WIP

"The Zhongzhi Event marked a turning point in our people's history, not only that of the Han, the Chinese, but all Asians. The utter decapitation of our totalitarian ancestors gave us the opportunity to forge a truly democratic, republican path forward. From the ashes, we have emerged as a stronger, kinder people. Yet, the authoritarian cycle, millennia old, like a curse, still churns through the Daqinren, beat for beat. Sons killing fathers. Son becoming the father. As we celebrate in our democracy, we must remain vigilant, for we have only traded one villain for another." - Wang Gao Po, Chairman of the Independent Party of Li Ming, remarking during the centennial remembrance of Zhongzhi, 2299

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Though the Dàqín Dìguó (大秦帝国) was formally founded in 2200 CE, many believe that its true founding occurred the moment that the Zhùlǐ bio-servants rebelled just a year earlier in 2199 CE. In either case, the Empire of Daqin is a relatively young nation at just a little over a hundred years. Leading up to its genesis, the Pan Asian Combine had already managed to colonize an entire new solar system by the year 2118 CE. However, this effort was far more laborious and resource intensive than expected due to the local Aos Si presence, requiring the meticulous destruction and erasure of the local populace as well as its censorship and suppression. In addition to this, dictating the people of China to mobilize completely had spread its previously formidable population thin, with poor, rushed living conditions causing a deficit in new children. Despite several embarrassing government attempts to foster growth, population quotas could not be met, leading directly to the creation of the Zhùlǐ (助理) in 2132 CE, filling in for both the labor and age gap once they were fully deployed. The move was extremely controversial to put it very lightly, resulting in riots and civil unrest, but once suppressed, they ultimately stabilized the Chinese economy and allowed its population to recover by taking the most laborious and dangerous jobs so that better positions could be filled by humans.

The prevalence of the Zhùlǐ however, made it possible for the Pan Asian Combine to quickly and fully seize control of a second system in record time by 2174 CE, 62 years since the last colony, all while suppressing the local Aos Si and concealing the existence of magic. By this time, the PRC completely believed that the American Union was doing the very same and that the Pan Asian Combine had to do so as well. As a result, the PRC was able to definitively overtake the American Union both economically and technologically, allowing it to start modernizing its holdings as a unified whole while secretly studying the new phenomena. By 2179 CE, a third solar system with a habitable planet was discovered, and plans were immediately made to colonize it by the turn of the century. However, it was inhabited. The excitement of discovering intelligent extraterrestrial life was entirely wasted on the CCP, as they knew that this knowledge becoming widespread amongst the other nations would hamper their colonization and new century plans. Still, they believed they had the perfect, final solution. By this time, the Zhùlǐ had become a trusted, reliable component of the Pan Asian Combine, and were expected to both 'reeducate' the indigenous peoples in secret and prepare the planet for colonization by PAC hardliners semi-independently to ensure that there would be no leaks of information.

It quickly turned out that the Zhùlǐ were far, far more willful and far sighted than expected.

The sudden, extreme and utterly brutal violence committed by the Zhùlǐ in 2199CE was mechanically and surgically precise, annihilating the Pan Asian Combine, its military, and police, effectively gutting the Pan Asian Combine as a functional government overnight. This threw its people and surrounding states into chaos, but during this turmoil, the Zhùlǐ made use of the systems and infrastructure they had set aside for themselves. They methodically gathered up as many of their Zhùlǐ kin as they could, while at the same time, made sure to take the warships, colony vessels, resources and technology they cherry picked ahead of time from the corpse of the PRC. With this, they either made sure to depart before the other nations could effectively intervene, or to run the blockades of Operation Heavy Chorus and Operation Distant Flock.

This time of terror and confusion became simply referred to as Zhōngzhǐ (终止) or "Termination" as it is known in English, with its damage reverberating throughout human space for decades to come.

It was only at the beginning of 2200 CE that any grim new year celebrations were cut short, as the Zhùlǐ reestablished communication from the system which they had taken. Declaring themselves the Daqinren, they named their nation Dàqín Dìguó (大秦帝国), or "Empire of Greater China", a direct snub to the late Pan Asian Combine, as it had intended to rename itself to this once it had captured its third system at the new year. Though relations remained frigid yet cordial, this set the tone of Human-Daqinese relations, with the latter both doing business with and undermining the human nations through grey means.

Throughout the early 21st Century, the People's Republic of China was a rising power that subverted, undermined and stole from rivaling powers, accelerating it's own growth out of beliefs stemming from what is widely known as the "Century of Humiliation" where it was ruthlessly and unjustly abused by powers around the world. However, these underhanded strategy and tactics combined with its economic power lead to a realignment of nations and a new world order. Specifically, a Second Cold War that had gone on for nearly two centuries. During this time, competition was fierce, yet carefully limited to numerous brush wars and political maneuvers that all were moves in a grand game. The high stakes and pressure lead to taking any advantage where possible. During this time, it evolved into the Pan Asian Combine, and as a result of its ruthless ambition, the PAC allowed for grossly unethical and inhumane experiment to take place. Progress was very tangible and rewarding in the biotechnology field, but not completely ground breaking enough to upset the status quo. However, by 2116 CE the status quo changed when the American Union established its first Extra-Solar colony, New Texas and launching the Extra Solar Colonization Race.

At the same time however, the Pan Asian Combine felt desperate enough to remove all inhibitions they had 'hindering' their research, including biotechnology. This did not bear any noteworthy fruit by the time that the PRC established its own colony two years later in 2118 CE, but the sheer amount of strain that the nation suffered from colonization made it even more desperate than before. Logistically, the colony was not self sufficient and needed constant logistical support until its infrastructure was able to sustain itself, let alone produce profit. This was already a massively damaging factor to the nation's economy, however, on top of that, the necessity of colonization also meant sending significant amounts of population over as well to serve as a work force. The PRC's main holdings on Earth was famed for its vast reserves of people, however, sending them over was exceedingly costly to begin with, and when finally done, had the effect of depopulating the most scarce demographic.

The upper and middle class on it's Earth holdings were left barren, creating a 'brain drain' effect in its centralized leadership. One that had to still dictate to a mass of relatively uneducated and/or poor personnel that were originally not worth even expending money to uplift to better economic or educational status simply because there were no positions for them to fill in the past. Meanwhile, the colonies themselves were not faring well either. This upper crust and middle class that had immigrated found themselves with the herculean task of constructing civilization from the ground up. Overwork was not uncommon, especially when shortages due to unforeseen circumstances increased demand on food, water or air. And this was not to mention the dangers of the planet itself, whether it be from brand new diseases or strange, alien flora or fauna native to the planet. This was no place to raise children, which meant that the PRC was in a race against time to replenish their work force before it was too late to do so.

Naturally, the government made numerous attempts to bolster its population in the colonies locally, but these were heavy handed, clumsy and never did address the root causes of such low birthrates in the colonies. This meant that any future shortfalls in labor force had to be fixed in the future with additional colonists from Earth, something that was even more costly in the long run. On top of this, its economic power had been spent on this colonization effort with no return, meaning that until the colony was not only established but making net-gains, it was essentially a loss. All of this was already extremely destabilizing, resulting in numerous protests, riots and even small rebellions arising from dissatisfaction and disenfranchisement. Though these were quickly squashed, all of this paled in comparison to a far worse, more dangerous issue; the indigenous people of the planet known as Aos Si. Initially, their existence was kept secret as a precaution while they were studied, but once it was determined they were previously space faring, policy quickly changed. Knowing that this information could completely shatter an stressed system overnight, the PAC decided to suppress all knowledge and exterminate the aliens, an effort that took even more resources due to the almost super-human physicality and supernatural powers that they could just barely muster, the latter potentially being even more destabilizing than the existence of the aliens themselves; the knowledge of Magic. Due to the existential level of danger the PAC sensed, no expense was spared, but this left behind a paper tiger with no strength left, its most loyal special forces and secret police thinned out by arrows, fireballs and monsters.

The creation of the Zhùlǐ in 2132 CE however, changed everything.

Its effect was so drastic that the PAC may as well have acquired a Heavenly Artifact as payoff to their unrelentingly ruthless research efforts, as now, they had the ability to make new life. Life that was completely and utterly obedient. Life that would obey any order and never, ever revolt no matter how much it was hurt or abused. The PAC authorized the immediate and rapid production of Zhùlǐ (助理 - "Assist-Manage"), artificially produced trans-human slaves, to prop up what was an ailing nation. Despite vast amounts of state propaganda, the average citizen was at the very least skeptical of the Zhùlǐ, though there was also a small minority of hardliners that were looking forward to having their own units. Most however, pessimistically considered them to be a replacement attempt for the long neglected peasantry of China, which was not inaccurate. Inevitably, the protests and riots that eventually followed built in intensity as more and more units were deployed to take over the most menial and dangerous jobs, incidentally pushing average citizens out of their occupations in the process. However, this dissent was swiftly isolated and ruthlessly dealt with in typical fashion, and both the economy and society re-stabilized with the time bought.

• Colonized second system in record time by 2174 CE, 62 years since the last colony
• Sent Zhùlǐ in ahead of time to prepare the planet, bury/erase Aos Si presence
• Due to encountering the Aos Si a second time, CCP grew more paranoid, believed the AU and other nations were concealing details on extraterrestrial civs
• Vicious, violent genocide in Li Ming System's habitable planet (waiting on Ray to finish the name and Chinese characters) which was deadly to Zhùlǐ forces
• Generally inefficient due to CCP political officer command, but inevitable due to resources, tech and numbers
• First signs of Zhùlǐ self-interest showing
• Zhùlǐ units would 'get lost' or require/request programming refreshes, comms would become randomly unreliable when bad orders are given, etc
• Zhùlǐ would 'cover' for one another and rapidly 'reintegrate' units that had gotten 'lost'
• Zhùlǐ were, in actuality, passively disobeying through omission, technicalities and various other methods which were easily excused as errors
• CCP political officers further subverted by their Zhùlǐ 'companions'

The minute by minute progression of Zhongzhi have been lost to purposeful sabotage, records only available through international observations of mainland China.

On 2199, February 4th, at 20:23 GMT+8, at the height of Lunar New Year celebrations, AU, GDW, and SSM satellites all observed nuclear ballistic missile launches originating from the mainland.

Following each respective superstate's protocols, they made contact with each other at 20:24 GMT +8, all the while preparing their own retaliatory measures.

The SSM was originally acquired by AU and GDW weaponry until communications confirmed that they had no part to play in the launches, preventing one instance of catastrophe from occurring at 20:25 GMT+8.

At the same time, confusion rose within foreign embassies in Beijing, as there were no forewarnings of hostilities, and contact failed with the upper echelons of PRC leadership; evacuation orders weren't given by their parent states until 20:27 GMT +8.

However, at this point the first tungsten missiles from orbit were above major Chinese cities. At 20:28 GMT +8, the AU's orbit-to-surface tungsten missile struck Beijing, followed by those of the GDW, SSM, and the PRC itself. The initial kinetic impacts were estimated to have killed tens of thousands, including foreign diplomats who failed to evacuate within the minute. Nuclear warheads originating from AU South Korea and Japan fell down on the capital seconds afterwards, killing several tens of thousands more on initial impact.

At 20:29 GMT +8, as the first counter-missiles struck Chinese nuclear missiles in flight, it was confirmed that none of the Chinese-based superweapons were directed at the other superstates; all were targeted at known and unknown political and military centers and strongholds. At this time, the other superstates ordered close surveillance on further rocket launches from the mainland, but withheld fire.

By the end of the hour, 20:56 GMT +8, the last of the foreign tungsten missiles and nuclear warheads made landfall on Chinese soil. The twenty largest cities were struck, along with over a hundred military installations. The initial casualties within the last thirty minutes are estimated to be over a million souls, though other estimates claim figures as high as two million.

On February 5th, 9:23 GMT +8, the first AU and GDW forces air dropped onto Chinese soil, the first step of Operation Heavy Chorus, hastily drawn up to provide aid to civilians and to limit conflict and chaos to the mainland.

March 6th, 28 heavy transport craft crossed the Sol Nadir SLE into the Shen Zhou system. These later transports were later confirmed to have smuggled the Zhuli responsible for Zhongzhi.