Treaty of Antares

"For a long time, I opposed the destruction of the Systems Commonwealth. So did many others. The Treaty of Antares changed all that."

- Gaheris Rhade

The Treaty of Antares was a fictional peace treaty referenced in the science fiction television series Andromeda. It was first mentioned by the character Gaheris Rhade in the pilot episode, "Under the Night". The ramifications of the treaty is what perpetuates the events seen in the first episode and sets the stage for the plotlines of the entire series.

The Treaty of Antares was an armistice agreement forged between two galactic entities; the interplanetary federation known as the Systems Commonwealth and the savage, murderous alien race the Magog. The treaty was signed on the planet Antares in CY 9781, ending hostilities between the two warring sides. One of the agreements of the treaty was the ceding of the planet Brandenburg Tor to the Magog - a planet populated by a race called the Nietzscheans. Other Nietzschean-ruled worlds were also offered up in the interests of peace and a quarantine zone was established to keep the Magog out of Commonwealth and Nietzschean space alike. The ramifications of the treaty proved disastrous for the Nietzscheans, who suffered greatly as a result of Magog raids inside the quarantine.

Ultimately, the Nietzscheans found the treaty to be an utter failure and blamed the Systems Commonwealth for its apparent weakness in making peace with such an unforgiving race like the Magog. They decided that it was time to break away from the Systems Commonwealth and so they began planning in secret, constructing a massive fleet of warships for the day when they would finally rebel. That day came in the year CY 9784 when the Nietzscheans lured a Commonwealth High Guard starship into a trap at Hephaistos IV. The conflict would come to be known as the Battle of Hephaistos and was the first of many such skirmishes that ultimately resulted in the downfall of the Systems Commonwealth.