Gaius Aurelius, known better to his friends and confidants by his nickname, Marcellus, is the youngest person ever to attain the rank of Praetor, or army group commander, in the history of the Umbrian Republic. Having fought on numerous battlefields across the Frontier, Marcellus would make a name for himself as a skilled tactician and leader. He impressed his superiors with a keen sense of when to be aggressive and when to dig in, and his actions would lead to a number of high profile tactical victories over the alien aggressors.

Doctor Mirabella Urbanus has been described as one of the brightest minds of her generation. By the age of eighteen, she'd already earned her first doctorate in biomedical engineering. Two more would quickly follow, and the young Doctor focused her efforts on the exotic plants and animals that had been discovered in the Frontier.

"They leave nothing behind, nothing but death and ash.”

Those were the words that heralded the start of the Umbrian Republic's first intergalactic war. The vicious, cybernetically-enhanced alien race known as the Ascomanni would strike at the distant colony world of Battipaglia, slaughtering the planet's civilian populace and the first wave of rescuers sent to save them.

As visionary leaders demonstrated the potential of starfighters to serve as a powerful striking arm of the fleets, the Umbrian Republic Navy concluded that their existing carriers were too small. Individually, these vessels housed too few fighters for the massed wave tactics which were required for them to damage larger warships.

Umbrians are an advanced bipedal mammalian species which developed on their homeworld of Umbria. They have created an advanced society predicated on the use of technology to solve the problems of daily living in large communities. Art, science, and architecture are some of the most important facets of their shared culture, and society is generally managed through collaboration and consensus than the application of force.

Aetnaeus's ruddy, red-brown landmass contrasts sharply with its deep navy blue seas. It was one of three planets located in the Tagna system, joined by a pair of rocky hothouse worlds caught closer to their parent star.

Formed after the start of the Ascomanni conflict, the Combined Intelligence Directorate, or CID, was created by amalgamating the various civilian and military intelligence organizations into a single entity. As such, its powers stretched across both spheres of operation, though its role in supporting the war effort would become its primary focus.

Tivoli is a verdant world of broad plains and vast oceans. Slightly larger than Umbria and orbiting a blue-white main sequence star, Tivoli's climate is temperate and welcoming. It features three primary continents, which together account for only about a quarter of the planet's total surface area, while its endless seas are made up of mildly salinated water.

The Senate passed a new appropriations bill increasing funding for the Navy by three hundred percent in response to the growing conflict with the Ascomanni.

The bill quickly passed through the Senate Armed Services Committee, where it received unanimous support.

Passage in the larger Senate proved more contentious however.

The last Umbrian soldiers touched off from the shattered remains of Battipaglia Prime in the early hours of the morning UMT today, as the Republic's military officially abandoned the planet, leaving it securely in the possession of the extraterrestrial adversaries, dubbed the Ascomanni.