1863: The Hollow Earth

Despite Professor Lidenbrock's discovery of an unknown world beneath the Earth's crust in 1863, it was not until the later Peterson and Challenger expeditions, in the 1890's, that scientists began to understand the riches of the unique prehistoric ecosystem beneath their very feet.

With access to the interior world being possible from locations in the Mountains of the Moon and Maple White Land, as well as Iceland, it soon became apparent that the virgin world held many exploitable riches including deposits of R-Matter and Apergion.

The difficulty of access, as well as the hostile fauna and flora, did initially restrict the ability of the Great Powers to colonise the new lands, but where the prize is big enough, man's avarice knows no bounds and soon the Powers began to carve up the newly discovered territories, domesticising some of the wild pre-historic beasts to use as transportation and conquering the indigenous sub-human races that populated the wild lands below.

1896: Wrath Of The Syren

Following the death of his family during an Ottoman aerostat raid, Hungarian noble Baron Lantoz launched a campaign of revenge and terror on those responsible. Utilising the ingenuity of Professor Vanvlak to upgrade his flagship, the Syren, a series of raids where launched across the Aegean targeting the 3rd Akinjli Squadron and its commander Carpik Pasha.

In an effort to bring his nemesis to battle, Lantoz and his crew bombed the Turkish city of Ayvacik, causing many civilian casualties and earning Lantoz, amongst the Turks, the nickname The Bloody Baron. Carpik, whose family died in the attack, managed to intercept the Syren with his aerial squadron. Lantoz's desire for revenge led him to launch a reckless headlong attack on the Pasha's flagship which retreated engulfed in flame into the clouds.

Badly wounded and with the Syren almost torn apart under his feet, Lantoz returned to Austria to be greeted by Emperor Franz Joseph who secretly rewarded him for his endeavours against the Turk with more vessels to continue the undeclared war against the Ottoman heathen...

1890: Escadrille de Goubets

The French Empire were constantly looking at ways to tip the balance of power when it came to the old enemy England and influenced by the doctrines of the 'Jeune Ecole' embraced innovative ideas for indirect attacks. Claude Goubet's two man aquanef was one such innovation and the French Navy built Escardilles (squadrons) of these small craft to invest enemy harbours, mine them and sink enemy vessels.

Highly successful during the Great War of 1890-1, the Goubets (named after their designer) wreaked havoc in the Channel ports although the Royal Navy's use of the Tyrrell Ray to seek out the underwater menace did allow destroyers and torpedo boats some success in combating the Goubet squadrons.

1901: Corps Medical Offensif

The French development of La Guerre Miasmatique has had a major impact on warfare on Earth and the other colonised planets. Batteries firing chemical and bacteriological agents across the battlefield cause thousands of casualties whilst typhoid snipers target individual soldiers for disease and death.

Whilst despised by many, if not for the French introduction of this new and virulent form of warfare it may have been that Earth would have fallen to the Martian invader in 1901. It was the French Empire's Corps Medical Offensif and the diseases they fired at the tripod encased invaders which caused the Martians destruction.

All major powers now have developed their own units of chemical warfare troops, but the French still lead the way in their development and use.

Life On Mars: Olympian Martians

It may seem surprising to some that neither the Redgrave expedition of 1895 nor the Peterson expedition of 1897 discovered the race of Martians that were to bring so much calamity to Earth in 1901 but these expeditions and the initial colonies founded by Britain and France were well away from the Nix Olympias in the Nordus Gordii region. Indeed the snow covered aspect of this region led initial observers to believe that this was one of the most inhospitable areas of the Red Planet and long abandoned by the Martian races initially discovered. With hindsight it is now understood that the other races feared the inhabitants of this region and kept as much distance as was possible.

The Olympian Martians are now believed to be one of the Elder Races of Mars and due to the ecological changes ravaging the planet, a race in decline at the time of the first human landings. Technologically advanced, the Olympians made much use of their perverted science to eke out the meagre resources of Mars and launch their failed invasion of Earth. Their susceptibility to the chemical weapons, initially used by the French, is well reported but the impact of la guerre miasmatique on the Red Planet has been less dramatic. Whether this is due to atmospheric peculiarities of the Martian atmosphere or the a new development in Olympian technology has not been ascertained.