It is unclear how, specifically, the Frontier War came to an end. All that is known for certain is that the war ended during the thirty year gap between the Battle of Typhon and the flourishing of the Apex Games. It is also widely understood that the war ended in the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation's defeat and the Militia's victory, though both factions disappeared afterwards and left the war-ravaged Frontier to govern itself. As the IMC and Militia disappeared, the people of the Frontier began rebuilding and relocating to other planets, including migrating to the Outlands on the fringes of known Frontier space. There may still be pockets of remote fighting and individuals still claiming loyalty to the IMC, but details are sparse. As for the Outlands, during the Frontier War, this region was mostly untouched by the vicious fighting between the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation and Frontier Militia. Following the war's end, the region saw an influx of settlers, looking for new resources and lands in the wake of the war's devastation.

The Frontier War is over. For decades, the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation and the Frontier Militia fought over our worlds, our lands. That war is done. We finally can breathe our own air. Look to our own stars. We own these these lands, these skies, these worlds. These worlds are the Outlands. Home of the brave and free. We make our own fate here. Untouched by war and famine, these are the lands of plenty. But we all know, plenty comes with a price. You want something? You better be able to take something. Do you think you deserve the best? The Apex Games give you the place to take from the best, to be the best. Here in the Outlands, we earn everything by proving we deserve to own it. Apex Games. Are you Legendary?

Repulsor Towers, otherwise referred to as Wildlife Repulsor Towers or Dog Whistle Towers, are massive pieces of technology developed by the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation, for the purposes of security and defence against alien fauna such as Leviathans and Flyers. They emit sound at a frequency inaudible to human ears, that is extremely loud and piercing to animals that can hear it - this keeps the animals away from critical IMC installations. Repulsor Tower technology was pioneered at Base Golden, otherwise known as the Boneyard. Here, the tower served as a prototype that future models would be based on. Eventually, the facility would come under attack by the Marauder Corps, led to the site by Robert "Barker" Taube. The Miltia would hope to recover data from the site, in anticipation of sabotaging the towers situated at the defense of Airbase Sierra. The Militia would recover enough information on the towers to pose a threat, and soon launched an assault on the fourth moon of Demeter. IMC Orbital Defense Cannons and the fleet stationed there would make a frontal assault impossible, so instead a covert strike team was used; Pilots and Titans would strike the base proper, as a distraction for a covert operation led by Sarah Briggs to destroy the towers, allowing wildlife to overrun the base and do the Militia's dirty work. This would be achieved by a special modification to the Data Knife known as the Icepick, which uploaded a special program to the IMC's Goblins and Phantoms, resulting in the autopiloted aircraft destroying the towers. Leviathans soon overran the base. Records documenting the subsequent, probable chaos, remain classified. For the Apex Games, a Repulsor station near the hydroelectric dam protects competitors from the distractions of local, extremely violent wildlife.

Surrounding the King's Canyon arena in the Apex Games stand the creatures called Leviathans, towering well over 100 meters above the landscape. Long ago, settlers first discovered these giant creatures on the planet that came to be named for them, Leviathan. They have never possessed direct hostility towards those on their planets, wildlife or human. It is their indirect hostility through indifference that is so deadly. Flyers are commonly seen soaring around these beasts, latching onto their skin as parasites. Aside from their eponymous homeworld, Leviathans inhabit a number of other Frontier worlds. Among them, the fourth moon of Demeter. Here, due to their sheer size and disregard for anything smaller in their path, they were a constant threat to Airbase Sierra. With the collapse of the repulsor towers during the Frontier War, the base fell to their curious but incredibly destructive wandering as flyers ripped apart the formerly protected base occupants. Despite their existence on multiple planets, they display very little genetic difference from those on other planets. This has led scientists into lively debates about their origins and how they came to inhabit so many planets in different star systems. These debates suffered countless interruptions during the Frontier War. The leading theory, little better than speculation, proposes that the process of panspermia is the explanation. Panspermia itself is the unproven hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe, distributed by space dust, meteoroids, asteroids, comets, planetoids, and spacecraft contaminated by microorganisms and reproductive residues. Distribution may have occurred spanning galaxies, and so may not be restricted to the limited scale of solar systems. Whether by panspermia or IMC experiments artificially introducing Leviathans to new worlds, these gargantuan creatures are common sights throughout the Outlands. The massive bones of a fallen Leviathan see some of the most frenetic battles in the Apex Games. Many competitors learn quickly that the towering bones are not the only bones there.

Scattered across the Frontier worlds are the creatures known as flyers, large avian creatures motivated by extreme and savage predation instincts. Adult flyers are between 8 and 10 meters from nose to tail, slightly larger than the heaviest class of titan used as military platforms during the Frontier War. Four of the creature's six limbs are membraneous wings that enable these creatures to fly at great heights and speeds with incredible agility. Their two remaining limbs are exceptionally prehensile talons terminating in claws that can exceed 30 centimeters in length. They use these talons to grasp and tear at prey. The creatures also possess large tusks on their head just below their mouths, which they use to rend the flesh of their prey, often while it is still alive. Flyers are well known for their swarm behavior, often decimating all prey species in a wide area. They do not hunt alone. Across the Frontier worlds, they can be often seen trailing and soaring around the massive beasts known as Leviathans, latching onto them and acting as parasites. Due to this parasitic relationship, it is commonly understood in the scientific community that their homeworld is the planet Leviathan. Like the Leviathans, the Flyers were likely transported across the Frontier worlds via panspermia. There are unconfirmed reports that, in the years leading up to the Frontier War, the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation bred and transported flyer specimens from Leviathan to the other Frontier worlds, likely as a form of natural perimeter defense. If so, the creatures defied training. Flyers are vicious enough that they have no qualms about engaging fully armed squads of infantry, lifting and carrying away humans, and ripping apart military and civilian aircraft and vehicles in an effort to gain access to the occupants. Flyers, as all settlers to the Frontier soon discovered those many years ago, kill far more than they can consume.

Such was the danger posed by flyers that, during the Frontier War, air wings stationed at Airbase Sierra could not take off for periods of six hours each day, during the Flyer swarms' regular migrations. Their presence there ultimately enabled the fall of the Airbase during a brilliantly coordinated Frontier Militia attack that disabled the base's repulsor tower. Across the Frontier, no human civilization is safe without the presence of repulsor towers. This is why recent flights of the creatures over Kings Canyon during live Apex Games competitions have simultaneously fueled the fervor of fans and caused a string of "no comment" interview attempts with Apex Games organizers. More curious still is the creatures' newfound penchant for carrying death boxes. Competitors have yet to permit flyers to carry away the boxes, such are the competitors' own heightened drive for weaponry. Thus, it is unknown what the flyers' intend to do with the boxes. Even more curious still is flyer's apparent newfound comfort in solitary behavior. Never before have flyers been known to take to their air without the presence of a swarm. Within Kings Canyon itself, the competitor Bangalore reported finding a terminal displaying a warning message that read, according to her, “System Malfunction.” This has led her to claim that the incursion of the flyers into the games is intentional and possibly an attempt to sabotage the games. When asked, the competitor Wraith declined to comment. Bangalore's report remains uncorroborated and open to suspicion, since, as Apex Games fans well know, Bangalore has frequently mentioned her dire hatred of the savage beasts. However, the intrepid investigative journalist Stay Cashun has been tracking rumors of a possible cybersecurity threat related to the repulsor tower located in Kings Canyon. Meanwhile, the brazen hackers who carry the monikers "Shrugtal" and "Frozenfroh" independently claim to have traced these rumors to a solitary source who goes by the name Crypto on the darkest corners of the communications web. Could this rumor be true? Could this be why the Apex Games organizers remain silent to all questions? Apparently, only time will tell.

Orbital Defense Cannons, or ODCs, are massive railguns employed by the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation's Colonial Navy for the purposes of orbital defense. In the Apex Games, several ODCs may be seen at the Artillery Depot. These cannons impel solid projectiles using magnetic force. When preparing to fire, the cannon must first perform a lengthy charge-up sequence. Once done, the cannon fires a barrage of projectiles in rapid succession at an enemy vessel, causing extreme damage. In some atmospheres, these barrages can appear to be a solid, brightly colored bolt of light. During the Frontier War, ODCs were situated on planets with strategic significance — usually in overwhelming numbers. As gargantuan, stationary weapons, ODCs were very high-value targets during the war. As such, they were protected by garrisons of IMC Marines. 300 weapons of this type were stationed to defend the drydock used to repair the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation's flagship vessel, the IMS Sentinel. Prior to the Battle of Demeter, the gun at Outpost 207 was captured by the Frontier Militia. It became a key element of the Frontier Militia's strategy during the Battle of Demeter. Knowing that the Militia could not attack the base on a frontal assault, James MacAllan conscripted his friend Robert "Barker" Taube to destroy the Repulsor Towers protecting the facility from Leviathans and Flyers. Barker agreed, on one condition. The Militia must destroy the IMS Sentinel, the IMS Sentinel. The Sentinel's destruction at the hands of the commandeered ODC at Outpost 207 had far-reaching consequences. With the Sentinel unable to lead the defense at Demeter, the IMS Colossus was promoted to flagship and led the defense of the planet. The Sentinel's destruction also triggered the IMC 2nd Fleet to be brought in from the Core. This placed greater stress on the Colonial Navy's supply lines than they had felt before. Ultimately, the Sentinel's destruction and the positioning of the 2nd fleet at greater remove contributed greatly to the Frontier Militia's victory at the Battle of Demeter. The inclusion of Orbital Defense Cannons in the Apex Games serves as a reminder of the key role a single one of those weapons played in bringing freedom to the Frontier.

The Frontier Militia represented a territorial defense pact between the systems of the Frontier. They were a loosely governed mishmash of homesteaders, criminals, bandits, mercenaries, terrorists and pirates all rising up as 'citizen soldiers' when the need arose. Many homesteaders took a "can't beat 'em, join 'em" attitude regarding working alongside different criminal groups. Naturally the people in this melting pot didn't always see eye to eye on how to deal with the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation's exploitation of the Frontier, but they were unified in fighting against it. After the era of IMC-funded expeditions and colonization into space ended, public interest waned and IMC support for Frontier development went into decline. Soon afterwards, a number of major conflicts in the Core Systems became a top priority for the IMC, and the corporation effectively abandoned all investments in the Frontier. For several generations, life on the Frontier continued undisturbed. When the IMC returned to the Frontier, the colonists had flourished and had access to plentiful resources. Struggling to meet consumer demands in the Core Systems, the IMC declared their ownership of the resources in the Frontier and reestablished their political, economic, and military presence, citing their investments dating back to the colonization era. After years of failed diplomacy, the colonists banded together and formed the Frontier Militia to challenge the IMC and defend their ownership of the Frontier. As a non-professional organisation, the Militia's structure was traditionally loose and divided into units as large as entire fleets or as small as individual terrorist cells. Following the Battle of Demeter, the Militia reorganised to more effectively combat the IMC. The Militia operated several branches, with functional equivalents to more traditional branches such as the Army, Navy and Air Force. The Militia also operated at least one fleet, the 9th Militia Fleet, constructed from the Militia's new MacAllan-Class Carriers. They were responsible for ferrying the 41st Rifle Battalion to the IMC planet Typhon, before its ambush and destruction in the Battle of Typhon. Throughout the Frontier War, the Militia largely relied on stolen and scavenged technology to make ends meet; Many warships were, for example, simply civilian vessels with ad-hoc modifications to suit military needs. However, toward the end of the war, technological innovations placed the Militia as an innovator rather than an imitator. The Militia produced at least one classification of warship: the MacAllan-class Carrier and its own Titan chassis. This was the first Titan design known not to be designed by Hammond Robotics and was succesful enough that it was eventually reverse-engineered by the IMC contractor Vinson Dynamics to create a version for the IMC. As the years have passed and residents of the Frontier have become the settlers of the Outlands, the Frontier Militia has become almost as distant a memory for most as the IMC itself. Certainly it is true that, for the competitors of the Apex Games, glory is no longer attached to the ideals of an organization. Perhaps those who attain the coveted Apex Predators honorific will learn differently.

The Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation, or IMC, is a massive industrial conglomerate based on Earth. The corporation started out small in the natural resource extraction industry, under the name Hammond Engineering. Within only 15 years, Hammond Engineering expanded rapidly. Demand was intense for the company's access to raw materials, market-cornering planetary survey technology and map database rights. Over the next 100 years, corporate acquisitions, mergers, and re-brandings turned Hammond Engineering into a sprawling commercial empire with tremendous political and economic power. This was the birth of the IMC. This same period saw cultural, political and economic unrest. This unrest pushed the Core Systems into armed conflict between para-military corporations, parochial governments, and criminal elements. This conflict drove the IMC into into a cycle of rapid military and technical innovations. It also led to consolidation of IMC's security forces into an organized military One innovation during this period was Jump Drive technology, enabling faster than light travel. Jump Drives enabled the IMC and their subsidiaries to settle the newly-discovered region of space known as The Frontier. To assist with this settlement, the IMC implemented the IMC Serviceman's Readjustment Act (or "G.I Bill"). This allowed former soldiers of the IMC's conflicts in the Core Systems to be given land and money to settle the Frontier. The GI Bill offered three incentives simultaneously: for Core System citizens to join the IMC military, for IMC military members to remain in service long enough to earn the GI Bill, and for settlements to be populated with loyal IMC employees. The former IMC soldiers formed the core of many colonial communities as human civilization spread. However, the ongoing conflicts among the Core System worlds drew the IMC's attention away from its colonies, along with its financial and technical support. This meant that Frontier life would largely go on without Earth and the IMC for several decades. The people of the Frontier developed their own governing systems, their own colonization activities, and a stalwart sense of independence from the Core System worlds. This would not last.

In the years before the Titan Wars, the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation, or IMC, colonized and then abandoned the Frontier Systems. Armed conflict and economic unrest in the Core Systems drew the IMC's attention away from its employees, the colonists of the Frontier worlds. To retain its economic and political power within the Core Systems, the IMC could not afford to maintain its ties to its distant colonies. As order was restored to the Core Systems, the IMC returned to the Frontier and discovered that Frontier life had not just survived, but thrived. Struggling to meet consumer demands in the Core Systems and realizing the potential of the resources on the Frontier, the IMC declared eminent domain - citing their initial investment in the Frontier's colonization - and began setting up vast manufacturing and mining sites throughout the Frontier. Often, this displaced the existing Frontier population. Despite their reputation of exploitative behavior on the Frontier, the IMC received little criticism from their shareholders and customers living in the Core Systems. The material conveniences and widely-used IMC products generated considerable 'consumer inertia,' to the corporation's benefit. Tensions increased between the colonists and the perceived invaders. After several decades of perceived oppression, the people of the Frontier formed the "Frontier Militia", led by the descendents of former IMC soldiers. Frontier Militia attacks on IMC garrisons are widely viewed as the beginning of the Titan Wars and, eventually, the Frontier War. Certainly that is how the IMC defended its military campaign in the Frontier to its stakeholders. Eventually, the Militia and IMC fleets clashed at Demeter, the planet that connected the Core Systems and the Frontier. The destruction of Demeter's facilities severed IMC's logistics and communication between the Core and Frontier systems for years and spurred the end of the Frontier War. Yet such are the riches of the Frontier, the IMC remained dedicated to maximizing profits and shareholder wealth by reopening the shipping lanes in less than a decade. To date, even 3 decades after the Battle of Demeter, the IMC's presence in the Frontier remains small. Although pockets of conflict are still rumored to exist on some of the remote planets of the Frontier, Earth and the IMC no longer exert political and economic influence. Yet memories of the IMC's oppression remain a key driver for the libertarian ideals of the Outlands. Self rule, even to the point of blood sport justice, is central to the culture of the Outlands. From the ashes of war have risen the fierce, the brave, and the independent. We do not know what the future holds for the IMC or its interest in the Frontier. Their boardrooms remain closed to outside eyes.

{recording} "You kill me, you're better. I kill you, I'm better." This is the voice of Kuben Blisk, one of the most feared Titan pilots and mercenaries of the Frontier War. These words were recorded during an operations brief to his employers within the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation immediately after the Battle of Demeter. Their full context is lost to history, but the words remain. They summarize the man. Originally from South Africa on old Earth, Kuben Blisk founded the mercenary group called the Apex Predators. The Apex Predators were reviled throughout the Frontier during the war, accused by the Militia and activists of war crimes, murders of civilians, and wanton destruction. A ruthless mercenary, Blisk - and, by extension, his Apex Predators - often claimed to live only for the next paycheck. The Apex Predators fought for the highest bidder regardless of cause, creed, or sanctity of location or life. Whatever their moral compass, Blisk and his Apex Predators were renowned for their tenacity, combat skills whether mounted or dismounted from their Titans, and their ability to complete military objectives. Effective, if terrifying, warriors, without a doubt. This is why the recent announcement in the Outland's premier blood sport, the Apex Games, has captured so much public attention, from fans to protesters of the Games. The Games' organizers have announced a series of awards, the highest of which comes with the honorific "Apex Predator." Perhaps this should come as no surprise. After all, Kuben Blisk still lives on the Frontier, all these thirty years after the war. However, although IMC security forces still come into armed conflict with criminal elements in some regions of the Frontier, Blisk appears to want no part of his former employer. He is now the public face of the Apex Games. Some whisper that he may even be the founder of the Games. Given the name and how the Games are littered with imagery closely resembling the badges and logos of Blisk's old mercenary group, there appears to be good reason to whisper. Blisk himself says nothing of this. However, it is well known that even during the war, Blisk recruited soldiers to his group, regardless of which side they served on. Those who served under him, those who survived, recounted on record how Blisk would leave defeated opponents alive if they put up enough of a fight to earn his respect. He would even leave them his business card and wish them well. About the only thing Blisk didn't knowingly place in excessive jeopardy were his fellow Apex Predators. Loyalty to an employer is one thing, but loyalty to his fellow men appears to have been another. He pushed his mercenaries hard to finish objectives and defeat their enemies, mostly on the principle that if they didn't win, they didn't get paid. During the war, he spoke forcefully of his firm belief in a form of natural selection, that the strong dominate the weak Not only was this a way of fostering loyalty to the Predators by appealing to their will to be stronger than all others, but also it served as a way for his mercenaries to compete against each other. To Blisk, only the strongest deserved to be an Apex Predator. Doubtlessly, this is why this ruthless man has pushed this ruthless sport and now awards its highest achieving competitors with the title Apex Predator. It may even be that he is still operating and recruiting for the mercenary band that was rumored to have died with the War. Remember, the slogan of the Games is, "They kill you, they're better. You kill them, you're better."