The Shattering

"A lot of people are dead, kid. Good men and women... people I flew with for a long time.​"

- Bryce Vantok, expressing grief over The Shattering to a Manticore pilot

The Shattering was a major event that happened during the colonization of the Neox Sector. During a major political conference discussing how to exploit the Neox Sector through the course of the next decade, the planet whose orbit the conference was hosted at was obliterated by a large explosion, killing almost all the attendees of the conference.

Background
During the colonization of the Neox Sector, tensions increased between the various factions as they disputed territories and resources. At one point, a Terran cruiser had even engaged a Vossk battleship in combat. The entirety of the sector was filled with diplomatic unease as a full-out war appeared to be imminent.

In order to prevent a full-scale war from occuring, the Terran Federation, the Vossk Empire, the Nivelian Republic, and Starfire Mining Corp held a political conference in the orbit of a planet within the Neox. Many government officals and buisness leaders attended the conference, with a wealth of credits being spent on security. Nova Defense Forces, Sentinel, and the Manticore crew all assisted in providing security, along with the militaries of the three major factions.

The Explosion
"I've never seen an explosion lik-"

- Unidentified Terran government official, before being killed in the explosion As the final members of the conference headed in, distress calls started coming in. They warned all ships to reverse course. As the distress calls were being sent, a large explosion occured on the planet below, ripping up the entire space station and most of the ships in orbit. The only survivors were the crew of Alexander-Tork Turington's ship, thanks to a prototype shielding system, his escort, a Manticore pilot, and a few Gr'Gath pirates. The Gr'Gath pirates were fought off by the Manticore pilot. Afterward, significant readings of Mhaan-tiq were picked up from the debris, leading many to suspect that the explosion was due to a mining accident.

Aftermath and Effects
"The Vossk- there are so many burnt out ships."

- Alexander-Tork Turington, examining the wreck after The Shattering ''​The Shattering had a major effect on the  the balance of power of the Neox Sector. For one, more than half the Terran Fleet posted in the Neox Sector was destroyed. Nova Defense Forces lost a large portion of their fleet as well.'' This posed problems for many civilians, as the Terran Fleet and Nova Defense proivided most of the security against the multitude of pirate gangs and criminal warlords located in the Neox.

The Shattering had left many stations and ships defenseless - a welcoming sight for pirates, and as such pirate activity increased drastically. They attacked defenseless civilian stations and carriers; in turn, this increased the demand for mercenaries. Nova Defense Forces was one of the groups that were affected in this way; they had to subcontract some jobs due to a lack of resources to acomplish them.

Additionally, all the major factions had important officals attending the conference. As the majority of them died during The Shattering, the major factions were in disarray as many government positions became unfilled.

​Causes
Initailly, The Shattering was believed to be a Mhaan-tiq mining accident. This was supported by the fact that there was at least one mining operation in the area. However, Manticore commander Bryce Vantok, having lost many close friends in the explosion, refused to believe that it was a mining accident. Having seen a few Gr'Gath pirates survive the explosion, he believed that they were the perpetrators of The Shattering.

After hunting down the Gr'Gath's leader, Sh'Gaal, she revealed that the Grey scientist Khador was the one who constructed the bomb that set off the explosion. Khador revealed that the pirate gang Indigo Brink was responsible for ordering him to create the bomb that caused The Shattering. Indigo Brink's leader, a woman by the psyedonym Eclipse, revealed that she had deliberated The Shatteing as part of a plot to seize power in the Neox Sector.