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The terrorist groups of Known Space can be divided into several general categories.
Xenophobic: Many groups have the express purpose of destroying all non-human sentients in Known Space; other simply state their views as strongly pro-active promotion of humanity's chances. The most famous group of this type is the Sons of Adam, which bases many of its views upon religious grounds. A more-militant and closely-related group is the Sword of Adam. Another example of this type is Pure Human Space, which is highly militaristic though with less of a religious backing to their ideology. One of the most widely-despised groups is Ur For Humanity, which promotes the idea that humanity has no obligation to protect the Shojin, and in fact that humanity should simply eradicate them to make better use of the planet. Of course, there are still many groups which promote hatred between different sorts of humans as well.
Ecological: The harms caused by humanity upon the faces of innumerable worlds have not gone unnoticed by those who value nature for its own virtues. Some defend life wherever they see it; some defend only Terran life (often verging on xenophobia); some defend nature as it is, with or without life; some see life as a blot on the universe. Perhaps the most famous of the environmental terrorist groups is Greenspace (not related to Greenpeace, which still exists), whose members aim to spread life throughout the universe, in any form, including viruses, vermin and others -- Greenspace is opposed to the concept of quarantines on principle. Particularly hated by the DMTP and its members is the Natural Defence, which aims to preserve the universe in complete seclusion from the polluting grasp of sentience.
Independence: Political concerns still enrage many to violence, and the number of groups which believe they have insufficient sovereignty is vast. Of course, in the eyes of their enemies, many states are nothing but upstart terrorists. One of the most famous of these is the Sirian Republican Army.
Materialist: There are of course always those who have been trodden upon economically, and the increasing ease of conducting terrorist campaigns has also led to an increase in the use of terror as a means of accomplishing material equality. When possessed of starships, such groups may in other terms be pirates or privateers.
Technological: There are of course those who believe that technology itself is a form of disease, which can paradoxically only be defeated through harnessing such technology to defeat itself. One of the most famous of these is Ludd Was Right.
The Tripods were encountered in late 2204, somewhere to the negative Z of Dardanelles, which had recently begun to be settled by humanity. As with most of the other sentients discovered by humanity, the Tripods had their own reasons not to use standard human communication methods, and they thus remained undiscovered until independent settlers almost physically bumped into them. Just who first encountered the Tripods is unclear, as the Tripods apparently began a fierce campaign against humanity immediately upon contact, beginning with the obliteration of the people making contact, and then with the entire human populace of the Dardanelles system.
The Dardanelles system had been known to be the location of a near-pristine Earth-like world, Constantinople, since the late 2190's. This was naturally the focus of human settlement in the system, and was also naturally the primary target of the Tripod blitzkrieg. Tripod forces attacked Constantinople through conventional means, largely massive bomb strikes, but they also unleashed the now-infamous Chlorophage. This was a virus tailored to attack the production of chlorophyll in all plants (native and imported) on Constantinople. Although human scientists probably tried to defeat the Chlorophage, resources were extremely limited, and the virus spread too rapidly to be stopped. Within a few weeks, the food chain of the planet began to collapse, and human settlement was abandoned. Since this time, the system has been carefully quarantined against the possible spread of the Chlorophage to other systems.
The Tripods apparently followed up the attack with extensive use of other bioweapons, though what sort is unclear. No survey teams sent to Constantinople since the War have survived.
Following their attack at Constantinople, the Tripods relentlessly moved on. They defeated the weak privateer defense of Chihai in 2207, and immediately began threatening Tetsuyama. Strangely, they never moved towards Babylon or Petit-Sol, even though both of those planets were likely targets, being major centers of human civilization. Equally strangely, although the Starwhales were friendly with humanity throughout the course of the War, they never replied to requests for aid against the Tripods.
The Battle of Tetsuyama was devastating for the ICA. Approximately half of the active ICA navy at the time was destroyed, and while they were effectively victorious, the Tripods merely regrouped and drew from their apparently unlimited resources to stab again at the heart of human space. The Battle of Tetsuyama was, however, the first time humans received any sort of reliable, useful info about the Tripods' physiologies and cultures.
The Tripods are vertebrate, but have exoskeletons (chitin). They are hexagonally symmetrical, with one arm, one leg and one eye every 60° around their bodies. An adult Tripod stands approximately 150 cm tall, although the flexibility of the legs means that this can vary from about 100 to 200 cm in overall height.
Tripods have six manipulatory "combs," one on the end of each arm. Each comb has two long digits, from which grow several dozen bristle-like spines. The strength of these combs is probably not as great as that of a human.
Tripods sense the world primarily through vision. They have six eyes, again spaced around their bodies. These see far into the infrared, and extend on the other end into approximately the wavelength humans would call green. Tripods apparently also extremely sensitive 'hearing' through spines on their 'feet', though perhaps it would be better to characterize this sense as ground vibration sensitivity. Many patrols encountering Tripods in the War reported how difficult it was to ever surprise a Tripod.
Their chitin and generally low profile has led scientists to speculate that they originated on a high-gravity world orbiting a high-raditation sun. There are several stars lying in the -Z direction which are candidates for the Tripod home system, but no one is sure yet.
Tripod culture has so far escaped any in-depth human analysis. Tripods seem to experience no emotions, but do have erratic bursts of activity and extreme decisiveness in various, apparently unrelated, situations. The languages of the Tripods are beginning to yield to human analysis, but our understanding is feeble at best so far.
The technology of the Tripods is overall slightly in advance of humanity. Several military technologies were gained from derelict Tripod ships during the War, at a great cost in human lives. It appears that Tripod biotech is almost as advanced as that of the Starwhales, but exactly what they are capable of is still in the realm of wild speculation.
In 2215, the Tripod War ended as mysteriously as it had started, with first the complete, unilateral cessation of hostilities by the Tripods, then an equally complete withdrawal. Their reasons for starting the war and their reasons for stopping it are equally unknown; many people simply count themselves lucky to have survived, and don't wish to tempt fate by pressing for answers.
Currently, humanity has no contact with the Tripods save for a very small enclave (22 members) at Freehaven. This enclave, which lives in a human-designed (but heavily Tripod-modified) colony tube, appears completely peaceful, and some small overtures at trade have been made. However, the language barrier remains problematic, and the Tripods also have extremely strict codes regarding who they will and will not communicate with. One scientist has spent all six years since the war working them, and they will still not allow her to speak directly with them.
Clearly, the amount that humanity knows about the Tripods pales vastly
in comparison with what we don't know about them. Further research
is strongly needed.
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