The CHRONOS project is a perfect example of a research project that was never intended to be this successful. Initially created as one of many experimental scientific forays funded by the GSP, the original purpose of the organisation now known as CHRONOS was far less glamorous than its current perception. With faster-than-light travel having recently been discovered on Selas, CHRONOS was founded in an attempt to streamline both the efficiency and speed of this new, revolutionary technology. This understaffed, somewhat underfunded group of little more than five or six researchers were pretty much unknown to the Seven Systems as a whole.

And then they invented time travel.

The breakthrough in 1254 was almost a complete coincidence, and resulted in about five minutes of intense confusion and high paradox risk; but it didn't take long for the scientists involved to realise that their unexpected side-effect had the potential to become something absolutely world-breaking. A few hasty messages to the GSP later, and the CHRONOS project rapidly blossomed into the Syndicate's heavily-funded labour of love, the team soon boasting almost 50 members.

With the CHRONOS project now at the centre of galactic attention, the Ananke Conference became the opportunity to show everyone in the Seven Systems that time travel was a real and present possibility - a proof of concept test run was scheduled for the second day of the conference, whereupon several volunteers were to be sent back in time a few minutes in order to give demonstrable proof that the machine was functional.

All reports from the event say that the test run went off without a hitch, and that the volunteers in question arrived a few minutes prior to their own departure.

What became of the first CHRONOS machine prototype during the explosion of the Ananke is, however, a mystery - with communications down at the time, its whereabouts were unknown, and it is generally accepted that this version of the machine perished along with the majority of the research team.

Whilst approximately 90% of the team responsible for creating the first prototype were aboard the GSS Ananke when it exploded, those who had stayed behind at the CHRONOS research centre remained determined to keep the project alive, even throughout the war - they, more than anyone else, saw the preventative potential that it had. This was far from an easy task; with the dissolution of the GSP, and with many of the scientists now exiled from their respective systems, the CHRONOS organisation had to work from the shadows, with research notes being scrawled frantically while under heavy bombardment, or while under pursuit from the ships of each and every nation. Their survival was nothing short of miraculous, yet the difficulties they faced only strengthened their convictions to rebuild the machine.

In the years following the war, re-organisation and rebuilding became possible, if slow. Blueprints salvaged from the original research station enabled the construction of a second CHRONOS machine, and databases shared with old contacts from the GSP provided CHRONOS with a list of names - mercenaries, students, disgraced politicians and more - that may be of use to them in working towards their current goal.

Return to the Ananke. Prevent the war.

That is why CHRONOS has called you here. For the past two decades, that has been their mission statement - and now it is yours.

All of CHRONOS, CHRONOS and Chronos are used here. These are all slightly different, and should be obvious from context which is being referred to.

• CHRONOS refers to the game, for which this is the wiki. This is named after the organisation.
• CHRONOS is the project funded by the GSP. What this acronym originally stood for was lost after the destruction of the Ananke.
• Chronos is the name of the time machine itself, usually written as 'the Chronos Machine' rather than being used in isolation.