Actual history of the group....

In 2011, a group of Australian and New Zealand gamers came together to create a guild amongst the stars of Star Trek Online that was promised to be a community for those who embraced the ideals of ‘Hardening Up’ and embraced a democratic approach to decision making that was representative of its membership.   That guild prospered through many challenges, and the members of that guild formed tight-knit bonds and friendships that became a crucial part of their identity.   At its peak, the guild swelled to hundreds of members across multiple games, which they remain. The community expanded beyond borders to become a genuinely international guild that thrived on the diversity of many. For a time, there seemed to be no challenge that the guild could not overcome.   But seven years of growth and prosperity would breed ambition, and that guild would lose its way somewhere along its travels to the far corners of the galaxy. The old leaders left, charging just a few to carry on their legacy, no matter what game they called home. Though united no longer, those they left behind forged on to find new success and new endeavours.   Eventually, the new leaders of the fractured guild reached out to their old comrades and attempted to re-forge the old bonds, but it wasn’t. In secret, the old leaders returned and plotted to take ownership of what they had left behind and to undo those who had found new prosperity under the guild’s flag. They were determined that the disparate groups of their guildmates would either accept the terms of a new leadership or never again be allowed to fly their flags.   All that the guild stood for hung in the balance, and those who held to the spirit of those old ideals began to question what it is their fleet had become. The old leaders had held a gun to the heads of their friendships, and a permanent stain had been rendered on the guild’s name. Painfully, the decision was made to go separate ways finally.   The schism tore the guild in two. Exiled from those they’d once called comrades and marred by the prideful leaders who now called them traitors, 86 intrepid fleet mates banded together – united in a common cause – and raised a new banner to carry on a broken promise to protect and guard those old ideas of mateship, never to yield.   We are the Southern Cross High Guard, and this is the beginning of our story.