstellar communications. When asked HOW either of these projects could be brought to fruition - if they could be at all - the Scientists could offer no suggestions. The Council had little option in its course of action - so it chose to attempt to developmeans for doing BOTH.

These two projects that were "soon" (in term of the span of Forerunner History, anyway) to have unforeseeable and astounding results on the future history of the Confederacy, were launched. The first was the "Project Star Talk" - aiming at the development of Psionic communication capability; the second was "Project Star-Reach" - aimed at providing the sort of communication system needed to ensure the ultimate survival of the Confederacy.

The first of the two to have concrete results was Operation Star-Talk - sometime in the latter part of the twentieth Cycle - around fifteen thousand years after the initialisation of the project! Evidently, the Forerunner had had previous evidence of a few individual possessing "powers" unexplainable by conventional Forerunner science (just as they were unexplained by pre-spaceflight Terran science - and even TODAY remain only partially understood) - but there seemed to be non explainable reason why those gifted individual WERE gifted. The Forerunners did TWO things that no race since has succeeded in doing - even though, admittedly, it took thousands of years to achieve. Firstly, they (though we cannot be totally sure of the translation of the one obscure passage we glean this information from) actually isolated not only the Chromosomal pattern that resulted in the inheritance of Psionic abilities, they also decoded the DNA molecules in those Chromosomes. This meant that the Project had virtually provided a genetic blueprint for the provision of Psionic abilities to the population as a whole! They could not provide SPECIFIC abilities, of course, but they could Genetically engineer zygotes to have not only a predisposition towards being able to develop such abilities, but they were able to make them semi-hereditary!

Despite this incredible (and still unequalled) Scientific feat, it would no doubt, have had little real impact on either Forerunner Society or the survival of the Phoenix Confederation UNLESS the second major product of the Operation Star Talk had also been forthcoming. This SECOND, and interlinked, technological advance was the invention of the STARSTONE (yes, this is the literal translation of the Forerunner term; and it opens up interesting speculation about the widespread use of the term to refer to PK Crystals PRIOR TO THE DISCOVERY of the term in Forerunner texts!!! ), which enabled the adepts created by the first process to multiply their abilities to effect the physical universe greatly.

The introduction of such technology was not, however, without its opponents. The Forerunners themselves were divided over whether the programme should be fully implemented or abandoned - and when the pro-implementation party gained a majority vote in the Confederate Assembly - mainly, it was rumoured, through the illicit use of the Psionic powers of the "Star Borne" (as they were coming to be called by their friends - their enemies referred to them as "The Children of the Lie" - though the reason for either epithet is obscure), though this was never proved. What happened then was just what the Confederacy had hoped to avoid by the introduction of such abilities - a secession movement by the Opposition party. The confederacy was plunged in a Civil War - which, though our records attempts to gloss over it - was as barbaric and cruel as such unfortunate conflicts usually are (the English, American, and Lebanese Civil Wars from the 17^th through to the 20^th centuries on Terra being cases in point). Yet, despite the fact that the "Confederacy of Truth" (as the secession party styled itself) numbered amongst its supporter the majority of the most economically and military powerful member of the Phoenix Confederacy, the conflict was relatively short - lasting only 14 Lbuvoe (around 400 years)! The rump Confederacy won the conflict hands down, through the issue seemed in doubt the initial decades, mainly because they instituted a Confederacy wide (in their controlled areas, anyhow) programme of Genetic modification of ALL zygotes - creating an army whose communications could virtually never be cut off! Also, the other unique powers of Psionic adepts ALSO stood the Armed Forces of the Rump Confederacy in good stead. In fact, it was the very ability that the Confederacy of Truth fought against that resulted in its defeat. Perversely, in the last desperate decades of its struggle against the Phoenix Confederacy, the remnants of the Confederacy of Truth actually attempted to introduce their OWN programme of genetic modification - but, despite intensive anti-Phoenix indoctrination, their Psionic troops, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, mutinied against their masters as soon as they were sent into action!

The deleterious effects of this Confederation wide conflict were more than made up for by the beneficial effects that the implementation of operation Star Talk's fruits had. However, everyone realised that this benefit would NOT be enough to do more than merely prolong the life span of an already visibly ailing state. By the beginning of the twentieth Cycle, the crisis point in the life of the THIRD Forerunner Interstellar state had been reached. It was because more and more difficult to govern the territories they had colonised or had enticed into membership - the round-trip voyage from the core of the Confederation (traditionally at Home) to the furthest member Starstate now took some FIFTY-EIGHT years! (Using the previously described method of calculation, this would imply a radius of about 13-15000 LY from Home to the edge of the Phoenix Confederacy's sphere of influence!). Thus, though the remaining years of the twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-second Cycles were, in many ways, a Golden Age (probably surpassing that of the Consillium and the Old Imperium), by the end of the period, exploration and expansion had well and truly ceased, and the destructive forces so unleashed were once again beginning to work their way on Interstellar society.